Pillar of New York Spotlight: Elizabeth & Ethan Finkelstein / Cheap Old Houses

The Preservation League of NYS was honored to recognize Elizabeth & Ethan Finkelstein with a 2022 Pillar of New York Award. Learn more: www.preservenys.org/blog/pill...
Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein scour national real estate listings searching for historic homes for sale under $150K. They hand-pick the most impressive of the bunch and post them to @cheapoldhouses, their Instagram page with an audience of more than 1.7 million old house enthusiasts. Cheap Old Houses became a hit TV show on HGTV/Discovery + in 2021. Ethan is the founder of Color + Information, a marketing firm in Brooklyn. Elizabeth, who grew up in an 1850s house her parents restored, has a Master’s Degree in historic preservation and a career working as a researcher, writer, educator, and nonprofit professional. They are old house lovers who are hard at work restoring one of their own in upstate New York - and they have opened countless people’s eyes to the power of preservation and the beauty of living in an old house.

[@GoldenOliver]

Hello - I wanted to say thank you for preserving this house. My ancestors lived in that house. My six times great granduncle was Alexander McNaughton who was born on the Isle of Islay in Scotland. He traveled to NY in 1738 with a number of other Scottish Highlanders looking for a new start. He was instrumental in the formation of the Argyle Patent lands and was the owner of Lot 32 which includes this house and at that time 600 acres. Alexander McNaughton was the justice of the peace for Argyle and played an important role during his life. He issued an arrest warrant for Ethan Allen during the Revolutionary War. I would love to visit the home and graveyard sometime. I live in Ohio and have traced my ancestors back to this house and all the way back to Scotland. Bravo to you for saving this part of my history and heritage. Brian Reed.