A One-Light Town Grows Into a Second-Home Hotspot
By C. J. HUGHES
Published: June 8, 2007
Indeed, New Yorkers headed to weekend homes on roads that snake through Milford's pint-sized commercial district had few reasons to get out of the car, brokers and longtime residents say, unless they needed charcoal and steaks.
Excuses for longer visits, though, have recently multiplied. Three festivals - for film, music and pear trees - have become popular events in this town 70 miles from Manhattan.
New restaurants have opened amid art galleries and offices. Smooth bluestone slabs have replaced Broad Street's cracked blacktop sidewalks, and cast-iron lamps now cast a soft glow.
Buyers are slowing for a look, too.
Initially, Jim Van Devender was one of those second-home owners who skirted Milford, though he lived quite close, in a two-bedroom, one-story cabin in next-door Dingmans Ferry.
A local newspaper's mention of a jazz performance at a Milford restaurant, though, prompted Mr. Van Devender to drop by.
Soon, he had traded his cabin for a 1929 home, with four bedrooms, two baths and 1,900 square feet, including original moldings and leaded-glass windows, he said. It cost $240,000 in 2003, said Mr. Van Devender, who lives in Tudor City in Manhattan and works for a conference-planning company.
Although the 50-by-100-foot lot is smaller than his previous half-acre, the neighborhood evokes an early television set piece, where residents greet one another on a first-name basis.
"Milford is eclectic but quaint," said Mr. Van Devender, who shares the weekend home with his partner, Randy Auman. "We plant marigolds, drink wine and have friends over for dinners."
Pleasant company for Sara Gelbard, meanwhile, is wild turkeys, woodpeckers, and bears, which occasionally stray into the backyard of her 1960s ranch, with three bedrooms, two baths and 1,200 square feet.
Ms. Gelbard is from the West Village in Manhattan, where she sells real estate. She paid $390,000 for her Milford home in 2005.
Even though she is joined by her husband, Carlos Rodriguez, and her Doberman-Rottweiler mix, Shaquille, being in Milford is "about having time alone and being reflective," Ms. Gelbard said.
Quiet nights notwithstanding, Ms. Gelbard does like Art After Dark, a monthly gallery crawl that stops in Forest Hall, a former post office and school whose western portion, with a mansard roof and a stopped clock, was designed by Calvert Vaux.
In fact, the lack of culture near her last weekend home, in sleepier Barryville, N.Y., in Sullivan County, to the north, persuaded her to sell after eight years.
The Scene
Two nights a week, a pianist croons by the fireplace in the vaulted-ceiling dining room of the Dimmick Inn and Steakhouse, where ice cream is sold on a second-floor wraparound deck. For blues music, there is the WaterWheel Cafe Bakery Bar, inside a former saw mill, one of seven in Milford that once sliced lumber.
It was timber, in fact, that made the town prosperous; wood was sent to Philadelphia by barge on the Delaware River, and by packet boat, via canal, to New York.
The great wealth once found in Milford is evident at Grey Towers, the summer estate of James Pinchot, a local timber baron who endowed Yale's forestry school.
Designed by Richard Morris Hunt (whose résumé includes the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C.), the 44-room chateau-style home, with a 1920s décor, is open from April to until the end of December.
To imagine the preaxe landscape, drive through Dingmans Township toward the river on Route 2013, which is flanked by dense forest. The road ends at Milford Beach, where in the shallow water, kayakers start trips to riverside campsites inside the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
Pros
Carless New Yorkers can travel to Milford on a limited-stop Short Line bus from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in just over two hours, and survive in town without a car because there is a grocery store.
Since the town's second-home pioneers often tipped off their friends and co-workers about its charms, the core group of weekenders there is still tightly knit.
Mr. Van Devender's co-worker, Andy Anastasi, for example, now owns a 3,200-square-foot Milford town house, with three bedrooms, three baths and river views from four decks. The house, where he lives with his partner, Haynes Wheeler, cost $380,000 in 2004, though it needed a good bit of work.
Cons
During its heyday as a summer resort, between 1880s 1900 and World War II, Milford had 13 hotels, said Thomas Hoff, a resident and a member of the Milford Enhancement Committee.
Although many residents now tend to live there year-round, some businesses are still seasonal, like the Milford Theater, which shows first-run films and holds the Black Bear Film Festival.
The Real Estate Market
Two distinct sections make up Milford. Milford Borough, the smaller and more visible neighborhood, was laid out in 1796 by Judge John Biddis to resemble his native Philadelphia, with a crosshatch of streets mirrored by midblock service alleys.
Homes are old, some more than 200 years, and represent a range of architectural styles, including Carpenter Gothic, French Second Empire, Mediterranean and Craftsman. Close to 425 structures in the borough are listed on the National Register, Mr. Hoff said, which is more than two-thirds of the borough.
The larger Milford Township, meanwhile, hugs the borough like a horseshoe, and is more rural, with most houses dating from the mid-20th century. Confusion about who lives where persists even among residents, brokers and residents said, since mail can bear a Milford address even if its recipient lives a full town away.
With some houses priced at $250,000, teardowns are becoming common, though most buyers leap at the chance to own something older for $375,000 to $550,000, said Peggie McKiernan, an owner of ReMax Realty of Milford and a former New York weekender.
In March, the most expensive house was a $1.7 million, 3,200-square-foot stone ranch, built in 1953, with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and an in-ground pool, on almost four acres.
Still, homes in Milford sell at 15 to 20 percent discounts compared with those in towns like Woodstock or New Paltz, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. Although neither has the same old-fashioned town feeling, Ms. McKiernan said, they benefit from their household names. "We're a well-kept secret, yes," she said.
Lay of the Land
POPULATION 2,396 for the combined Milford Borough and Township, according to the 2000 census, with at least 500 more during summer, according to the township.
SIZE The borough is .5 square miles, and the township is 12.5 square miles.
WHO'S BUYING Musicians and authors, furniture designers, real estate brokers, New York couples priced out of Asbury Park, N.J., and New Jersey families who have traded a longer trip for lower property taxes.
GETTING THERE Milford is 70 miles from Manhattan. For the most popular route, take I-80 west, then Route 15 north, and continue north after it becomes Route 206. Cross the Delaware River and merge with Route 209 north, which leads into Milford.
WHILE YOU'RE LOOKING Hotel Fauchère (401 Broad Street, 570-409-1212; www.hotelfauchere.com) offers 16 rooms, starting at $275.
In Dingman Township, the Red Carpet Inn (240 Route 6, 570-296-9444; www.redcarpetinnpa.com) has 26 rooms at $55 and up.
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