Governor Weld Latest Transplant To Upstate’s Andes

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The New York Sun

With a recent purchase, William Weld joins a steady flow of “secondhomers” to the rural, upstate New York town of Andes – a town once powered by dairy farms and bluestone quarries that is now dominated by implants from the city.

On August 19, Mr. Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts who will likely pursue New York’s Republican gubernatorial nomination, and his wife, Leslie Marshall, purchased 10 parcels totaling 413 acres for $960,000 outside the town of Andes in Delaware County.

In acquiring the property, the Welds are buying from perhaps New York’s most famous political family. The couple bought the parcels, inside the boundaries of Catskill State Park, from the Beaverkill Realty and Beaverkill Mountain Corporations. Both entities are owned by Laurance Rockefeller, the nephew of the former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller and great-grandson of the oil magnate Nelson D. Rockefeller.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Mr. Weld said he and his wife were drawn to Andes because for years his wife’s family had been going to Lewbeach, just across county lines in Sullivan County, about 20 minutes away by car.

Mr. Weld said their new property used to be a hunting lodge. It does not currently have a house, and the Welds will probably wait a year to start building one.

“We’ll probably look at all four seasons before we choose a site,” Mr. Weld said.

What used to be a stop-off for fathers and sons on their way to the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., Andes is drawing more buyers of second homes as they fan out across the tri-state area looking for peace, quiet, and bargains.

The Welds join a growing list of A-list New Yorkers buying second homes near Andes. Dan Rather, Kelsey Grammar, Amanda Burden, and at least two above-ground Sopranos, Edie Falco and Steve Buscemi, all own property in the area.

According to a local realtor, Ron Guichard, who grew up in Andes, roughly 70% of the township’s 1,700 residents are part-timers, mostly New Yorkers with second homes.

The growing popularity of the area has caused prices to rise and depleted the housing stock. Many recent buyers are choosing to build their own homes.

Mr. Weld’s scenic property went for about $2,300 an acre, but according to the Andes tax assessor, Tina Moshier, prices can reach $5,000 an acre.

“That is not out of the question right now for this area. The real estate has gone crazy,” Ms. Moshier said.

Mr. Guichard said that since September 11, 2001, when more safety-conscious New Yorkers started looking for second homes, housing prices in Andes have gone up 50%, and people who bought homes in the 1980s have tripled their investment.

“The new blood is what feeds the economy here. When they buy a house, they call an electrician, a plumber, painters, and carpenters,” Mr. Guichard said.

The influx of outsiders has also brought a change to Main Street, or Route 28, the only road in downtown Andes. Three art galleries have opened in the last year, bringing the town’s total to five.

On Wednesday nights, a group of Andes residents now gather for roundtable discussions at the Hunting Tavern, the town’s oldest structure. Built in 1800, the tavern had an important role in the Anti-Rent Wars of the 1840s.

Last night, an Iranian woman was scheduled to share her story about growing up under the Khomenei regime.

“There is everything from ‘how to make a good soup’ to string theory,” an architect who moved full time to Andes in 2002, Marlys Hann, said.

Ms. Hann first started visiting Andes in 1980.

“At that time, there were no stores or shops. There was one hardware store where I had my chainsaws sharpened,” she said.

A former salesman from New Jersey, Donald Hogan, bought a town general store seven years ago from a local legend who had run the shop for decades, Helen Sanford.

He started visiting Andes 15 years ago and was drawn to what he described as a genuine “small-town U.S.A.” feeling.

“People wave to each other without using one finger here,”

Mr. Hogan said. Mr. Hogan said Andes was not nearly as commercialized as nearby Woodstock, which has traffic jams on weekends.

Mr. Weld should not fear, Mr. Hogan said, because outsiders are generally accepted in Andes.

“If you become part of the community, then you are accepted. If you try to bring New York City in here, you are going to hit resistance, like everywhere else.”


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