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But the true highlight of the day was something less temporal than crafting or pumpkins. The community was treated to an "introduction" of the Vanderbilt-Budke house, a Dutch sandstone built by Jacob Vanderbilt about 1730. Believed to be the second-oldest house in Rockland County, it was lived in by the Vanderbilts until the 1860s. It was bought by George H. Budke Sr. in 1868 and occupied by his son George, a noted historian of Rockland County, until 1934, when he sold it to John C. Traphagan.
Clarkstown bought the house, along with another historic farmhouse, from Hugh Traphagan, John's son, in 2011. The two houses sit on 9 acres of open land next to the Germond's Pool complex. The Rockland Farm Alliance will farm most of the acreage, and some of their farmers will live in the farmhouse, but plans for the historic Vanderbilt-Budke house, which has no windows or doors, and is degraded on the inside, have yet to be determined.
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