The Cold Spring Historic District is a historic district that includes much of the central area of the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

Cold Spring village in Putnam County, New York. 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 United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

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 or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same 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 ...

, 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 ot ...

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 distri ...

. They have helped transform the village into a popular upscale residence for commuters and weekend destination for

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

residents due to the nearby

Metro-North Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connectic ...

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot 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 s ...

offering easy access to Grand Central Terminal.

2005 lawsuit

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

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

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 development. The case went all the way to

appeals court A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

, which decided in 2007 that his

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

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