Bayhorse Gazebos & Barns is proud to be the presenting sponsor for Breast Cancer Awareness Month with Townsquare Media.
Bayhorse Gazebos & Barns has offered a stunning line of quality, Amish-made sheds, gazebos, horse barns, garages and other outdoor buildings and furniture since 1989. We sell direct from our 5-acre location in Red Hook, NY, convenient to Dutchess, Columbia, Ulster, Putnam, and Westchester counties in New York and the Hudson Valley. We're a fairly short drive from Western parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts and we're worth the trip.
Hi, my name is Gerry Thorpe. I am a born and raised product of Dutchess County, New York. I was raised in a large Irish Catholic family. We had a lot of mouths to feed and money was tight. Out of necessity my siblings and I became quite proficient at repairing and building things. I grew up primarily in the town of Hyde Park, N.Y, the birthplace of Franklin D. Roosevelt. I have been active in the community since my early years as a Scout and Little Leaguer. I attended F.D. Roosevelt High school and Dutchess Community College. After finishing school I had to decide which career path to choose; become a math teacher and continue my education or use my tradesman-like abilities and pursue some type of career in rehabilitating buildings and artifacts similar to those that I had been repairing my whole life. Only now maybe I could actually get paid for it.
In 1977, my family established and operated a wood restoration company known as TNT Furniture Strippers, which operated in Hyde Park for 35 years. We specialized in furniture restoration and became very well known for our skills of on-site rehabilitation of local historic sites and beautiful homes representative of an era of a wealthy population that settled in our area. Not only did we restore the homes of the Roosevelts and Vanderbilts, but many other early 18th century mansions and homes in our region. We also either built or restored country homes for many celebrities and leaders of corporate America.
Having been brought up in a very hands-on and fairly strict home, I was not a stranger to hard work and soon learned the value of repairing an item instead of disposing of it. I hold myself to a high moral and work ethic. My religious beliefs are very strong and also very private. My work ethics are very similar to those of a much simpler and more humble way of life. I rise with the sun and finish my day long after it sets. God, family and work. It’s the simple formula by which I live.
Why do I tell you all this? Well after 30 years of backbreaking woodworking, I decided it was time to start a new career. I have always admired the Amish way of life. I found that it was very similar to the life I desired to live. One Saturday afternoon I decided that I would go see an old friend and his shed business. As chance would have it, everything he sold was Amish-made. Divine intervention? We talked for hours and by the end of our conversation I knew I had found a new home. Woodworking and building construction, along with old-school work ethics and beliefs. The next thing you know I was selling sheds, then managing the business, and before long buying it.
I still live in Dutchess County. I am blessed to share my life with my 2 children, Mitch and Chelsea, my two grandchildren and my amazing wife Carla, who recently retired after working in the health care industry for 38 years. We have always been active in our community from coaching sports to PTA and from Scouting to church activities. You name it, we joined it.
When you choose Bayhorse, you are not only choosing a building and the quality with which it is built. You are also choosing a company owned and operated by a local businessman and possibly a neighbor that believes a handshake and a smile still personify that old time contract.