IT’S ALL IN GOOD TASTE: Marla Puccetti and Paul Nanni opened the Heron on Main Street last January. (Christian Johnson)
HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Douglas Ray (left) and John Olsen enjoy their log cabin in Narrowsburg, which they share with their dog, Bear. The home is 4,000 square feet on 7 acres.
FOR SALE IN NARROWSBURG: SIX-BEDROOM, $384,500: This country house on nearly 19 acres is 3,064 square feet with three bathrooms, an eat-in kitchen (with sliders to the deck), a formal dining room, a step-down living room, a family/game room, an attic, a screened porch and a vegetable garden. Agent: Barry Becker, Eagle Valley Realty, 845-252-3085
FOR SALE IN NARROWSBURG: ONE-BEDROOM, $110,000: This lakefront Sears catalog bungalow is on 0.37 acres — on a cul-de-sac — and measures 528 square feet with one bathroom, hardwood floors, an attic and front and back screened porches. Agent: Barry Becker, Eagle Valley Realty, 845-252-3085
Narrowsburg, Ny, is a gorgeous tableau of late 19th-century Main Street buildings stuffed with big-city sophistication.
The tiny Sullivan County hamlet hugging the “Big Eddy,” as this part of the Delaware River was once known, is where you can watch eagles soar, contemplate the tides of time along the banks or gaze across the Narrowsburg Bridge to Pennsylvania. Then treat yourself to a farm-to-table meal at the Heron or Gerard’s River Grill, browse the beautiful handmade textiles at Dyberry Weavers and pop into River Gallery to peruse local art.
How did this relatively unknown bucolic town of 1.5 square miles and 430 souls — 2 1/2 hours north of NYC — turn into a gentrified, second-home oasis for New Yorkers?
Post-9/11, Stanley Harper and Michael Eurey left Manhattan and opened Narrowsburg Fine Wines and Spirits. They were part of a movement. A brigade of talented artists, designers and chefs followed, itching for green acres and empowered by the rich cultural scene that started about a decade ago.
Barry Becker, a former sales executive for Ungaro, and his partner, Tony Coscia, former manager of Manhattan’s Gianni Versace boutique, own the River Gallery, an upscale hive of art, furniture and antiques. They moved to Narrowsburg in 2001 for a simpler, slower lifestyle. Becker is also a real estate agent at Eagle Valley Realty.
“About 30 percent of our residents are second-home owners,” says Becker, adding that there are 17 houses on the market. Buyers can find a five-bedroom, 1954 Cape on 1.5 acres in Irish Hill, an enclave on the upper end of Main Street, for $135,000, or a three-bedroom Ranch on half an acre in the Flats, along the river, for $179,000.
Transplants like Becker feel at home because Narrowsburg, sandwiched between the Catskill and Pocono mountains, is filled with others like him who’ve brought their talents and their city mentality to this former lumber and stone-quarrying area. The list includes former Tiffany jewelry designer Pedro Boregaard, weaver Charles Blanchard of Dyberry Weavers, ceramicist Matt Solomon, clothing designer Pam Mayer of Enochian, and Nest’s Anna Bern, a former design director for Vogue.
Most houses, a collection of early 19th-century Colonial and more modern Ranches, are clustered in the winding streets around the hamlet.
John Olsen, a Sotheby’s International Realty agent, and his partner, Douglas Ray, an advertising executive, live on Roosevelt Island but bought a second home in Narrowsburg in 2004. Their four-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot log cabin is on 7 acres located nine miles south of the hamlet.
“It’s like home but with the pleasure of our wraparound porch, privacy and hemlocks everywhere,” says Olsen, who’s also carved out a social life in Narrowsburg. “Our friends are everyone who owns a shop in town. There’s Barry and [Tony] who own the [River] Gallery, and Michael and Stanley in the wine shop.”
While the alluring retail and food scene is one ballast, the offerings from the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance is the other. The arts organization, housed in a renovated hotel on Main Street, where it runs a gallery, puts on events including performances by the Delaware Valley Opera, the annual Digital Media Festival, JazzFest and author readings. This past September, the alliance launched the Big Eddy Film Festival at the historic Tusten Theatre on Bridge Street.
Two staples at the far end of Main Street recall the hamlet’s heritage: Narrowsburg Feed and Grain, which makes feed for farm animals, and Narrowsburg Lumber. Beyond Main Street, Narrowsburg is more akin to other river towns in Sullivan County. There are bait-and-tackle shops and signs for Lander’s River Trips, the Ten Mile River Boy Scout Camp and Fort Delaware, a re-creation of the first white settlement on the upper Delaware in 1754.
Peck’s Market on Kirk Road is the place for provisions, and those with city tastes say the proprietors are happy to entertain special requests.
The big boxes like Home Depot and Walmart are 10 miles across the river in Honesdale, Pa. There’s a one-screen cinema and a farmer’s market 10 minutes upriver in Callicoon.
Last January, former Fort Greene residents Marla Puccetti, a TV producer, and her boyfriend, CIA-trained chef Paul Nanni, opened the Heron.
“There was something about this place,” Puccetti says. “It’s a combination of the fresh air, the water, the arts scene and the people. We feel at home up here because most of the business owners are from the city.”