North Highlands, New York

Valhalla Highlands Historic District, also known as Lake Valhalla, is a national historic district located near Cold Spring in Putnam County, New York. The district encompasses 57 contributing buildings, 11 contributing sites, 10 contributing structures, 7 contributing objects and a 900-acre forest in an early second home community established by primarily German/Austrians and Norwegians from New York City. It developed between the early-1930s and mid-1940s, and includes lodges that are typically one or two stories high and have fieldstone foundations. They are characterized by structural stone walls and full log construction and frame dwellings clad with half-log wood siding and fieldstone veneer, chimneys and terraces. The district also includes a boat lodge with a ping-pong room and terrace, a swimming dock, a boat dock, a tea pavilion, a recreation pavilion, a lookout pavilion, shuffleboard courts, a tennis court, a playing field, a picnic area, rustic improvements throughout the forest and the remnants of a hunting cabin.The on-site National Register plaque states: "Valhalla Highlands was initiated in the early 1930s as a stylistically cohesive summer community with individual lodges, shared amenities, including Lake Valhalla, community buildings and a 1,100 acre forest with trails and rustic facilities and Valkyrie, the home of Ludwig Novoting, the creator of Valhalla Highlands. All the lodges were placed on a planned layout with a carefully organized system of boulder-lined unpaved roads, vistas and landscape features. No two lodges were the same and the community was harmoniously placed within its magnificent natural setting. The District was an early occurrence of seasonal retreats for New Yorkers in the rural areas of the Hudson Valley during the early twentieth century. The lodges, roads, common facilities and landscaping were a rustic interpretation of the Storybook Style popular in America between World War I and World War II. With whimsy and creative playfulness, the Valhalla Highlands interpretation was picturesque and nostalgic. These qualities were evident in the buttressed field stone and half-log walls, swooping multi-color asphalt shingle roofs with peaks, asymmetrical roof pitches, prominent field stone chimneys, cantilevered entry canopies, free-standing peeled log arches at the entrances, window awnings, half-log flower boxes, small-paned steel and wood windows, field stone paths and steps, boulder borders, rock gardens with elf figurines and knotty pine interiors. The ensemble blurred the line of fantasy and true reality with an inherent sense of humor. The playful, fairy-tale aesthetic of Valhalla Highlands matched the community’s theme of a Nordic paradise. Eighty years later, on November 12, 2014, when the United States Department of the Interior listed the Valhalla Highlands Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, the district was essentially unchanged from its time of origin." It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

Magazzino Italian Art is a museum and research center dedicated to exhibiting postwar and contemporary Italian art and supporting scholarship on the subject. The museum was founded by Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu with the mission to share works of the group of Italian artists who exhibited together in the late 1960s and early 1970s, affiliated with the art movement of Arte Povera, with American audiences. Magazzino opened to the public on June 28, 2017, with an exhibition dedicated to the influence and legacy of Margherita Stein, a late Italian dealer associated with artists active in Arte Povera circles and beyond. The museum is free and open to the public.Magazzino Italian Art is located in Cold Spring, New York, within the Town of Philipstown on U.S. Route 9, on the former Cyberchron site. Magazzino, which means "warehouse" in Italian, consists of an old farmers’ warehouse (later turned into a dairy distribution center and then a computer factory) and a new building by Spanish architect Miguel Quismondo. The building is 20,000 square feet, which includes nearly 18,000 square feet of exhibition space and a 5,000-volume library, housing the Research Center that opened in 2018.In 2018, Magazzino Italian Art became a non-for-profit museum that is operated by Magazzino Italian Art Foundation.

Surprise Lake Camp is a non-profit sleepaway camp located on over 400 acres (1.6 km2) in Cold Spring, New York (approximately 60 miles (97 km) north of New York City). It is one of the oldest Jewish summer camps in the United States.

The Mt. Beacon Fire Observation Tower is located on the summit of South Beacon Mountain in Beacon, New York, United States.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

Beacon Reservoir supplies water to the city of Beacon, in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is located at 1,285 feet (392 m) above sea level in a hollow between Beacon Mountain and Scofield Ridge, in the neighboring Town of Fishkill, very close to the Putnam County line. It was created in 1922 by damming Dry Brook, a tributary of Fishkill Creek. It holds 125 million US gallons (470,000 m3). A publicly accessible dirt road, frequently used to climb the mountain, runs from the city past it to the summits. No boating or fishing or swimming is allowed in the reservoir. It is the highest lake in Dutchess County.

Montrest is a house on Lane Gate Road outside Nelsonville, New York, United States. It was built after the Civil War as a summer residence by Aaron Healy, a successful New York leather dealer, to take advantage of panoramic views of the Hudson River and surrounding mountains of the Highlands. Eventually he divided the estate between his two sons, and in the early 20th century Montrest, the upper house, became the family's primary residence. In 1982 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Beacon Mountain, locally Mount Beacon, is the highest peak of Hudson Highlands, located south of City of Beacon, New York, in the Town of Fishkill. Its two summits rise above the Hudson River behind the city and can easily be seen from Newburgh across the river and many other places in the region. The more accessible northern peak, at 1,516 feet (462 m) above sea level, has a complex of radio antennas on its summit; the 1,595 feet (486 m) southern summit has a fire lookout tower, which was built in 1931. Beacon Reservoir, the city's main water source, is located between North Beacon and neighboring Scofield Ridge, the highest peak in Putnam County. Since much of the land on the mountains and up to the county line is owned by the city to protect the watershed, an extensive system of roads and trails makes it a popular hiking area. Both summits afford extensive views of the mid-Hudson region, and on clear days New York City is visible from the fire tower.

Bald Hill is a hill located on the Hudson Highlands in Dutchess County, New York. It has an elevation of 1,499 feet (457 m). The hill is one of two peaks—Lamb's Hill is the other—located on the Fishkill Ridge Trail in Hudson Highlands State Park.

Breakneck Ridge is a mountain along the Hudson River between Beacon and Cold Spring, New York, straddling the boundary between Dutchess and Putnam counties. Its distinctive rocky cliffs are visible for a long distance when approached from the south, and together with Storm King Mountain on the opposite bank of the river forms Wey-Gat, or Wind Gate, the picturesque northern gateway to the Hudson Highlands. It has several summits, the highest, some distance inland, reaching approximately 1,260 feet (384 m) above sea level. The southern face of the peak is remarkable for its striking cliffs, the result of quarrying in past years. Lying within Hudson Highlands State Park, it offers many stunning views of the river and region and is quite popular with hikers, to the point that a rail flag stop has been established on the Metro North line which runs right by the base of the ridge along NY 9D. In 1932 a road tunnel was dug below the western slopes of the peak; it is now designated as part of Route 9D. Until the early 20th century, the mountain was also known as St. Anthony's Face or Turk's Face, after a facelike stone formation on the southern cliffs that was destroyed by quarrymen in 1846. (This references a different mountain, “Anthony’s Nose” not Breakneck. )

Hudson Highlands State Park is a non-contiguous state park in the U.S. state of New York, located on the east side of the Hudson River. The park runs from Peekskill in Westchester County, through Putnam County, to Beacon in Dutchess County, in the eastern section of the Hudson Highlands. The park's lands, heavily mined, logged and quarried in the past, were assembled over the mid-20th century from different purchases by the state, totaling 7,669 acres (31.04 km2; 11.98 sq mi) as of 2014. They range from riverside salt marshes to mountain summits, including the highest in the Highlands, the 1,610-foot (490 m) south summit of Beacon Mountain. It is managed by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYSOPRHP) from offices at Fahnestock State Park to the east. Its parcels adjoin others owned by other public agencies and private preserves, some of which are managed by NYSOPRHP as well and are open to the public. Due to its panoramic views of the river and mountains, and easy access by both automobile and rail, it has become a very popular destination for day hikes. The park's best known trail makes a steep, rocky ascent up Breakneck Ridge. Other trails climb neighboring Bull Hill and follow the cliffs of Anthony's Nose. The Appalachian Trail (AT) also goes through the southeast corner of the park.

The Hustis House is located on Main Street (NY 301) in Nelsonville, New York, United States. It is a small home built sometime in the middle of the 19th century, likely as housing for workers at the West Point Foundry in nearby Cold Spring. It has remained nearly intact since then, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The house is a simple one-and-a-half-story frame clapboard-sided structure with a stone basement, its gabled roof sloping saltbox-style to create an extended rear first floor. Its doors and windows are trimmed with plain wooden sills and lintels. The only decorative touch are the pillars on the covered porch, which was added sometime after the house was built. A cellar door and shed addition on the rear also seem to have come later.It is unknown exactly when the house was built. It first appears on an 1867 map of the region as the property of an E. Hustis but with an earlier construction date indicated. It is typical of the kind of vernacular homes found in Nelsonville, a community that was home to many workers at the foundry.

Bull Hill, also known as Mount Taurus, is a mountain north of the village of Cold Spring on the Hudson River in Putnam County in the State of New York. It is part of the river-straddling range known as the Hudson Highlands. The original name came after a bull that used to terrorize the mountain was chased by indignant inhabitants. A hunting party drove the bull over the hill. In an attempt to flee the mountaineers, the bull plunged out into space and fell down. Its broken and shapeless mass on the rocks was memorialized in the name of the mountain the bull used to haunt.While not as well known as neighboring Breakneck Ridge or Storm King Mountain across the river, it too is part of Hudson Highlands State Park and has an extensive trail system and offers hikers sweeping views of the river and neighboring peaks from rock outcrops near its wooded 1,420-foot (433 m) summit, higher than both neighbors.