Five bedrooms in the main house, a 2-bedroom guest cottage, and the barn that housed circus elephants, then 40 years of one of the region's most beloved design stores.
Joan Osofsky founded Hammertown beside her lovely Colonial home in 1985, transforming a horse barn into what became one of the most influential design stores in the Hudson Valley and Berkshires for four decades—named among the country's top design destinations by both Cottage Living and House Beautiful, and a touchstone for anyone furnishing an old Colonial or farmhouse in the region.
Osofsky traveled to England and France to source linens, dishes, and accessories that felt at home alongside wide-plank floors and exposed beams; she partnered with neighbors to buy and sell antiques; and she eventually expanded the brand to stores in Rhinebeck and Great Barrington, a design consultancy, two books, and a living showroom in her home adjacent to the barn.
The property at 85 Hammertown Road dates to 1774 and has been owned by just 3 families in 250 years, established in a small hamlet of millworkers, farmers, and blacksmiths on what would become Pine Plains. The main house is a colonial farmhouse with wide-plank wood floors, exquisite millwork lining every wall, and 5 fireplaces across a 5-bedroom, 4-bath layout. On the ground floor: a large boot room, formal dining room, living room, wallpapered powder room, and a generous light-filled kitchen suited to entertaining. Upstairs, 2 en-suite bedrooms occupy opposite corners of the house, with 3 additional bedrooms—2 of which have their own fireplaces—and a full bath in their own wing.
Outside, the farmhouse has two porches, with a large dining terrace bordered by stone walls off the kitchen, sweeping trees, established gardens, and a wrought-iron greenhouse structure and French parterre garden planted with herbs, lavender, and flowers. The guest cottage, built to match the character of the main house, has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, multiple fireplaces, detailed millwork, a double-height great room with an arched window, and French doors to its own terrace—positioned at the entrance of the land, visible from the road.
The barn was built in the early 1800s by the founding family of the property, it reportedly housed elephants from the Barnum & Bailey Circus in the early 1900s. The soaring beams and original staircase are intact, and the barn is now fully serviced with electric, heating, cooling, and plumbing—with multiple rooms suited to living space, event space, offices, or storage, and open sprawling areas with soaring ceilings for hosting large groups.
The property has served multiple commercial ventures over the decades and retains that live-work potential under current zoning. Osofsky ran a bed and breakfast in the house in the early years of the store; the barn has hosted events, retail, and design workshops. For a buyer with an appetite for that kind of use, the infrastructure is already in place.
Pine Plains is less than 15 minutes from Millerton and the Connecticut border, and 2 hours from New York City.
85 Hammertown Road, Pine Plains (NY) is listed at $2,475,000, offered by Raj Kumar at Four Seasons Sotheby's International Realty.
