Jenkinstown Antiques Sign, photo by Debby Scott
Sandy Levy has been an art and antiquities dealer since he was a teenager with long hair, which means that he has been in the trade for over 50 years. His business, Jenkinstown Antiques, is located at 520 Route 32S, near Locust Lawn mansion. His home which is closeby, was built around 1726, and was originally the Freer property, part of a 1,500-acre patent. It is filled from floor to ceiling on both floors with period furniture and art. Over the years Sandy not only restored the house (when he had the money) but also acquired more land and eventually purchased a frame structure, Halleck House, of 1792, in Orange County that he had moved, piecemeal, to his property. That structure is now his shop. It, too, had to be rebuilt, and given that his father was the building inspector, he was given no breaks and had to adhere to code very strictly. Another building he moved to his property, close by the stone house, was an early, outdoor, summer kitchen, of which there are very few left in Ulster County. Sandy is an avid collector of everything antique of regional America, including glassware, ceramics, furniture—including kasten—quilts, basketry, signs, but especially paintings, and he continues to collect both for himself and for sale. Many of the artists whose work he displays and sells are Ulster County locals, including Julia McEntee Dillon, an excellent still-life artist, the landscape painters James Scott, Raphael Weed, and Dubois Fenelon Hasbrouck, among others, as well as more contemporary artists like Paul Meltsner, of Woodstock. More to the point, Sandy researches and writes extensively and also organizes art exhibitions. His catalogs include one devoted to the art of Julia Dillon and another is Paintings at Mohonk: Visions of Our Surroundings, a catalog of the 30 or so best works in the Mohonk Mountain House collection, with a guide to where every picture is located throughout the vast structure. Sandy has been an art dealer to the Smiley family for years, so it was natural for him to compile the catalog with Lou Petruzzelli, the finance director, and Pril Smiley, the art director and a direct descendant of Albert Smiley, the founder of Mohonk. For more information, go to jenkintownantiques.com, or drop by his booth at the annual Rhinebeck Art & Antique Fair to engage with this now bald but affable and fabulous raconteur. He always has quality items of interest and knows the history of every piece.
Jenkinstown Antiques is located at 520 Route 32 South. You can’t miss the sign, on the left, as you drive in from New Paltz, or on the right, if you’re coming from Gardiner.