Blog

By Ellen Shubart, Class of 2006

My husband and I experienced a week-long exploration of the Hudson River Valley. It was a fun trip – lots of architecture, lots of history, lots of gardens. If this appeals to you, try a short trip to the Lower Hudson River Valley, less than an hour from New York City.

It was interesting to note how different guides interpreted the many architectural gems we visited, including the information shared and how tourees were treated. We had good guides at most sites, but the best by far were from the National Park Service – our taxpayers’ money at work. These guides told stories of the people who lived in the buildings, rather than focusing on the furniture, a trait common at the National Trust houses we visited.

Even more remarkable was the printed literature the National Park Service passed out freely. Call me old-fashioned, but the printed brochures were fabulous in helping to understand the houses individually as well as in a group. And the maps on the back of the six-fold handouts helped plan the visits and navigate New York’s Rte. 9, the chosen route of exploration.

Two were of particular interest: “Landscapes and Gardens in the Hudson River Valley” and “Architectural Traditions in the Hudson River Valley.” The latter examines architecture styles that began with Dutch Huguenot influences, and evolved to the origins of the great estates and residential architecture including the Cottage and the Villa. The plethora of places to visit in the Hudson Valley is amazing – 34 sites in the Upper, Mid- and Lower Hudson Valley. We made it to seven sites in four days, and they were all “wows!”

Be sure to get the brochures to plan and enjoy your visit. Here’s our itinerary, from north to south:

• Olana, the home of Hudson River School painter Frederick E. Church that he created from his vision with architect Calvert Vaux. Not a traditionally styled home, it is a Persian-style castle in various shades of red and orange, a place of fantasy and imagination. The gardens provide the views that Church used in his paintings.

  

• The Martin van Buren Home: the house is a traditional Federalist style, added onto by his daughter and son-in-law. We went here for its history–van Buren’s role after he left the presidency and his involvement in the election of 1844. We’re just history nuts!

  

• Historic Huguenot Street: touted as the oldest continually inhabited street in America, the three residences and a church illustrate the brick homes of the Belgian (yes, not Dutch) Huguenots, topped off with huge gabled roofs to provide attic storage.

  

• Springwood, the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Roosevelt Presidential Library/Museum: The Italianate house was FDR’s birthplace and illustrates the local Dutch colonial style, especially in the outbuilding cottages. The Presidential Library is a museum, and its façade replicates the White House and is where FDR lived when he designed this, his own, and the first, presidential library.

  

• Locust Grove: the home of Samuel F. D. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. Designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis, the original Federal style home was made into a Tuscan villa with views of the river.

  

• Vanderbilt Mansion: a country house designed by McKim, Mead and White, constructed between 1895-1899 for the railroad baron and his family. The house is typically Beaux Arts in its symmetry, with added heavy ornamentation and classicism.

  

• Lyndhurst: the site of some scenes in the new streaming series “The Gilded Age,” this house reeks of that overly ornamental era. The house is considered the most significant extant Gothic Revival house in America, topped off with a five-story tower, all designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis. Here, too, the gardens and views of the river are fantastic.

  

Happy traveling – and wouldn’t it be great if we could get the Park Service to do similar inventorying and interpretation for important sites in the Midwest, around Lake Michigan?