7 South Street, in the record
A five-bay Federal-style house on South Street, the oldest street in Rhinebeck, listed in the National Register building list for the Rhinebeck Village Historic District as a contributing building. It was renovated in 2021 by The Art of Building, which took a 1970s addition down, kept the center hall and rebuilt the back of the house around a kitchen in a bay of three windows.
The nomination files it as the Rynders/Haskins residence and dates it ca. 1867. The renovators call it about 200 years old and say they found an eighteenth-century hearth behind a plaster wall. Public listing sites give 1910, which neither source supports, so the date here is left as a range. A Victorian porch was added in the mid-nineteenth century and is the first thing on the street.
The 2021 renovation
The house had been divided into five apartments, three in the old part and two in the addition. The Art of Building removed the addition, opened the rooms at the back, and chose two-over-two windows to match the porch instead of the six-over-six a Colonial house would carry, after consulting the Village Planning Board. The firm built the primary suite with a cathedral ceiling and trusses of timbers reclaimed from the work, and an English-style kitchen around the bay window.
The Planning Board's March 2021 agenda lists the application: a major alteration, exterior and interior, with a renovation of the garage and window replacement.
Rooms and grounds
The center hall runs back from an oak front door to a living room with an exposed brick chimney and an enamel stove, opening to a sunroom with windows on three sides, a game room with a brick fireplace, and the kitchen. Floors are wide plank, and cast-iron radiators remain. Upstairs are the primary suite, a four-poster bedroom and a landing painted olive.
Behind the house a stone terrace faces the lawn. A two-bay garage stands at the end of the gravel drive. The lot is about half an acre.
