But though Tuxedo Park feels changeless, its boundaries fastened like a cummerbund, the world just beyond is pressing. The Related Companies is grading land in the town of Tuxedo for Phase 1 of Tuxedo Farms, a $900 million housing development planned for 1,195 units, from apartments to large luxury homes. And Michael Bruno, the founder of 1stdibs, an online antiques marketplace, who has taken to amassing real estate in the area, is converting properties in Tuxedo and the neighboring village of Sloatsburg into a hotel, food market and restaurants.
What You’ll Find
Walter L. Deane, a real estate broker in Tuxedo Park and Manhattan, said the village was open to all buyers and catered to a variety of budgets and architectural tastes. Though many houses are peaked and shingled in the style of Tuxedo Park’s founding architect, Bruce Price, some contemporary buildings can be spotted, too. The local architecture review board, which approves renovations and new construction, prefers that houses “blend into the landscape,” but is not dogmatic, Mr. Deane said. In fact, many Tuxedo Park homes are painted gray not because they blend into the surroundings but because surplus battleship paint was sold cheaply after World War II, he said.
The village has no commerce. A few businesses, including a sushi restaurant, convenience store and bank, are within walking distance of the main gate, as are a historic train station and post office. The nearest supermarket is about a 10-minute drive.
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What You’ll Pay
From March 2016 to February 2017, the median sales price of Tuxedo Park homes was $945,200, based on 24 properties sold. This figure represents a 19.6 percent increase over the median sales price of the previous 12 months, based on 17 properties sold.
As of April 4, 33 single-family homes drawn from multiple listings were advertised on Trulia. They ranged from a two-bedroom house at 20 Ridge Road, listed at $420,000, to a six-bedroom chateau-style house with horse stables at 122 Turtle Point Road, priced at $5.5 million.
Stijn van Nieuwerburgh, a professor of finance at New York University and a part-time Tuxedo Park resident, described the village as “very affordable as an alternative to the Hamptons or the commutable, nice suburbs of Westchester or Connecticut.” The area is “under-retailed, for sure,” he said, though that promises to change with new development. Referring to the abundance of black bears, deer and hawks in the surrounding area, which includes Harriman and Sterling Forest State Parks, he said, “Most people have to drive twice as far to encounter this much wildlife.”
The Vibe
On a brisk weekday morning in March, the forested hills ringing the navy blue lakes were dappled with houses with lots of character but no visible human life. Traffic was sparse on the village’s 26 miles of road. It was hard to imagine that the Woodbury Common outlet mall lay just 12 miles north.
Credit
James C. Pearson for The New York Times
The Schools
The George Grant Mason School, a public school in the town of Tuxedo, serves 140 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. On 2015-16 tests, 51 percent of students met standards in English versus 38 percent statewide; 41 percent met standards in math versus 42 percent statewide.
The George F. Baker High School, also in Tuxedo, is a public school with a science, technology, engineering and math focus that serves 119 students in seventh through 12th grades. The mean SAT scores of its 2017 graduating class are 564 in math and 559 in reading/writing, versus 529 and 531 statewide.
The Tuxedo Park School, on Mountain Farm Road, is a private school in a 1915 English-style manor house designed by Carrère & Hastings, the architects of the New York Public Library. It serves 210 students, from prekindergarten through ninth grade. Annual tuition starts at $13,325 for part-time preschool and runs to $34,500.
The Commute
New Jersey Transit offers train service from Penn Station to Tuxedo, with a change in Secaucus, N.J. The trip takes about an hour and costs $14 each way. Short Line buses run regularly from the Port Authority to the Route 17 and 17A park-and-ride in Tuxedo. The trip takes about an hour; a regular one-way fare is $13.75.
The History
In the hills of Harriman State Park, overlooking Tuxedo Park, is the Claudius Smith Den, a cave system used by a loyalist guerrilla leader and bandit in the Revolutionary War, who was captured and hanged in 1779.
