The Snyder Estate Natural Cement Historic District is located in the Town of Rosendale, New York, United States.

NY 213 runs through the lower portion of the district, paralleling the dry bed of the Delaware and Hudson Canal.

Within the district's bounds are 122 contributing properties representing what remains of five plants that produced Rosendale cement, and the homes and dependencies of the Snyder family, who originally owned the land.

An old Wallkill Valley Railroad siding runs from there to the northeast corner near where it once joined the main line at today's Binnewater Historic District.

Natural cement production began almost immediately after its discovery inside district bounds by James McEntee, an engineer on the D&H canal construction project in 1825.

Crews excavating the area a short while later found large deposits of dolostone containing an ideal amount of clay minerals that, once pulverized and mixed, could be turned into natural cement without additives.

He courted buyers for large, high-profile government projects like New York City's Croton Aqueduct and the Brooklyn Navy Yard docks.

[1] The younger Beach took advantage of the recently constructed Wallkill Valley Railroad and its connections to the New York Central network as a way to get product to market, building a siding to the plant.

But the development of the cheaper Portland cement during that period eventually toppled the Rosendale variety, whose market share dropped 90% in the first decade of the 20th century.

He was able to continue production on a reduced scale through the 1920s, and later in that decade attracted the interest of an investor from Cleveland named Kling, who leased a portion of the property from Snyder and started the Interstate Cement Company.

This blend was particularly suited to highways, then being built at a great pace everywhere due to the combination of New Deal public works projects and increasing automobile use.

Around the same time, chemists developed an additive to Portland cement which eliminated the need for the Rosendale mix, and cut costs even further.

[1] The Century House Historical Society (CHHS) acquired the 19 acres (7.7 ha) around the eponymous 1809 building where Jacob Lowe Snyder lived at the time of the canal's construction.

In 2004 Edison Coatings, Inc., of Plainville, Connecticut, trademarked the brand Rosendale Natural Cement Products and began offering an authentic, historically accurate replacement.

The Century House Historical Society(CHHS) operates the site as a museum that is open to the public on Sunday afternoons in the summer season.

[8] Jacob Lowe Snyder's 1809 frame house, renovated in the 1940s, is the core of the CHHS property and the oldest building in the district.

This drastic exterior redesign did not cost the house its historic status as its original framing and interior layout remain intact.

There is a waste weir next to it, and just west of Binnewater Road is a reservoir that was used to keep the canal full during dry stretches.