The Cold Spring Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

that includes much of the central area of the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

Cold Spring village in Putnam County,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. It is roughly bounded by Main Street (in the northeastern portion of the village the eastern end of NY 301), Cedar ( NY 9D) and Fair streets and Paulding Avenue. It gives Cold Spring its quaint character and has been described as "one of the best-preserved 19th century townscapes in the Hudson River region".Village of Cold Spring, 2003
COLD SPRING HISTORIC DISTRICT
retrieved June 7, 2007. A consultants' report for the village's 1987 master plan quotes the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

saying, upon adding the district in 1982: Most of the houses, churches and other buildings came into existence in the years before the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, when the nearby

West Point Foundry The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and o ...

was at the peak of its production and workers were rapidly moving into the area. Today the district includes over 200 buildings, many of them

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

. They have helped transform the village into a popular upscale residence for

commuter Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

s and weekend destination for

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

residents due to the nearby

Metro-North The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of ...

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

offering easy access to

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...

2005 lawsuit

Like some other municipalities with federally designated historic districts, Cold Spring has added sections to its

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

code to preserve that character. In 2005, resident Donald Lusk, filed suit in federal court against the village after it cited him for nonconforming signs he had put up in front of his house in protest of a proposed nearby

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

development. The case went all the way to

appeals court An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appellate ...

, which decided in 2007 that his

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

rights had been violated by the process by which his signs were judged nonconforming, which partly considered the content of those signs. However, the ordinances dictating the size, shape and placement of the signs themselves were upheld as permissible regulations of the time, place and manner of speech.
Lusk v. Village of Cold Spring
' 475 F.3d 480 (2nd Circ., 2007); retrieved June 7, 2007.

References

External links

Cold Spring Living
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Hudson River Historic districts in Putnam County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Putnam County, New York