March 14, 2003

HAVENS; Weekender | Jewett, N.Y.

By ELLEN MAGUIRE

JEWETT, an ungentrified gem nestled against the Catskill Forest Preserve, sits in a rolling, narrow valley along East Kill Creek. Above it rise Black Dome, Thomas Cole and Black Head Mountains, three of the tallest peaks in the Catskills, with two trailheads right in town. Jewett's weekend athletes hike miles of rugged paths in the forest preserve, designated by the state as forever wild. Their less ambitious counterparts scout auctions and unwind on the porch.

In Edson's, the town's only store, Flapjack the dog sniffs visitors, and the owner, Harvey Edson, sells milk, coffee, newspapers and secondhand books. A sign on the wall reads, ''Gossip welcome here,'' but gossip may be hard to find. In nearly 50 square miles, there are fewer than 1,000 full-time residents.

The rough-hewn barns and a 1,000-acre working dairy farm, with a backdrop of forest, mountainside and winding roads, create a sense of tranquillity and natural beauty.

''I can walk right out into the forest preserve, said Ethan Tarnow, the lead singer for Wooden, a rock band, who purchased a bare-bones cabin on a 2.5-acre lot with a waterfall for $25,000 in 2001. Last November, he left Manhattan to live in Jewett full time.

Jewett, formed in 1849 and named for Freeborn G. Jewett, a 19th-century chief justice of the New York State Court of Appeals, is in the center of an area that longtime residents call the Mountain Top. The town is entirely within the Catskill State Park, which continues south and west for 700,000 acres: 42 percent of the park is protected forest preserve and the rest is owned by private citizens and organizations. While only 22 percent of Jewett is in the preserve, the whole town is subject to development restrictions as part of the New York City watershed, and there is protective local zoning as well.

The Scene
 

''This is a peaceful place, an authentic rural town,'' said Susan Beecher, a potter who has an apartment in Manhattan and a weekend house in Jewett.

Residents call parts of the town East and West Jewett and Jewett Center, but there is no town center; the 1,050 homes, two-thirds of which are owned by weekenders, are scattered, adding to the sense of solitude. But privacy does not mean isolation.

David Brown, a choreographer and dancer, bought a barn on six acres, with no electricity, no heat and no front door, 13 years ago for $115,000. ''What seemed to be only a second home became the central part of my life,'' Mr. Brown said.

This past October he moved from his 800-square-foot Harlem apartment to live in Jewett year-round. His 6,000-square-foot carefully renovated barn now houses a full Pilates studio and a marble fireplace. ''We're respectful of the natural resources here,'' he said. ''We get our maple syrup from one local friend who taps his trees and our goat cheese from another.''

Celine Stillman, from Piermont, N.Y., and her husband, Pascal Akesson, a documentary film editor, who converted an old church into their weekend home, have found a unique circle of friends in Jewett. ''We have an adopted daughter, and we encountered a special group of parents with children adopted from all over the world,'' Ms. Stillman said. ''We end up being much more social here than in our regular lives.''

Dinner parties are the way most residents socialize, but there are popular restaurants in neighboring towns. The casual Millrock Restaurant in Windham offers Italian food, and the quirky Catskill Mountain Country Store and Restaurant, also in Windham, serves breakfast and lunch. Kaya's, a new organic vegetarian and vegan restaurant in nearby Lexington, offers free late-night delivery. The owner, Kaya Ambos, moved from the East Village in Manhattan to Jewett without a regret. ''It's the altitude,'' she said. ''It does something fun to my head.''

Pros
 

Weekenders talk a lot about Jewett's rural sense of community.

''The local people have always been enormously friendly,'' Ms. Beecher said. ''The fabulous women in the post office even carry packages to your car.''

Others have similar stories. ''Everyone stops to help if you slide off the road in the snow,'' said Michael Flaherty, a former weekender who moved to Jewett in 1990 and is now the town supervisor.

Stanley Schreibman, a retired hospital administrator, has lived in the same New York City apartment for 25 years and said, ''I barely know the people on my floor.'' But when he and his wife, Kathie, bought a ramshackle farmhouse in Jewett to renovate, one longtime resident volunteered to help install a wood-burning stove and another offered to help out by plowing his field. ''If we're coming up for a winter weekend,'' Mr. Schreibman added, ''my neighbors will clear the driveway and turn on our heat.''

Jewett is in ski country, and in summer residents bike or swim, fish or kayak in local streams and lakes. The hiking is good, with many trails maintained by the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference. The Mountain Top Historical Society sponsors hikes, and the Thomas Cole Hiking Club, an unofficial group that includes a hardy octogenarian, climbs the hills to paint.

Local artists flourish. Every August, a group of quilters called the Patchworkers create Jewett's only traffic jam by holding a popular festival. This summer is their 30th anniversary, and, as always, they will raffle a quilt to support the firehouse.

In summer, classical music concerts are held in the Grazhda, or parish hall, of the St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church. Built in 1962 without nails, in the style of the Carpathian Mountain highlanders, the complex is a fine example of traditional Ukrainian timber blockwork.

The Catskill Mountain Foundation sponsors a wide range of arts-related events. Its co-founder, Peter Finn, whose family has owned property in the area since 1898, wants to ''turn the Mountain Top into the cultural center of the Catskills.'' The association's operations include a two-screen movie theater in nearby Hunter, a bookstore and a performing arts center.

Cons
 

Jewett may be the place to get away from it all, but visitors should consider bringing some of it with them -- groceries, for example. The Catskill Mountain Foundation operates an organic farm market, but it is three miles outside of Jewett, in Hunter, and many residents travel eight miles from town to a supermarket on Route 23A.

Winters can be brutal, and it is not uncommon to be snowed in for a while after a storm. Snow tires and front-wheel drive are required; four-wheel drive is ideal.

Summers are short. ''It gets nice in May, you can't plant a garden until June, and you get your first frost Aug. 25,'' Ms. Beecher said, insisting that she was exaggerating only slightly.

If you want to build a house, it can be difficult to find tradesmen -- and they will be needed. Residents must have their own wells and maintain their septic systems.

Real Estate Market
Judy Polk of Gene Gordon Realty in nearby Hunter (518-589-9000, www.gordonrealty.com) estimates that housing prices have increased 10 percent to 15 percent a year since 2000. There were 35 sales in 2002, and of the dozen or so properties currently on the market, the more isolated the home, the higher the price. ''People come here to be alone,'' Ms. Polk said.

LAY OF THE LAND
A Peaceful Piece of the Unspoiled Catskills

POPULATION -- 970 full-time residents.
SIZE -- 48.8 square miles.
NUMBER OF HOMES -- 1,050.
MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE -- $143,500.
NEIGHBORS -- A mix of longtime residents and weekenders. Income levels, backgrounds and professions are varied.

DISTANCE FROM NEW YORK -- 126 miles.
TRAVEL TIME -- In light traffic, 2 hours and 40 minutes from New York. Adirondack Trailways (800-858-8555) schedules two buses daily from Port Authority to nearby Hunter; the trip takes about three and a half hours.

GETTING THERE -- Take Interstate 87 north to Saugerties, Exit 20, and drive north on Route 32, then north on Route 32A. Turn west on Route 23A, north on Route 25 and north on Route 23C.