Things to do / Travel Guide
The Catskills and the Hudson Valley is a great region in which to celebrate eccentric architecture. There are elaborate, opulent mansions, sculpture parks, fantastic castles, grand, though somewhat dilapidated, resort hotels, and antique avenues filled with tasteful buildings. In this region you'll find the old, the unconventional and off-beat, and the quaint. The buildings and structures do tell tales, and although they don't all have happy endings, they'll all leave you with a sense of wonder and mystery about the region.
Hudson Valley Estates
First you've got the mansions and other residences, which line the eastern side of the Hudson River and which, to varying extents, can all be called eccentric. They were mostly built in the 19th century by magnates, business leaders, artists, and writers who wanted a haven “out in the country.” Many former residences are fine examples of architectural efforts during the Gilded Age, in the second half of the 19th century. First mentioned are the Tarrytown lot of estates:
- In Tarrytown you'll find Sunnyside, Washington Irving's former abode, built in 1835. He said about it that it was “as full of angles and corners as an old cocked hat.” The town, located just north of Tarrytown, is actually named after Irving's made-up Sleepy Hollow, but it goes to show how much the author was influenced by the place and how much the place was influenced by the author. The house was built in the Dutch Plantation style, tweaked just a little bit to give it a Romantic air. Most of the objects and furniture within the house were Irving's own.
- There's also peerless Kykuit (pronounced “Kie-cut), built for the Rockefellers. Kykuit refers the house as well as to the 3,400 acres of building, landscape, forest, garden, and roads surrounding it. The central house is four stories high with two basement floors, built in the high Georgian style of the early 20th century.
The landscaping, which is the estate's original, carefully replaced over time, overlooks scenic vistas of the Hudson River.
Here are some other great not-to-be-missed estates of the Hudson Valley:
- Boscobel - Everyone talks about Boscobel, the Federal-style mansion originally built in 1804 in Crugers, New York. It was taken apart and rebuilt in Garrison in the early 20th century. Boscobel is filled with American-style art and antiques, and it is the site, on its lawn near the roses, of the annual summertime Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.
- The Roosevelt Estates - Springwood is where FDR was born, grew up, and lived most of his non-presidential years, and Val-Kill was Eleanor's personal home, built in the Dutch-Colonial style. Both residences contain many authentic articles from the Roosevelts' lives on display, and both are located a few miles north of Poughkeepsie in Hyde Park.
- Vanderbilt Mansion is considered by most people to be the most extravagant of all the Hudson Valley estates. This Neoclassical offering (looks a bit like the White House) was built in 1899, and guests will be awed by the lavishly-gilded ceilings and banisters, with the home containing virtually every luxury available at the time. Vanderbilt Mansion is located about two miles north of the Roosevelt Estates.
Hudson Valley Castles
One curious thing about the architecture in the Catskills and Hudson Valley region is that it seems lots of its former residents had a propensity for building castles. These buildings, some residences and some not, are replete with turrets, citadels - the works. Those that were never residences were built mostly for eccentric or artistic reasons. They all date back to the late-19th and early-20th centuries.
- Lyndhurst - Located in Tarrytown, this estate was owned by Jay Gould, the wealthy 19th century financier. This Gothic Revival-style masterpiece is replete with turrets and towers, making it one of the most fabulous estates of the Gilded Age. The interior is also more Gothic than the other Tarrytown estates, with narrow stone halls with high-vaulted ceilings. If there is one estate in this region that is at once both mystical and romantic, this is it. The estate is also surrounded by gardens and elaborate landscaping.
- Bannerman Castle - Built in the first decade of the 20th century, this tremendous Scottish-style castle is located on Pollepel Island, north of Cold Springs and opposite Cornwall-on-Hudson. Its original mandate was to store the weapons and armaments that Frank Bannerman VI had bought at government auctions. Unfortunately, a fire ravaged the island in 1969, rendering the whole site a ruin. While the castle cannot be visited, it can be viewed while driving on State Road 9D, or while boating on the surrounding water.
- Wing's Castle - This one-of-a-kind production is the life's work of artists/owners Peter and Toni Wing. They constructed their castle using only material they salvaged from antique buildings. From Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, it's open to visitors every Wednesday-Sunday. From September-December, it's open on weekends only. The hours are 12:00 p.m.- 4:30 p.m., and the premises are located in Millbrook, a few minutes east of Poughkeepsie on U.S. Highway 44.
www.dupontcastle.com/castles/wings.htm
- Wilderstein - This castle took two generations of the Suckley family to perfect. Once perfected, it boasted three floors, a multi-gabled attic, and a five-story-high tower granting views in all directions. The residence's interior, still preserved, was designed by none other than Joseph Tiffany, of stained-glass fame. The premises host events year-round. Wilderstein can be found in Rhinebeck, which is opposite the city of Kingston on the other side of the Hudson River.
- Olana - This 19th-century house was designed by Frederick Edwin Church, who belonged to the Hudson River School of American artists. It's got a huge four-story tower, and with all its geometric shapes, it looks like a decked-out modern Persian castle. The interior is filled with Church's collection: paintings and collectibles from his world travels. Olana is located a bit south of the city of Hudson, opposite the city of Catskill on the other side of the Hudson River; the premises are open year-round.
Historical Avenues in the Catskills and the Hudson Valley
There are two historical avenues in the region, one in the Hudson Valley and one in the Catskills.
The town of Hudson is located at the northernmost tip of the Hudson Valley. Warren Street is the main avenue, starting at the Hudson River and moving southeast. On Warren Street you'll find a very varied selection of architectural styles: in close proximity sits a Greek Revival-style mansion, a Queen Anne-style clapboard house, a Federal-style brick house, and over 30 other interesting city residences.
New Paltz is located a bit south of the Catskills, and it boasts “the oldest street in America with its original buildings.” This is Huguenot Street, so-named for the Huguenot refugees who settled the area from France. The Huguenots named their settlement Paltz after an area in Germany, Pfalz, where they lived before crossing the Atlantic in search of religious solace. The street is home to several old stone buildings, including the Abraham Hasbrouck House, built in 1692, which used to be the city center; the Bevier-Elting House built in 1698; and the Jean Jasbrouck House, with many of the original woodwork ornaments. The Bevier-Elting House is considered by the locals to be the best example of Colonial Dutch urban architecture.
Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
In Bard College, this Frank Gehry masterpiece was finished only in 2003. The New Yorker called the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts perhaps “the best small concert hall in the United States.” This prize hall is especially unique in that Gehry usually designs his sculpted edifices for cityscapes, while this one looks dramatic in its college setting. The architecture can be described as metallic and curvaceous, with the music emanating from its core at center stage.
Sculpture Parks in the Catskills and the Hudson Valley
There are two unique sculpture parks in the Catskills and the Hudson Valley region, one being a repository for various artists' work, the other displaying the work of one artist.
The former is Storm King Art Center, located on the Hudson Highlands, in between West Point and Cornwall-on-Hudson. This sculpture park, founded in 1960, is home to 120 permanent sculpture fixtures on 500 acres. What makes the place so unique is its setting: in the midst of forest, field, and lawn, the small sculptures peek out from under bushes, while the larger ones loom over you on top of hills or wind along the Hudson River. The core collection is by modern post-World War II masters such as Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, and Louise Nevelson. The whole premise of this park is the joining of art and nature, and no two visits are the same.
The latter is Opus 40, which, by the way, Rolling Stone magazine once called “the best outdoor concert venue in the Northeast.” Opus 40 is pretty spectacular in its own right, similar in plan to Storm King Art Center in attempting to combine nature with art. The sculpture park displays the work of a man by the name of Harvey Fite, who bought an old stone quarry near Saugerties and spent the rest of his life (he lived into his seventies) sculpting into its walls figures and designs, pools and terraces, bridges and ramps.
Catskill Resorts Architecture
The last of the great 19th-century Catskill resorts - the only one still functioning as a resort and the only one not a ruin or no longer there at all - is the Mohonk Mountain House and Preserve. The Mohonk, located in the heart of the Shawangunk mountains, actually looks a bit like a souped-up castle, with red-painted turrets and towers, and gables galore. The resort was originally built in 1869, and its present form dates back to 1910. The whole environment is steeped in style, as the resort includes a 100-year-old Scottish-style golf course, and a variety of gardens, including a Victorian maze. You can get to Mohonk by traveling out of New Paltz on Mountain Rest Road, and it's only a few minutes away.
The other grand resorts of the 19th century, most notably Catskill Mountain House, Grand Hotel, Hotel Kaaterskill, and Laurel House, are all no more. In 1950 a severe hurricane struck the area, and all attempts to rehabilitate the old giant resorts had to be shelved. They mostly crumbled by themselves or were bulldozed or burned in the 1960s.
Even Grossinger's, of a completely different era and culture, has been abandoned for about 20-odd years. All that is left are handfuls of postcards, and the beautiful solemn landscapes and overlooks they left in their wake.
These resorts, including (and at the forefront) the mammoth sized Concord Hotel, were designed in the flamboyant style of mid-20th century “fantasy” resorts, recycling some of the concepts of the previous art-deco era. One can see a genetic connection between resort designs in Miami Beach, those in the Catskills, and the designs of cruise ships of the era. These resorts were typified by the use of large open spaces on multiple levels, connected by flowing lines. Interconnecting rooms and buildings gave the resort-goer the feeling that the space was infinite. Scale was large - the hotel rooms were close to apartment-sized, with closets spaced for the multiple trunks visitors would bring. Individual dining rooms could fit thousands of people at a single sitting. Pools were Olympic-sized. The hotels were designed to be mini-cities, with entertainment spaces, sports, restaurants, commercial space, and in the case of Grossingers - even a post office and an airstrip.
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