Part 2 - Gokey Road, From Nicholville To Dickinson Center

I passed a sign saying I'd left St. Lawrence County and entered Franklin County.  But I was still on Gokey Road, so I kept driving, photographing nice rural homes beneath big trees:

Another frozen brook:

And a classic farm house:

This outbuilding had lots of firewood and big logs for making more firewood. And two old vehicles:

A shed with a snow plow and steel tank of some sort. Notice that the woods were everywhere, surrounding and backing up all human structures:

This rambling home and outbuildings looked all set for winter:

And then, to my surprise, I passed a baseball field and playground equipment. It seemed odd, given the extremely rural nature of the road:

But then I passed a sign saying I was entering the village of Dickinson Center. The houses became much more frequent:

Indeed, I'd left the rural landscape and entered the village:

Dickinson Center is an attractive little hamlet, notable in part for its isolation, far from any other settlements:

The Deer River passed through the town and helped paint a pretty picture of a snowy New England village:

I snapped a quick shot of these lovely old sheds before putting my camera away and heading for home. My driving tour was over:

Dickinson Center, New York - Part 3

I continued my driving tour of Dickinson Center and passed this old church - or had it been a school house? The windows were boarded up, so apparently it was no longer used at all:

And more attractive country homes set back in the pines:

And a similar home with comfortable chairs on comfortable porches from which to watch nature and the occasional car drive by:

There was no real business district, but I did stop at the DC Mini Mart (DC, I assumed, stood for Dickinson Center). In spite of the big "Open" flag, however, it wasn't. The screen door was open and swinging in the wind:

This old farm house probably had a barn out back at one time:

This house still had its barn, albeit a small one:

And someone had built a rather big, fancy, modern home - which helped confirm my belief that Dickinson Center had become a bedroom town for people with good paying jobs in Malone, people who enjoy gracious country living:

Dickinson Center is a hamlet inside the town of Dickinson, and I passed by the town offices and highway garage:

I came to a section of open farm fields atop a hill from which I could see so far that I guessed I was seeing Canada off in the distance:

I began passing real, old fashioned working farms:

It appeared that an Amish family or two owned those hilltop farms. This garage/barn had two Amish buggies, one inside and one with a horse all harnessed in place waiting just outside the door:

And my last photo was of an Amish horse in a field atop the hill standing by old, abandoned farm equipment which had apparently been abandoned there before the Amish bought the farm. But I'd had a long day and old Winky and Wally were waiting for me back home. So I turned the car in that direction and headed back home to spend the night:

Dickinson Center, New York - Part 2

I continued my driving tour of Dickinson Center, finding it to be surprisingly pleasant and livable:

There were town type houses and old farm houses with barns:

Houses with former carriage houses now used as garages:

Lots of front porches:

Big, expensive homes and more economical homes:

As I passed into more farm country, I stopped to say "Howdy" to these cattle (and one horse) in a field alongside the road:

And the front yards became bigger as things got more rural. I'm guessing that Dickinson Center is a sort of bedroom town for people with good jobs in Malone, just 20 miles to the east (and there'd certainly be no traffic jams to contend with on that commute!):

Another lovely old barn, soon to be only a memory:

This interesting home must have been a church at one time:

And this town type building may have housed a general store some time long ago:

I passed nice homes all decorated for Christmas:

Lots of big trees shading country homes. But Dickinson Center was proving to be so much more than I'd expected that I continued driving and snapping pictures. I'll post more of them tomorrow:

Dickinson Center, New York - Part 1

I was on my way home from hiking the Red Dot Trail with my five youngest dogs when I decided to make a detour and explore the little town of Dickinson Center. It's quite near me, but just over the line in Franklin County and on county roads, where I'd so far had no reason to travel:

And I was surprised to discover that such a nice (and sizable) village flourished so far from bigger cities and from state highways. But there it was, an old fashioned rural town which looked entirely livable and totally pleasant:

I thought this was a home when I snapped the photo but now, looking again, I wonder if it might have been doctors' offices or something. Hmmmmm:

This home was for sale. I checked it out and it was listed for $74,900. It had three bedrooms, one bath and .58 acres. That's a higher price than I'd have expected, so perhaps life in Dickinson Center is so pleasant that local people find it highly desirable:

This pleasing home still had Halloween pumpkins on the front stoop. They must have been fairly rotten by then, but I didn't get close enough to look:

A very nice front porch:

Set close to the woods:

Up on a hill, with the front porch now totally enclosed against the rugged winter weather:

A stately old home with what appeared to me to have been a carriage house converted into living space:

And a very elegant brick home:

I thought the wagon wheels gave this home a western look:

The Dickinson Center Post Office and Fire Department. See, I told you this was a substantial town, not just a couple of old farm houses in the middle of nowhere. But I took even more photos and will post them tomorrow. Stay tuned: