Exploring Historic Grandma Moses Country

Join me in exploring historic Grandma Moses sites in Upstate New York. As you probably know, she is a famed folk artist, discovered by an art agent when she was 78 years young!

She spent much of her life in the Hoosick Valley, where several sites related to her can be discovered. My sweet husband and I took a hop, skip, and a jump over to hunt down these locations in the towns of Hoosick Falls and Eagle Bridge.

1. Grandma Moses Mural

The first landmark we located was a 30′ x 50′ mural, painted on the side of a Route 22 building in Hoosick Falls. It’s based on a Grandma Moses’ original, Wagon Repair Shop.

Originally painted in 1983 by three artists, one of the artists, Roger Wheeden, repainted it in 1993.

2. Grandma Moses Gravesite

Next, we tracked down Grandma Moses’ gravesite at the Maple Grove New Cemetery, just outside of Hoosick Falls on Main Street.

She rests up on a hill, overlooking her beloved Hoosick Valley. The round emblems indicate that she was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Right near the headstone, we found this marker, which reads: Anna Mary Robertson Moses, Grandma Moses, Her primitive paintings inspired the spirit and preserved the scene of a vanishing countryside.

A springtime view of the valley from Grandma’s gravesite.

3. Grandma Moses Homesite

From the cemetery, we determined to find her home in Eagle Bridge, where she painted and where she ultimately died in 1961 at the age of 101.

After driving from Hoosick Falls to Eagle Bridge on Route 22 for about five miles, one takes a left onto Grandma Moses Road. We found her homestead down the road a bit and on the right.

Grandma Moses and her husband Thomas had married in 1887, honeymooned in the south, and stayed to raise their children there in Virginia.

But after twenty years, they and their five living children, moved back to the Hoosick Valley. They purchased the home you see above in 1905, and named it Mt. Nebo. It refers to a mountain in the Bible where Moses catches a glimpse of the Promised Land.

The historical marker outside the home.

Her great-grandson, Will, makes Mt. Nebo his home and is a folk artist in his own right.

An old marker on the signpost.

One final photograph: weathered fencing and barbed wire loosely surrounding the Grandma Moses’ homestead.

With our three Grandma Moses sites knocked out of the ball park, we enjoyed a leisurely ride home. Much of the country-side remains unspoiled, just as Grandma M. depicted in her paintings. Green fields dotted with barns and silos and cows chewing cud.

And handsome old barns.

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 Final Thoughts

If you love a nice drive in the countryside and are a Grandma Moses fan, I highly recommend this trip, which can be accomplished in just a couple of hours when driving from the Albany area.

I want to mention two shops in Hoosick Falls that you’ll want to check out to make this a full day excursion: Rustic Relics & Passtimes and The Treasure Hut Consignment.

Bye for now,

I’d love it if you’d pin this to your fave Pinterest board!