Shay's Warehouse and Stable

Shay bought the Main Street-Point Street corner property around 1863. His house is shown on maps of the village from the next decade, but not the warehouse. It probably existed as it was not the custom of mapmakers of the time to show outbuildings. He used it for storage and transshipment of rags and cotton waste from the mills in Wappingers Falls.^[1]

In later years it would see other uses as New Hamburg changed due to the decline in commercial traffic along the Hudson River and the later rise and fall of the railroad over the 20th century. It would be a cooperage for apple barrels and a brass foundry. The stable was modified as cars replaced horses. At the time of its listing on the National Register it was a boat-repair shop, reflecting the nearby marinas that now dominate the hamlet's economy.^[1]

More recently it has been used just for storage. It is today the only intact surviving commercial or industrial building from New Hamburg's days as a river port.^[1]

Like the nearby duplex Shay built, the warehouse (stable) is very ornamented for a vernacular industrial or related building from that period in the Poughkeepsie area.^[2] Unlike the duplex, built five years later, its basic style is Italianate, as evidenced by the blocky forms and arched windows. But the decoration, particularly the corbeled brick, suggests an attempt to interpret the Picturesque mode popularized in mid-century.^[1]