Montgomery Place, now Bard College: The Montgomery Place Campus, near
Barrytown, New York
Barrytown is a hamlet (and census-designated place) within the town of Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is within the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and contains four notable Hudson River V ...
, United States, is an early 19th-century
estate that has been designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
. It is also a
contributing property to the
Hudson River Historic District
The Hudson River Historic District, also known as Hudson River Heritage Historic District, is the largest Federally designated district on the mainland of the contiguous United States.The Nantucket Historic District includes all of the island of ...
, itself a National Historic Landmark.
It is a
Federal
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
-style house, with expansion designed by architect
Alexander Jackson Davis
Alexander Jackson Davis, or A. J. Davis (July 24, 1803 – January 14, 1892), was an American architect, known particularly for his association with the Gothic Revival style.
Education
Davis was born in New York City and studied at ...
.
It reflects the tastes of a younger, post-
Revolutionary generation of wealthy landowners in the
Livingston family
The Livingston family of New York is a prominent family that migrated from Scotland to the Dutch Republic, and then to the Province of New York in the 17th century. Descended from the 4th Lord Livingston, its members included signers of the Unit ...
who were beginning to be influenced by French trends in home design, moving beyond the strictly English models exemplified by
Clermont Manor
The Clermont State Historic Site, also known as the Clermont estate, the Clermont Manor or just Clermont, is a New York State Historic Site in southwestern Columbia County, New York, United States. It protects
the former estate of the Livingston ...
a short distance up the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
. It is the only
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...
estate house from this era that survives intact, and Davis's only surviving neoclassical country house.
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–5 ...
praised the
landscapes
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...
of the estate, work he had informally consulted on that was not completed in its final form until almost the mid-20th century. The southern of the estate, which he called the Wilderness and is today known as the South Woods, is the oldest oak forest in the Hudson Valley.
It has grown to , and includes many outbuildings. A network of trails and paths connects them and offers both quiet wooded tracts and views of the river and
Catskill Mountains.
The estate was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1975. Ten years later, the Livingston descendants sold it to
Historic Hudson Valley
Historic Hudson Valley is a not-for-profit educational and historic preservation organization headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. The organization runs tours and events at five historic properties in Westchester County, in the lower Hudson Valley ...
, a regional historic preservation group.
The district was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990, and Montgomery Place received that designation itself in 1992.
In January 2016,
Bard College
Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark.
Founded in 1860, ...
purchased the estate from
Historic Hudson Valley
Historic Hudson Valley is a not-for-profit educational and historic preservation organization headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. The organization runs tours and events at five historic properties in Westchester County, in the lower Hudson Valley ...
. Montgomery Place is located on Annandale Road near Barrytown, just off
NY 9G. Montgomery Place grounds are open from dawn to dusk year-round. Mansion tours are available seasonally.
Property
The estate is bounded on the east by Annandale Road, on the north by the
Saw Kill and the west by the river. A tree-lined driveway from the road leads west to a visitor center and parking lot next to an orchard. From there it is short walk through a grove of trees to an open lawn in front of the main house, atop a bluff overlooking the river and the
Catskill Escarpment
The Catskill Escarpment, often referred to locally as just the Escarpment or the Great Wall of Manitou, and known as the Catskill Front to geologists, is the range forming the northeastern corner of the Catskill Mountains in Greene and Ulster cou ...
across it in the distance.
Five of the 22 buildings, structures and sites identified on the estate have been listed as
contributing resources
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...
to its historic character. These are the main house, three other Davis-designed buildings and the surviving landscaping.
Main house
The house itself is a two-and-half-story five-by-four-
bay building
sided in
stucco over rubble stone, with two
frame
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
*Framing (con ...
wings on the north and south. The latter was originally
sanded to give it a stonier appearance. A
veranda
A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure.
Although the form ''vera ...
is on the west (rear) elevation. The metallic
hipped roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
is pierced by two pairs of brick chimneys on the sides.
All
facades are heavily
decorated.
Swags are on all four chimneys, and
balustrades rim most of the roof lines. A central pier on the east above the main entrance is topped with an urn, flanked by wreathed balustrades, a
cornice and
frieze
In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
with
triglyph
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...
s and
metope
In classical architecture, a metope (μετόπη) is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a bu ...
-ornamented medallions. The double-doored main entrance is flanked by
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s and topped with a fanlight and ornate
keystone. It is sheltered by a semicircular
portico supported by
fluted
Fluting may refer to:
*Fluting (architecture)
* Fluting (firearms)
* Fluting (geology)
* Fluting (glacial)
*Fluting (paper)
Arts, entertainment, and media
*Fluting on the Hump
''Fluting on the Hump'' is the first album by avant-garde band Kin ...
Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to:
*Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible:
**First Epistle to the Corinthians
**Second Epistle to the Corinthians
**Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox)
*A demonym relating to ...
columns.
A similar portico adorns the rear, with its balustrade also topped by urns. On the wings flat pilasters support a frieze, with columns on the semi octagonal south wing creating an
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
.
The main entrance leads into a rectangular hall with doors leading to the two
parlor
A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necess ...
s on either side. It is partly divided by a segmental arch supported by two tapered wooden columns. The library is to the north, with a stair hallway on the south. Much of the decorative woodwork is original.
Outbuildings
Five outbuildings, most of them built around a garden, are in the nearest cluster, south and southwest of the main house. These include the shingle-sided Lodge and its board-and-
batten
A batten is most commonly a strip of solid material, historically wood but can also be of plastic, metal, or fiberglass. Battens are variously used in construction, sailing, and other fields.
In the lighting industry, battens refer to linea ...
shed, the
clapboard
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...
-sided Court, a
wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...
greenhouse, and the coach house. This last building is the only outbuilding visible from the main house. It is a flushboard-sided one-and-a-half-story frame house with cross-
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d roof topped by a polygonal
cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, fro ...
. Pilasters mark the corners as well as the flanks of the main building. The interior contains much of the original woodwork.
To the east, close to the road, is the barn complex. It consists of an 1861 barn along with frame structures like the farm office and storage sheds, along with an octagonal stone
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
building. The board-and-batten farmhouse features a cross-gabled roof and a triple
Palladian-style window on the rear.
A group of cottages is located just downhill from the farmhouse. Most are simple frame structures, but one, the Swiss Cottage, was designed by Davis. It features a low-sloping truncated-gabled roof with
vergeboard
Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...
on the roofline and
balconies
A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor.
Types
The traditional Maltese balcony is ...
on the rear. The Thompson House also has a dentilled and
bracketed cornice.
There are some other isolated outbuildings elsewhere, mostly modern, such as the visitors' center. A cement power station is at the creek mouth, with dams. Some small 20th century cottages are scattered in the orchards. Some buildings described by past visitors to the estate, such as the conservatory, are no longer extant.
Landscapes
The north and south sections of the property, known as the North and South Woods, remain heavily wooded. The South Woods, approximately in size, is the oldest oak forest in the Hudson Valley. The North Woods slopes down to the ravine the Saw Kill flows through. Winding paths and trails lead through both wooded tracts. In the North Woods they lead to a waterfall; in the South Woods to the river's edge.
On the east are the property's orchards, leased and operated by Montgomery Place Orchards. On the farm, over 60 different varieties of apple and pear trees are planted and harvested as well as berries, vegetables, grapes and peaches. Annandale Atomic hard cider is also now produced on the farm from early American and English varietal apples. The produce is sold at th
Montgomery Place Orchardsmarket.
Black locust
''Robinia pseudoacacia'', commonly known in its native territory as black locust, is a medium-sized hardwood deciduous tree, belonging to the tribe Robinieae of the legume family Fabaceae. It is endemic to a few small areas of the United States ...
trees line the unpaved
allée
In landscaping, an avenue (from the French), alameda (from the Portuguese and Spanish), or allée (from the French), is traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side, which is used, as its L ...
and surround the lawn of the main house. The lawn on the west of the house slopes down to a reflecting pond at the edge of the wooded shore.
History
Archaeological investigations on the property have revealed evidence of
Native American use as a seasonal hunting ground at least 5,000 years ago. These investigations have continued and the area's historic designation reflects its potential in this area as well.
[Historic Hudson Valley brochure available at visitor's center.]
After
European settlement in the 18th century, the
Saw Kill was used for various mills. Janet Livingston Montgomery purchased from Abraham Van Benthuysen in the late 1770s, shortly after the death of her husband, General
Richard Montgomery, at the
Battle of Quebec. The couple had been living in nearby
Rhinebeck at the time, where they were building their
Grasmere estate, and she moved into that after the
Revolutionary War.
She had plans for a
Federal style mansion on the riverfront property drawn up and hired a local builder. Naming the house Chateau de Montgomery after her late husband, she moved in after it was completed in 1805. With tree samples her friends sent her from many places near and distant, she established a working farm on the property, employing many slaves and freemen. She lived there until her death in 1828, when the property was bequeathed to her brother.
Edward Livingston
Edward Livingston (May 28, 1764May 23, 1836) was an American jurist and statesman. He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. Livingston represented both ...
had summered there with his wife Louise while he was living in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, where he had moved after a scandal cost him his jobs as U.S. Attorney for New York and
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
of the city. He had returned to New York and was serving in the
House when his sister died. Subsequently, he was chosen a
Senator and later became the 11th
Secretary of State, then as
ambassador to France before leaving public service in 1835. They renamed the estate Montgomery Place.
He died the next year, leaving the house to his wife Louise. In 1844 she hired
Alexander Jackson Davis
Alexander Jackson Davis, or A. J. Davis (July 24, 1803 – January 14, 1892), was an American architect, known particularly for his association with the Gothic Revival style.
Education
Davis was born in New York City and studied at ...
to convert the stately mansion into a more ornate villa, in keeping with the era's emerging
Romantic sensibilities. The two wings and exterior decoration were added at this time. A colonnade on the front entry, the only ornament on the original house, was moved to the interior, one of the only changes to Janet Livingston's original plan.
With the informal help of
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–5 ...
, a friend of Louise's and mentor to Davis, she began developing the landscapes. Her daughter Cora Barton worked with the architect on designing a garden and conservatory. Davis also drew up plans for outbuildings on the estate.
In 1860, upon Louise's death, Cora and her husband hired Davis again to actually build some of the earlier outbuildings. These were the Coach House, Swiss Cottage and farmhouse. They also extended the landscaping. These were part of their overall intent to make the house and its "pleasure grounds" more separate and distinct from the farming operations, which they also began to reduce in scope.
From Cora's relatives it eventually passed to another Livingston descendant, John Ross Delafield, in 1921. He added modern heating and plumbing to the main house. He and his wife,
Violetta White Delafield
Violetta White Delafield, ''née'' Violetta Susan Elizabeth White, (1875–1949) was an American botanist, mycologist, scientific illustrator and horticulturist. (p. 83)
Early life
Violetta Susan White was born in Florence, Italy to expatria ...
, made the last major additions to the property by extending the landscaping and adding small gardens to it in the years before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
After his death in 1964, his son John White Delafield and his wife moved in. They established two corporations to own and operate the property.
In 1975 it was listed on the Register. Eleven years later it was sold for $3 million to
Sleepy Hollow Restorations, which later renamed itself
Historic Hudson Valley
Historic Hudson Valley is a not-for-profit educational and historic preservation organization headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. The organization runs tours and events at five historic properties in Westchester County, in the lower Hudson Valley ...
. After a five-year and $3 million restoration, the house
was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.
Bard College
Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark.
Founded in 1860, ...
purchased the property in 2016.
Aesthetics
Janet Livingston's original home reflected the tastes of its era. She and her family derived most of their wealth and prestige from agriculture, leasing lands to
tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...
s. Accordingly, their own homes often sat on high ground where they could view their holdings, which in the Livingston family's case included, at that time, portions of the Catskills across the river. The rectilinear forms of the
Federal
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
and
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
styles established their authority and dominance of the land.
In the second quarter of the 19th century this began to change.
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–5 ...
of nearby
Newburgh championed villa and cottage-style houses in the styles that later came to be known as
Carpenter Gothic
Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures ...
and
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...
. These were smaller structures, generally frame, that were topped by steeply
pitched, often cross-gabled, roofs with decorated cornices that were intended to harmonize with surrounding natural features, giving the impression of a comfortable place to live. His pattern books sold widely and were used for many houses all over the growing nation.
Janet's descendants called on Downing's friend
Alexander Jackson Davis
Alexander Jackson Davis, or A. J. Davis (July 24, 1803 – January 14, 1892), was an American architect, known particularly for his association with the Gothic Revival style.
Education
Davis was born in New York City and studied at ...
to expand and renovate the house into a more classically inspired villa over a period of 20 years. He used curved forms in the balustrades and wings to offset the strong vertical lines of the existing building. The arcaded pavilion makes the
veranda
A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure.
Although the form ''vera ...
common on many mid-19th century houses into a wing of its own. Textures were added to the surface in the abundant decorations, many using floral motifs. All these features link the house more firmly to its surrounding landscape. Davis scholar Jane Davies calls it his finest country house.
The farmhouse, too, shows Davis's variations on a popular Downing pattern, "Bracketed Cottage with Veranda", from the posthumously published ''The Architecture of Country Houses''. Davis updated it to the
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...
style more popular at that time, adding the Palladian-style window.
Downing's influence can also be seen in Davis's Swiss Cottage. This pattern, widely republished but rarely built, was varied by Davis, who is not known to have built any other such cottages. He added more entrances since it was expected to have multiple tenants, but four of them are disguised as windows. The essential features of Downing's pattern, such as its floor plan, the low, broad roof; construction into a hillside exposing the basement on one side and multiple galleries and balconies offering views of a nearby stream, remain.
The landscapes were inspired by contemporary European trends. The Bartons had followed
Edward Livingston
Edward Livingston (May 28, 1764May 23, 1836) was an American jurist and statesman. He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. Livingston represented both ...
to France when he served there and saw many of Europe's celebrated gardens. Cora Barton had a full set of copies of
Joseph Paxton's ''The Magazine of Botany'' sent to her when she moved in. Downing, a friend, visited in 1847 and wrote favorably about the resulting landscapes for his own magazine, ''The Horticulturist''. He praised "the deep and mysterious wood" with "dark, intricate and mazy walks" in the "Wilderness" in the north of the property near the Saw Kill. He called it "the most complete estate in America".
Further reading
*''Great Houses of the Hudson River'',
Michael Middleton Dwyer
Michael Dwyer is an American architect, considered to be an advocate of classical architecture, and known for designing new buildings in traditional vocabularies. He was the editor of ''Great Houses of the Hudson River'' (2001), and the author of ...
, editor, with preface by
Mark Rockefeller
Mark Fitler Rockefeller (born January 26, 1967) is a fourth-generation member of the Rockefeller family. He is the younger son of former U.S. Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller (1908–1979) and Happy Rockefeller (1926–2015). He is th ...
, Boston, MA:
Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
, published in association with
Historic Hudson Valley
Historic Hudson Valley is a not-for-profit educational and historic preservation organization headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. The organization runs tours and events at five historic properties in Westchester County, in the lower Hudson Valley ...
, 2001. .
See also
*
Bard College Campus
The campus of Bard College comprises in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (state), New York. The campus, situated on the east shore of the Hudson River, offers sweeping views of the Catskill Mountains and is within th ...
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in New York
*
References
External links
Official website13 photos1 map an
11 data pagesat
Historic American Buildings Survey
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...
3 photos1 drawing3 data pagesof Farmhouse at Montgomery Place.
2 photos1 page of drawings an
7 data pages of Swiss Cottage at Montgomery Place, at HABS.
{{Bard college
Historic house museums in New York (state)
National Historic Landmarks in New York (state)
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York
Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Museums in Dutchess County, New York
Hudson River
Houses completed in 1803
Houses in Red Hook, New York
Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in New York (state)
Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Federal architecture in New York (state)
Italianate architecture in New York (state)
Delafield family
National Historic Landmark District contributing properties