Chetolah: The 1901 George Inness Jr. Estate on the Shawangunk Ridge Lists at $995,000

The Reddit post came with a tag: "Probably Haunted." The listing came with 26 acres, 16,157 square feet, four fireplaces, zero listed bedrooms, and a price of $995,000 for a property on the National Register of Historic Places. The original poster invited buyers to bring a video camera and film the next Blair Witch Project while renovating. One commenter immediately announced plans for a flowy white dress to wander the grounds like a Victorian ghost. Both responses are appropriate for Chetolah — the 1901 summer estate of George Inness Jr., one of America's foremost landscape painters, perched at the highest point on the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, New York.

The History

George Inness Jr. — son of George Inness, one of the Hudson River School's most celebrated landscape painters — was himself one of America's foremost figure and landscape artists. He purchased Chetolah in 1900 from the daughters of artist Eliza Greatorex and developed it into the largest estate on what locals called "The Mountain" — a 42-room mansion with formal terraced gardens at the highest point on the Shawangunk Ridge, 65 miles northwest of New York City. Cragsmoor at the turn of the 20th century was an active artists' colony drawing painters including Charles Curran and E.L. Henry, all drawn to the extraordinary views of the Catskill Mountains, the Rondout Valley, and the Hudson Valley beyond. Chetolah was the colony's crown jewel. The estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It has been waiting for someone with vision and a renovation budget ever since.

The Opportunity — and the Reddit Consensus

The 26 acres are bordered on two sides by thousands of acres of protected Shawangunk Ridge land with direct hiking access — the same ridge that drew the Lenape people, then the early settlers, then the artists, and now the hikers, climbers, and nature-seekers who fill the Gunks every weekend. The estate includes the main mansion, a painting studio, a garage, two water features, terraced gardens, and exceptional stonework throughout. The Reddit consensus was evenly divided between "this is one of the coolest properties I've ever seen on here" and "a million to get in, and another million-plus to make it habitable." The person who lived in Ulster County for a decade said they'd buy it in a heartbeat if the renovation were financially feasible. That caveat is the honest one. This is a property for a buyer with both means and mission — someone who sees a National Register mansion on the Shawangunk Ridge and thinks: I can do this.

The Internet Has Thoughts

Naturally, this listing caught the attention of Reddit's r/zillowgonewild community. See what people are saying about it here.

A 1901 National Register mansion on the Shawangunk Ridge, 26 acres of protected-land-adjacent haunted acreage, and a painting studio. $995,000. View the full listing here.