Not my hometown, but still...

This from the Daily News:

If you want proof that architecture and houses can inspire people, real estate ­value and a reality television show, just head to Sharon Springs, N.Y., or tune in to “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” on Planet Green every Tuesday at 10 p.m.

The former upstate resort town blessed with healing mineral waters and crumbling mansions is front and center in the show, whose second season, premiering March 22, follows Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Dr. Brent Ridge, two city slickers who become farmers.

Sharon Springs, though, was popular long before the cameras rolled in. After years of abandonment, the village has experienced more than a decade of growth led by preservationists, house lovers and entrepreneurs, all charmed by rustic life in small-town America.

Take local real estate agent Michelle Curran. In 1993, she fell so in love with an 8,000-square-foot Italianate limestone mansion, built from 1850 to 1854, that she moved from Tampa to restore the grand home. Dr. John Gardner, the man credited with discovering the local healing waters, built the house.

“It’s true. I moved because I fell in love with a house and this village,” says Curran, who became an associate broker with Realty USA when she decided to live in the town year-round in 2003. “There’s a nine-hole abandoned golf course on the property that is a huge deer preserve now. I have a 60-foot porch that can hold 300 people and a bar. We have great parties in Sharon Springs, and we all love our history.”

Through the 19th century, Sharon Springs was one of the most popular summer towns in America, drawing some of the East Coast’s wealthiest families, who built limestone mansions, hotels, Victorian guesthouses, Greek Revival farmhouses, hunting cabins with outhouses and even a men’s club with views of the Adirondacks. The spas, in the basements of the hotels, catered to people looking for baths in white sulfur and magnesium, said to have restorative healing powers.

After the Great Depression, the town’s popularity crashed with America’s financial system. The spas became popular again in the 1960s, rediscovered by Russians from Brooklyn and Orthodox Jews attracted to a piece of the old country and low home prices. Housing also brought New Yorkers looking for deals, as low as $20,000 for old guesthouses.

Doug Plummer, an actor, and Garth Roberts, a Broadway pianist and entertainer, were driving through the town in the 1990s when they fell in love with the decaying structures. Twenty years later, they’re restoring their fourth building and starting their third business, a theater for the arts in an old community hall in the middle of the village.

“This town is contagious and addictive,” says Plummer, a town trustee who along with Roberts restored, owns and operates the American Hotel, where the bartender is the local mortician. “We bought our first house for $20,000, restored it and sold it for $27,000,” says Plummer. “The hotel was a dream project. Like the other buildings in this town, it was kind of glorious in its decay. The roof was caving in. It had no plumbing. We had to gut the entire interior to rebuild it.”

Today the hotel, with nine guest rooms, restaurant and bar, is a meeting place for locals and tourists who come in the summer for the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown or drive through.

Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge were on an apple-picking road trip when they discovered the town. Taken by its architecture and friendly vibe, they ended up spending the night at the American Hotel. Less than a month later, Curran sold them an 1802 mansion on 60 acres built by a local merchant named Beekman. They paid $950,000 for the renovated Federal-Georgian home. The village and farm inspired the two to start a business focusing on homegrown products and artisans.

“A day after we moved in we got a note in our mailbox from Farmer John next door saying he needed to find a new home for himself and his 80 goats,” says Kilmer-Purcell, an author and New York City-based advertising executive whose day job seems to be bankrolling the farm project as the second season kicks off. “How can you say no to that? We just went with it.”

Beekman 1802, their business named after the house, sells soap, cheese, seeds and other goods produced on the farm or made by local craftsmen. The initial marketing campaign included an Internet newsletter. One recipient was the president and general manager of Planet Green, Laura Michalchyshyn.

She thought their story, two city boys buying a farm and starting a business, would make great television.

After a meeting, “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” was born.

“Everything in this town happened by accident for us,” Kilmer-Purcell says. “Buying a house, the goats and the television show. But it’s great for our business and the village.”

“Great” is an understatement. Since the Beekman Boys arrived, real estate values have jumped 11%, and Curran reports receiving an average 40% more calls as a direct result of the show. She recently sold a $500,000 estate with a men’s-club casino on the property to two California women who saw the town on television. They plan to turn the property into a senior living center and spa with an eye on other structures nearby for similar purposes.

“There were over 60 hotels in this town at one time, so there is a lot to play with here,” says Plummer, who says winter tourism has increased since the show aired. “We love it when someone new comes. Sharon Springs is a very welcoming and diverse place. We have gays, Russians, Orthodox Jews and artists, and everyone has a good time with each other. What’s great about Sharon Springs and small-time life is that if you can dream it up, you can achieve it. Say you want to make the third Tuesday of every month Pink Armadillo Day? If you can put it together, get it paid for and clean it up, you can make it happen.”

Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge are in the middle of that right now. Their business has a store on Main St. in Sharon Springs. The farm raises goats, two pigs, some chickens, two rare black sheep from New Zealand and Polka Spot, which Kilmer-Purcell calls “the Naomi Campbell of llamas” with an attitude and over 2,000 Twitter followers. (After watching the show, it’s clear why. She’s funny.)

The two helped create three festivals, including a farm-to-table event called Harvest Festival that last September drew 5,000-plus people to the town, which has a population of 547.

“We made it a point to include the entire community when we created the festival,” says Ridge, a former vice president of Healthy Living with Martha Stewart Omnimedia (Stewart appears on the show from time to time). “Everything we do here is collaborative. We want to drive as much traffic to the village as we can. One thing with a tight community is that everyone works really hard every day to become successful. You have to support each other to survive and thrive.”

Curran says the town has a wide range of real estate available. Of the 21 houses sold last year in and around the village, 10 cost under $100,000. A small hunting lodge with a barn and two outhouses is available for $47,000. A farmhouse on an acre of land with two barns that would make a perfect bed-and-breakfast is on the market for $220,000.

Several abandoned hotels ­housing the mineral springs and spas were purchased in 2005 by South Korean investors who have done nothing to open or improve the properties. They remain closed, awaiting investment or another buyer.

“I think as the economy rebounds the Koreans will do something,” says Plummer, noting the popularity of Korean spas in Flushing. “If they don’t, I am sure plenty of people would be interested. I also think there should be some kind of municipal ownership like in Saratoga, where many of the springs are available for public use. This is a community resource that is not being used.”

And how about television crews and cameras? Do they get in the way of good old-fashioned village life?

“Brent and Josh are incredible marketers who came at just right the time,” says Plummer. “Those guys don’t throw the trash out without a smart idea coming to them. They injected new energy at a time we really needed it. Plus, we’ll be here long after the cameras have gone, and so will they. It’s hard to leave this place.”