''Querencia'' -- a place from which one draws strength; a sanctuary where one is most authentically themselves.
Few properties can claim architectural lineage spanning four centuries, and fewer wear it as gracefully as ''Querencia.'' Begun as a 1750s colonial farmhouse and expanded in the 1840s with a Greek Revival addition, the home carries two centuries of early American architecture in its bones -- hand-hewn beams, original wide board floors, and Dutch doors original to the property. In the mid-20th century, architect John Messick, a contemporary of I.M. Pei sharing his sensitivity for blending modern elements into historic settings, added a third chapter: a silo-form modern wing nodding to the property's agricultural past, its interior a fully realized mid-century masterwork. The result is a rare architectural conversation across three eras, united by a top-to-bottom renovation with high-end fixtures throughout, and impeccably furnished.
An oversized inglenook fireplace anchors the kitchen, seating, and dining areas in the modern wing -- one of three working fireplaces, alongside two original wood-burning fireplaces in the historic wing. ''Querencia'' was recently profiled in Dwell magazine and other design publications for this blend of eighteenth, nineteenth, and mid-twentieth century architecture.
THE HOME
Four bedrooms and four bathrooms are arranged with rare flexibility: a downstairs primary suite with fireplace and dressing room, an upstairs primary suite also with dressing room, an additional en-suite bedroom, and two further bedrooms, one sharing a full bath with a soaking tub overlooking the property. Ample closets and storage run throughout, and one additional room flexes easily into a bedroom or an office.
THE GROUNDS
''Querencia'' sits along a winding country lane, its eight private acres embraced by six hundred additional acres of rolling farmland, bordered by the Old Kinderhook Golf Club, with only a couple of other homes within half a mile. This is a landscape, not a lot: antique barns, two spring-fed ponds, and wildflower fields rolling toward the horizon, the house settled into its hillside rather than placed upon it.
A new swimming pool and stone terraces invite alfresco living year-round, while two barns, one weathered and one classic red, offer immediate utility and future potential, including existing designs for a main house addition and a proposed guest house site overlooking the ponds.
A SANCTUARY - NOW & THEN
The name is intentional. Long before its restoration, the property served as a sanctuary for rescued livestock -- the house was worn, but the love in it was unmistakable, and that spirit has guided every stage of its renovation. ''Querencia'' asks to be felt as much as seen, a home for another generation to steward.
LOCATION
Eight minutes to Kinderhook, twelve to Chatham, twenty to Hudson and Amtrak, thirty to the Berkshires, thirty-five to Tanglewood, forty to Albany International Airport, and two and a half hours to Boston. ''Querencia'' places you within easy reach of quaint villages, antique shopping, farm stands, and hiking trails, with the Catskills' Kaaterskill Falls and the Berkshires' fine dining and Tanglewood all close by.
