Water at the base of Tumblin' Falls House creates the epitome of swimming holes. The water brought gristmills, sawmills, tourists and, later, Tumblin' Falls House. In flooding, the noise of the moving water is deafening. Linda and her husband, Hugh, must scream at one another indoors to be heard as the mass of water dropping off Windham High Peak fills the gorge and masks most traces that a waterfall even exists. Hugh saw the house in the early 1970s when visiting a friend. A decade later the real estate was offered to him. "Hugh always spoke of this house, telling me I would love it. When it came up for sale, Hugh and I were leaving for Europe and for three weeks all I said overseas was they're not going to wait three weeks. But they did, and when I finally saw the house, I knew immediately we had to have it," Linda said. In 1983 the deed to the property was transferred for the twelfth time in its nearly 120-year history. " It killed me," Linda recalled, "being away from the house in Florida that first winter," where Hugh was director of tennis at the Breakers of Palm Beach, and where heat existed when their new home had none. In April, Linda moved north and did not return to Florida until November, concentrating on restoration and relaxation at what is now a four guest room Victorian bed and breakfast.
A wedding and reception was held at Tumblin' Falls House this past spring for family members who formerly owned the property. The ceremony was performed on a dry bed in the middle of the stream atop the falls. Wreaths adorned with roses floated in the swimming hole below. In 1907, the Day family with their baby, Clemie, posed for a photograph at the base of the falls. Clemie had just recovered from polio, and as the write-up in the Curry archive states, "It is believed the baby was brought to the glen for its healthful and curative effects.
Enoch Hyde and Benjamin Hall, from Litchfield, Connecticut, came to the glen in 1788 to set up an iron forge above the falls. They forged charcoal iron - a type of iron that was refined from pig iron using charcoal to purify the iron, resulting in an iron stronger and of a higher grade than regular wrought iron - into bars used by blacksmiths for making horseshoes and wagon wheel parts. Cairo Town historian Robert Uzzilia relates this story: Mr. Hyde went to a store owned by a Mr. Stone and asked the price of a jug of rum. Stone said one dollar, so Hyde fetched a fourty-five-gallon jug and said to please fill it. Rather reluctantly, Stone did so, after which Hyde buried it in the cellar of his newly completed dwelling under a rock with the following inscription: Beneath this stone a brown jug lies, filled with New England rum to treat Hyde's friends when ere he dies. God grant the time may quickly come. Although Hyde lived a long time, people did retrieve the rum and drink it in his memory. In 1813, one Rufus Byington established a tavern near the forge and, five years later, built a glass factory downstream. A sawmill that was built upstream washed away in a spring freshet and was rebuilt in 1857 by Johnathan (sic) Webster. It burned down the following year and was rebuilt by John Galatian. Joel and Isaac Curtis established a business near the falls "sometime before 1854," building grandfather clocks made of pine, with wooden works, hand painted dials and pewter hands. Alpheus Wright established a wood turning mill in the glen which was later operated by Tom Anson before the Civil War. He made implements for local farmers while they waited for their grain to be ground at the mill. This business, the Shinglekill Novelty Works, is said to have been the first of its kind in the region. This area was named Shinglekill because of the large, hemlock shingle business established by settlers.
Travel directions: From the
south, NYS Thruway (1-87) to exit 20 (Saugerties). Route 32 North
to Silver Spur Road, turn left .2 miles to Country Route 24. Turn
left 200 feet, turn left to Tumblin' Falls House. From the north:
- NYS Thruway (1-87) to exit 21 (Catskill). Route 23 West, six miles
turn left to Cairo business district. Straight one mile, at blinking
light turn left onto Country Route 24 (Mountain Avenue). One mile
to Purling Center. Watch for Tumblin' Falls House sign on right.
|
"Water
is everything at Tumblin' Falls House bed and breakfast where owner Linda
Curry lives her dream on the edge of Shinglekill Falls. Water spills through
the gorge here in the Greene County Hamlet of Purling, so named for
the sound of the purling brook....... "
The
Currys hung their B&B sign seven years ago. The house was built around
1880. Two sisters, one a dressmaker and the other who ran the home
as a boarding house, owned the property through half its history.
The home today is decorated exquisitely with Linda's murals, paintings
by local artists, furniture restored and creatively painted by Linda's
brother, and framed posters signed by Peter Max when Linda Managed on art
gallery in Florida.
In
summer, the placid sound of the falls and morning sun filtering through
the trees greet guests who take breakfast on the porch. In any season,
fluffy omelets, fresh fruit, French toast, baked bread - essentially your
every breakfast craving on order - are served superbly. The Currys
offer plump raspberries picked from the backyard in season. Family-style
dinners served by special request may include salmon, Caesar salad, or
pasta primovera with chicken. The grounds at Tumblin' Falls House are beautifully
landscaped.
Rates
at Tumblin' Falls House are $85 to $185 plus tax, depending on the room
and the season, and credit cards and personal checks are accepted.
Sign up early for the Falls View Suite and its magnificent perspective
of the gorge. Most people who visit become repeat customers, and
some of them have been quest innkeepers for the Currys who also offer whole
house rentals. Pets are allowed, with restrictions.
