The Vedder Research Library

Freehold’s Main Street (CR 67) lies in the grip of winter. The two buildings on the left were torn down in the 1960s or earlier. The leftmost was the residence of Will Whitbeck, whose descendants still settle the area; Will’s wife was the telephone switchboard operator that was located in the front room. The second building was used for a barbershop (Burdick, at one time), then moved backward several dozen feet during Will’s time. Of course, the next building is the Freehold Country Store (past owners: Lacy, Wood, Hall, Harr, Nugent, Valentine, Nelsen, Dudley) which has anchored Freehold’s northwest corner for well over a century. Behind the “straighter” wood pole is Doc Lacy’s house, on the east side of what would become State Route 32. The inset shows the parking lot that gives no evidence of past structures.

Many a traveler has restored their body and soul at the Freehold House over the last two hundred plus years. Once a stage stop on the Schoharie Turnpike, the inn/boarding house that anchors the southeast corner of Freehold, was owned by the Parks family, and their relatives, for most of the 20th century. This photo, apparently taken from the middle of the four corners, shows a scene tentatively dated about 1920. Nearly a dozen other Freehold houses advertised for guests, with most closing by the 1950s and reverting to private residences. The Freehold House (Parks Hotel, Freehold Country Inn, Green Dish, Hamlet, etc.) was most recently renovated in 1999, generally utilized as a fine dining and event establishment.

A circa 1910 colorized post card shows a placid, not-yet-paved North Street (Rt 32) leading northward from Freehold’s four corners. A portion of the Sutton house peeks from the right, with the Sutton Garage hidden from view just beyond the house. On the left, Antus’s barn leads the way up the west side of the street as it winds toward Sunny Hill Rd. Just out of view, off the lower left side would be The Freehold Store. The inset approximates the same view a century later.

Marion and Leroy Phinney, with son Chester, pose in front of their house, date unspecified but likely the turn of the 20th century. Set next to the house on the southwest corner in Freehold and facing the Freehold Country Store, this structure has seen over three-quarters of a century of use as a pub, bar, and social center, starting with Adolph Kuhn’s Steak House in mid-century; followed by Bruce and Lana Morton’s Scottish Pub; then Jim, Jeannette, and Kim Valentine’s Morton’s Pub; and currently, for the past dozen years, by Wayne Nelsen as the Freehold Country Pub (inset). The back section of the pub, not seen in the photo, was added in 1941.

In a Freehold scene created almost every winter since the hamlet’s settlement in the late 1700s, this photo captures a snowy four corners in an undated photo but possibly of the 1930s. The view is from about fifty yards south of the four corners on today’s SR 32 looking northward. From left to right: Charlie Goodfellow’s photo shop front peeks into the photo (2017-Tilley), Morrison house on the corner (2017-apartments), Hall & Wood Store just visible through the trees (2017-Freehold Country Store/Dudley), the columned Antus house on the bend of the road (no longer existing), Doc Lacy’s house (2017-Cutting Corner) and finally Park’s Hotel on far right (2005-Freehold Country Inn).

This circa 1905 photo shows a view toward Greenville’s four corners from “Stevens’ Hill” with its cornfield and orchards. On the far left is the steeple of the Presbyterian Church (Prevost Hall). The bigger building in front of that is Cunningham’s Funeral Home. Just to the right is the Elsie Roe house, razed in the 1960s to make way for the National Bank of Coxsackie. On the far right stands the Vanderbilt house (Greenville Arms). Closest to the viewer, in the center of the photo is the carriage shed for the Vanderbilt house, still part of Greenville Arms. Almost all other buildings no longer exist. The two-tiered roofed building is the Greenville Theater; the building and its side yard is pre-Mary’s and pre-Cumberland’s. Other buildings in the maze of structures in the center include the Greenville Hotel (site of Town Building) and Hartt’s Store (site of parking lot of the Town Building). In the center distance, just below the tree line lies the Greenville Cemetery.

A bucolic day awaits the early 20th century four corners in Freehold. A telephone pole stands at the crossing of today’s SR 32 and CR67, waiting for wagons and cars to wend their way. The Freehold Hotel had already anchored the southeast corner for over a century on the Schoharie Turnpike that connected Athens and Schoharie. The wraparound porch gives way to the pillared look mid-century. The Parks family is associated with this structure for most of this past century. To the left sits the Carriage Barn. Note the boards that cross the street in the lower left. The inset shows the modern view.

A bucolic North Street, Freehold slumbers on a quiet circa-1940 day. Off the right edge of the photo would be Doc Lacy’s house on the four corners (today’s Cutting Corner). The view is from across the street from the Wood’s Store (Lacy’s Store, Freehold Country Store). Starting from the right: Alvie Sutton’s house (Alvah: 1881-1942, married Jessie Horton, children: Beulah, Edna; today, Erin Elsasser’s house); Alvie Sutton’s Garage, serving Socony gas, according to the sign (formerly the blacksmith shop, livery station; today Marylyn Sewing and The Gypsy’s Closet); and the building with the steeple is the former school house (left empty in 1932 with the GCS centralization, re-used by the Freehold Volunteer Fire Company in 1945.) The inset shows a similar angle, with two new buildings. Beyond the steeple is the roofline of the Freehold Firehouse. A mobile home, with the light front, sits between The Gypsy’s Closet and the Firehouse.