Red Hill Fire Observation Station
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Red Hill Fire Observation Station
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Fire tower in 2008
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| Location | Denning, New York |
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| Nearest city | Kingston, New York |
| Coordinates | 41°55′25″N 74°31′02″W / 41.92361°N 74.51722°WCoordinates: 41°55′25″N 74°31′02″W / 41.92361°N 74.51722°W |
| Built | 1920 |
| Architect | Aermotor Corp. |
| MPS | Fire Observation Stations of New York State Forest Preserve MPS |
| NRHP Reference # | 01001030 |
| Added to NRHP | 2001 |
The Red Hill Fire Observation Station consists of a fire lookout tower, cabin and pit privy located on the summit of Red Hill, a 2,990-foot (910 m) Catskill Mountain peak in Denning, New York, United States. It is the southernmost fire tower in the Catskill Park.
One of the last state towers built, in 1920, it filled a missing link in the Catskills' forest fire detection network. Except for a few brief periods of closure, observers working for the state conservation agencies manned the tower through 1990, making it the last fire tower closed in the Catskills. The abandoned tower and its views of the region remained a popular destination for local hikers, and it was slated to be torn down in accordance with state policy prohibiting nonessential structures on Forest Preserve land. Preservationists and forest historians campaigned to save and restore it and four other Catskill fire towers, and in the early 21st century they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Red Hill's observer's cabin, included as part of the listing, is one of the oldest such buildings in New York.
A short trail was constructed to provide access to hikers, since the road used by the observers was later closed by the private landowner. Hikers continue to climb the peak and tower for its views of the Catskill High Peaks to the north.
The tower is a 60-foot (18 m) high steel frame Aermotor structure, anchored by bolts into the exposed bedrock, with a glazed steel cab on top reached by an eight-flight staircase. It is located in a grassy clearing of roughly 500 square feet (46 m2), just east of the mountain's summit, along a narrow ridge. At the clearing's west end, the upper end of the trail and the mountain's true summit, is the rustic one-room cabin where observers lived during their shifts in the tower. Just to its north is a small wooden privy. Two picnic tables are in the area between the cabin and the tower.
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