A Visit to Philipsburg Manor – The Cooper’s House

The Coooper’s House. You can see it in the first picture to the left of the mill. It’s attached to the mill, but serves a completely different purpose. After the corn was milled it was put into sacks and barrels, transferred to boat on the Pocantico River. From there it made a short trip to the Hudson River and then along the river to be sold and/or delivered.

“The word “cooper” is derived from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German kūper ‘cooper’ from kūpe ‘cask’, in turn from Latin cupa ‘tun, barrel’. Everything a cooper produces is referred to collectively as cooperage. A cask is any piece of cooperage containing a bouge, bilge, or bulge in the middle of the container. A barrel is a type of cask, so the terms “barrel-maker” and “barrel-making” refer to just one aspect of a cooper’s work. The facility in which casks are made is also referred to as a cooperage.

Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden, staved vessels, held together with wooden or metal hoops and possessing flat ends or heads. Examples of a cooper’s work include casks, barrels, buckets, tubs, butter churns, vats, hogsheads, firkins, tierces, rundlets, puncheons, pipes, tuns, butts, troughs, pins and breakers. Traditionally, a hooper was the man who fitted the wooden or metal hoops around the barrels or buckets that the cooper had made, essentially an assistant to the cooper. The English name Hooper is derived from that profession. With time, many coopers took on the role of the hooper themselves.” (Wikipedia).

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II

A Visit to Philipsburg Manor – A Cat

Of course, where you have a lot of corn and flour, you also tend to get lots of rats, mice and other vermin. So you also need something to deal with them: a cat.

This picture is a little misleading. It gives the impression that I was walking around and came across a sleeping cat. That was not at all the case. A small crowd of visitors was milling (get it? milling?) around this millstone while the guide was explaining how it worked. In typical cat fashion the cat walked through all the people, jumped onto the millstone, lay down and fell asleep. You’ve got to love cats and, as a cat owner myself, I certainly do.

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II

A Visit to Philipsburg Manor – The Mill

One of the highlights of the tour was the Mill, a working Grist Mill where you could usually see corn being turned into flour. Unfortunately not the day I was there. Apparently, the Pocantico River/Millponds were at a very low level. This, combined with silting meant that there was not enough water to power the mill. Too bad. But I can come again and at least I was able to get some interior shots.







Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II

A Visit to Philipsburg Manor – Kayakers on the Pocantico River

The Pocantico River flows into the millpond, over the water wheel and then out to the nearby Hudson River.

As I was waiting for the tour to begin, I spotted these kayakers (if that’s the right word for someone in a kayak?) and thought that, with the mill in the background it would make a nice photograph.

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II

A Visit to Philipsburg Manor – Over the bridge into history

I’ve been to Philipsburg Manor a number of times, usually with visiting friends or families. We usually do the tour and then leave so I haven’t had the opportunity to just walk around and take pictures. Above: Approaching the bridge to the property.

Recently, however, I became a member of Historic Hudson Valley, which, among a host of other benefits gives me free tours of Philipsburg Manor. So I went over to have a look around.

I was still required to register for the tour, which I took as far as the mill. The next stop was the interior of the house, which I’d seen this a number of times already and didn’t’ feel the need to see it again. In any case they don’t allow photography inside the house. So I left the tour and went for a walk around.


The three main buildings. From left to right: the mill; the manor house; the stable. There’s actually a fourth one (A tenant farmer’s dwelling), but you can’t see it from here.


One of the re-enactors/guides crossing the walkway. Possibly a better view of the main buildings.

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II