RENSSELAERVILLE, NY • EST. 1924 Hilltown
commons
Stewarding collective curiosity for 100+ years through a protected commons in the hills of the Upper Hudson Valley.
We open our historic doors year-round to inquisitive minds seeking shared learning experiences and grounds for face-to-face connection.
RENSSELAERVILLE, NY • EST. 1924 Hilltown
commons
A campus for the curious in the hills of the Upper Hudson Valley.
• AT THE COMMONS • EXPAND YOUR CAPACITY FOR CURIOSITY
Our doors are open year-round to inquisitive minds seeking shared learning experiences and grounds for face-to-face connection. A campus with 100+ years of history, rooted in growing curious alongside others, offering many paths to participate in the commons.
A 'commons' is shared ground made fertile by all who show up and tend to it.
A place to gather and grow through the unknown and the profound.
An idea as old as the town square, still alive today in Upstate New York.
The oldest technology for change is a room full of people.
OUR COmmon GROUND
HILLTOWN COMMONS IS PROTECTED BY A PERMANENT CONSERVATION EASEMENT, HELD IN TRUST FOR THE PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES CURIOUS ENOUGH TO FIND IT. 
A century ago, in a post-World War I period of reckoning, this place began as a radical act, a living room thrown open to communities pulling apart at the seams. The founding instinct was simple: people gathering on shared ground can find common ground.
History has a way of repeating itself. The antidote remains the same.
Rooted in historic peace talks held in 1924, Hilltown Commons continues this tradition of tending — holding physical and intellectual space for the questions that define our time.
• ESTABLISHED 1924 | RE-TENDED 2024 •
• DEEP ROOTS •
TEND TO YOURSELF.Slow down over 90 acres of protected silence, bordered by dense forests and cascading waterfalls. Draw inspiration from those who have wandered here before, and allow curiosity to be your guide.
• EARTHLY DELIGHTS •
TEND TO EACH OTHER. Farm-fresh meals from local growers, made by our in-house chef and served at long tables alongside artful conversation. The kind of setting where meals turn into discussions, and everyone leaves nourished. All in curious company.
• STORIED GROUND •
TEND TO THE LAND.Five heritage residences, a 180-person theater, and a pub housed in the original Huyck family carriage house. Each space a different chapter of the same century-long story. Vintage wallpaper, sunlit decks, and hilltop views preserved and reimagined for the modern world.
Inquiring minds journey to this commons to move conversations out among the trees, bin front of a hearth, under wide-open skies, through re-wilded fields, and inside a cozy pub.
THE
COMMONS
IS CALLING
Participation keeps The Commons alive.
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Open-registration workshops and day conferences hosted by experts, artists, and community leaders. Access to grounds and farm-fresh meals is included.
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Community events ranging from film screenings to local fundraisers, pub nights, and live music. Open to all. Just show up.
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Overnight workshops and week-long retreats — full immersion in the land, the programming, and the characters of the Hilltowns. Stay on campus, tend to your work, and dine with us.
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Our flagship gathering. We bring together thinkers, practitioners, and curious minds who rarely share a room to sit with the hard questions in community.
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Foundational retreats and team off-sites for organizations with something to align, advance, or explore. Get your people in the same room on different land. Full and partial campus buyouts available by inquiry
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Exclusive bookings for weddings and milestone events on 90 acres of protected land.
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Artist residencies for writers, musicians, printmakers, and makers. Open applications.
OPEN FIELD
• WE ARE A NONPROFIT •As a 501(c)(3), every dollar has a destination. Here’s where it lands →
Tends to the
PROGRAMS
workshops, retreats, convenings, and artist residencies are offered at all-inclusive package rates that cover instruction, lodging, and farm-fresh meals. This qualifies as related educational income.
Tends to the
HOW WE (RE)GENERATE REVENUE
EDUCATIONAL INCOMEworkshops, retreats, convenings, and artist residencies are offered at all-inclusive package rates that cover instruction, lodging, and farm-fresh meals. This qualifies as related educational income.
PRIVATE EVENT INCOMEworkshops, retreats, convenings, and artist residencies are offered at all-inclusive package rates that cover instruction, lodging, and farm-fresh meals. This qualifies as related educational income.
COMMUNITY PUB NIGHT 
workshops, retreats, convenings, and artist residencies are offered at all-inclusive package rates that cover instruction, lodging, and farm-fresh meals. This qualifies as related educational income.
• HOW YOUR ATTENDANCE TENDS TO THE COMMONS •Land
workshops, retreats, convenings, and artist residencies are offered at all-inclusive package rates that cover instruction, lodging, and farm-fresh meals. This qualifies as related educational income.
Your attendance is an act of tending.
Tends to the
COMMUNITY
workshops, retreats, convenings, and artist residencies are offered at all-inclusive package rates that cover instruction, lodging, and farm-fresh meals. This qualifies as related educational income.
You're invited
to ponder, feast,
look to the stars,
discover, celebrate, cackle
feet on the earth,
head to the hills, and most of all
• FIND YOUR COMMON GROUND •
63 Huyck Road, Rensselaerville, New York
Upper Hudson Valley | Hilltown Region