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Olana State Historic Site is a
historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a v ...
and
landscape 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 ...
in Greenport, New York, near the city of Hudson. The estate was home to
Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...
(1826–1900), one of the major figures in the
Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, ...
of
landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...
. The centerpiece of Olana is an
eclectic Eclectic may refer to: Music * ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014 * ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996 * Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act * Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...
villa which overlooks parkland and a working farm designed by the artist. The residence has a wide view of the
Hudson River 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 Yon ...
, the
Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...
and the
Taconic Range The Taconic Mountains or Taconic Range () are a range of the Appalachian Mountains, running along the eastern border of New York State and adjacent New England from northwest Connecticut to western Massachusetts, north to central western Vermont. ...
. Church and his wife Isabel (1836–1899) named their estate after a fortress-treasure house in ancient
Greater Persia Greater Iran ( fa, ایران بزرگ, translit=Irān-e Bozorg) refers to a region covering parts of Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Xinjiang, and the Caucasus, where both Iranian culture and Iranian languages have had a si ...
(modern-day Armenia), which also overlooked a river valley. Olana is one of the few intact artists' home-, studio- and estate-complexes in the United States; it was 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 ...
in 1965. and   The house is also a prime example of Orientalist architecture. It is owned and operated by the
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYS OPRHP) is a state agency within the New York State Executive Department Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law § 3.03. "The office of parks, recreation a ...
, and is also supported by The Olana Partnership, a non-profit
501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...
organization. The main building is an architectural masterpiece designed by Frederic Church in consultation with the architect
Calvert Vaux Calvert Vaux (; December 20, 1824 – November 19, 1895) was an English-American architect and landscape designer, best known as the co-designer, along with his protégé and junior partner Frederick Law Olmsted, of what would become New York Ci ...
. The stone, brick, and polychrome-stenciled villa is a mixture of Victorian,
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
n and
Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...
styles. The interior remains much as it was during Church's lifetime, exotically furnished and decorated with objects from his global travels, and with some 40 paintings by Church and his friends. The house is intricately stenciled inside and out; Church designed the stencils based on his travels in the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europea ...
. The house contains Church's last studio, built as an addition from 1888 to 1890.


History

In 1845, Frederic Church first sketched on the property that was to become Olana.Ryan, 2001 He was then a student of
Thomas Cole Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history paintin ...
, now considered a founding figure of the
Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, ...
of painters. On March 31, 1860, a few months before his marriage to Isabel Carnes, Church returned to purchase a hardscrabble farm on a south-facing slope of a hill in Columbia County, near the thriving towns of Hudson and
Catskill, New York Catskill is a town in the southeastern section of Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 11,298 at the 2020 census, the largest town in the county. The western part of the town is in the Catskill Park. The town contains a v ...
. The first element he added to the property was a small country cottage, believed to have been designed by
Richard Morris Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of American architecture. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 entrance fa� ...
. In addition, Church laid out gardens and orchards, dredged a marsh to create a lake, planted trees, and built a
studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery ( ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial desig ...
. Frederic and Isabel Church called their house "Cosy Cottage" and their property "the Farm". Two children were born to the Churches, a son in 1862 and a daughter in 1865. The family's bucolic life at Olana was forever changed in March, 1865, with the deaths of the children from
diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...
. Grieving from this, the greatest emotional blow of their lives, the parents traveled with sympathetic friends to Jamaica for four months, then to a retreat in Vermont. Late in 1865, the couple returned to Cosy Cottage to start anew. Frederic Joseph Church was born in autumn 1866, the first of three sons and a daughter that were raised to adulthood at Olana. In 1867 Church acquired a parcel of mature woods at the top of his hill, and began planning a large house for the site. After an 18-month trip to Europe and the Middle East, Church hired architect Calvert Vaux and worked with him on the design of the mansion, which was constructed between 1870 and 1872. The Churches hosted notable figures from the literary, religious, artistic and business worlds: writer
Charles Dudley Warner Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...
and his pianist wife Susan, author and artist
Susan Hale Susan Hale (December 5, 1833 – September 17, 1910) was an American author, traveler and artist. She devoted herself entirely to the art of painting in watercolors which she studied under English, French and German masters. Hale traveled extens ...
, sculptor
Erastus Dow Palmer Erastus Dow Palmer (April 2, 1817March 9, 1904) was an American sculptor. Life Palmer was born in Pompey, New York. He was the second of nine children. He showed early artistic promise, and pursued his father's trade of carpentry. Palmer married ...
and his wife Mary Jane, industrialist William H. Osborn and his wife Virginia, and humorist
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...
. For Christmas in 1879, Isabel Church gave her husband several books on the geography of the ancient Middle East, and shortly thereafter the couple began calling their property "Olana".Werner, 2005 Church continuously improved the property, plotting scenic carriage roads and adding a studio wing to the house over the period 1888–1891. Although the Churches often wintered in warmer climates, and spent time in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, Olana was their main residence. After Isabel Church's death in 1899 and Frederic Church's death in 1900, the property was inherited by their son Louis Church, who married Sarah Baker Good (known as Sally) in 1901. Louis and Sally Church maintained the property largely as it had been left to them, adding additional acreage for farming. Upon Sally Church's death in 1964, a nephew inherited the estate and intended to sell it to developers at a public auction. After a two-year anti-development campaign led by scholar David C. Huntington (1922–1990), which culminated in a cover story on Olana in ''Life'' magazine, New York State purchased the property in 1966 and it was opened to the public.


Landscape

Over the last forty years of his life, Frederic Church created a designed landscape at Olana. In an 1884 letter, Church wrote of his work on the grounds at Olana, "I can make more and better landscapes in this way than by tampering with canvas and paint in the studio." Today Olana is known as one of the most important surviving Picturesque landscapes in the United States. Produced during the same period with the same aesthetic and ideological motivations, the landscape at Olana has been compared to Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Church began the physical landscape design at Olana by searching three years for the ideal property. He had walked and sketched throughout much of New England and elsewhere by that time, but his formative two years studying with Thomas Cole in nearby Catskill, New York, brought him back to the Hudson Valley. The Church estate covers a series of small knolls rising up to the Sienghenbergh – Dutch for "Long Hill" – where the main house is sited. From various points around the property, one has views of the Hudson River, the Catskill, Taconic and Berkshire Mountain ranges, as well as New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. In 1860, Frederic Church made his initial acquisition of a 126-acre (50.99 ha) farm, which he developed into a ferme ornée, an ornamental farm. Around Cosy Cottage, a profitable orchard and of vegetable and fruit gardens were created in addition to pastures and crop land, each with a distinct visual character. The family always called their place "the farm," but when he bought the land, Church took about half out of active agricultural production to create a landscaped park. In this park, Church planted thousands of native trees (many transplanted from elsewhere on site); created a lake from a swamp; built a freestanding studio, summer house, and rustic benches and railings; and designed of carriage drives paved in crushed red shale mined on site. Church strategically acquired additional adjacent parcels until his property encompassed and the top of the hill where the main house at Olana now stands. To conceal, reveal and frame vistas of his own property and the wider Hudson Valley, Church combined natural landforms with the careful layout of carriage drives and extensive plantings of trees and shrubs. Frederick Law Olmsted thought of such landscapes as "pictures" through which people might wander. In addition to entertaining often, the Churches opened the Olana grounds to the public. From the popular carriage drives, visitors experienced the artist's landscape vignettes almost as cinema, in a sequence choreographed by Church. The ultimate aspect of Church's designed landscape is the view from the main house. There, the ground drops away sharply, the Hudson widens to across, and the Catskills rise up steeply. Like Church's painted views of Niagara Falls, Canadian icebergs, and South American volcanoes this scene captures the majesty of nature. For the artist and his contemporaries, this vista also captured the essence of their new nation with references to pioneering history, present economic strength, and the distinguished literary and artistic legacies of the region's
Knickerbocker Group The Knickerbocker Group was a somewhat indistinct group of 19th-century American writers. Its most prominent members included Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and William Cullen Bryant. Each was a pioneer in general literature—novels, poe ...
and Hudson River School.


Main residence

The stone, brick, and polychrome-stenciled villa at Olana is an unusual mixture of Victorian structural elements and Middle-Eastern decorative motifs from different times and places. Moorish elements mix with contrasting Italianate themes. Frederic and Isabel Church were impressed by the architecture they had seen on their travels in Beirut, Jerusalem and Damascus in 1868. Upon their return to their farm, they abandoned preliminary plans from Richard Morris Hunt delineating a manor house in the French style. Instead, Church worked closely with architect Calvert Vaux to realize a more personal vision. Church was responsible for the overall design and much of the detail, with Vaux's involvement essentially that of consultant. Church wrote to a friend, "I am building a house and am principally my own Architect. I give directions all day and draw plans and working drawings all night." The result was a villa with asymmetrical massing of towers and block masonry punctuated by fanciful windows and porches. The irregular silhouette of the exterior contrasted with the more regular rhythm of rooms arranged around a central hall. On the exterior, Middle Eastern motifs were carried out in colored brick, slate, ceramic tile and especially stenciling. The cornices of the separate sections of the structure were each ornamented with multi-colored and gilt stenciling, the patterns designed by Church himself. The stenciling continued in the principle rooms of the first floor. Together, the various motifs and themes create a unique artistic unity, one that is difficult to categorize. It has been called variously Persian-Moorish-Eclectic, and Italianate-Eastern-Picturesque. Poet
John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
described the results: "The ensemble is breathtaking, and despite the proliferation of architectural elements and polychrome tile decoration, it is not busy but solemn and wildly fanciful, like Church's painting."Ashbery, 2005
p. 264
Retrieved on April 8, 2010
Church designed or commissioned many other devices, such as amber glass windows overlaid by cut-paper patterns and carved teak woodwork by Lockwood de Forest's workshops in Ahmadabad, India. With no architectural adviser, Church designed and built the studio wing at the west end of the house, which included guest rooms and a glassed-in observation room in the tower. Describing his house to a newspaper reporter, Church characterized it as "Persian, adapted to the Occident". The furnishings Frederic and Isabel acquired over the course of their lives remain in the house. There are paintings by Frederic Church as well as artwork by his mentor Thomas Cole and friends
Martin Johnson Heade Martin Johnson Heade (August 11, 1819 – September 4, 1904) was an American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, and depictions of tropical birds (such as hummingbirds), as well as lotus blossoms and other still lifes. His pai ...
and Erastus Dow Palmer. The dining room houses a collection of Old Master paintings. The eclectic assortment of furniture and decorative arts includes carpets, metalwork, ceramics and costumes from the Middle East, folk art and fine art from Mexico, and high-style American and Oriental furniture. The main residence at Olana has been described as a prime example of the Aesthetic Movement in America.


Artworks created

Frederic Church executed some of his most famous works at Olana, in a studio that stood on the hill above the Cosy Cottage. Throughout his life but especially in the 1850s, Church traveled throughout North and South America, making oil and pencil sketches that served as notes for the artwork to come. Although Church's major artworks appear to be transcriptions of the landscape, they are, as Church called them, "compositions"—composed from his sketches and his own artistic intentions. In the 1860s and 1870s this process occurred at Olana, and also at Church's
Tenth Street Studio Building The Tenth Street Studio Building, constructed in New York City in 1857, was the first modern facility designed solely to serve the needs of artists. It became the center of the New York art world for the remainder of the 19th century. Situated at ...
in New York City. Typically, Church did the bulk of his work in the studio at Olana, then finished the painting in New York. Church also made vibrant sketches of the Olana landscape; he framed a few and hung them in the main residence. In the studio at Olana he made hundreds of pencil and oil
technical drawing Technical drawing, drafting or drawing, is the act and discipline of composing drawings that visually communicate how something functions or is constructed. Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering. T ...
s for stencils, mantels, banisters, and other architectural elements of the main house. With the onset of rheumatism in the 1870s, Church's painting became severely curtailed. Increasingly, he turned his attention to Olana itself, improving the landscape, buying artwork for the house, and building the studio wing. Olana was one of several grand artist's homes in the Hudson River valley, comparable to
Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not ...
's Malkasten in Irvington (destroyed by fire in 1882) and
Jasper Francis Cropsey Jasper Francis Cropsey (February 18, 1823 – June 22, 1900) was an important American landscape artist of the Hudson River School. Early years Cropsey was born on his father Jacob Rezeau Cropsey's farm in Rossville on Staten Island, New York ...
's Ever Rest, in
Hastings-on-Hudson Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the town of Greenburgh in the state of New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of midtown Manha ...
.


Viewshed

The Olana
Viewshed A viewshed is the geographical area that is visible from a location. It includes all surrounding points that are in line-of-sight with that location and excludes points that are beyond the horizon or obstructed by terrain and other features (e.g. ...
comprises panoramic views that begin in the Hudson River Valley and extend toward Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut. To the west, the ridge of Sieghenburgh drops off abruptly, offering a view of the Hudson River through a series of native trees planted by Frederic Church in the nineteenth century. West of the Hudson River the eastern range of the Catskill Mountains can be viewed. To the southwest and south the terrain descends to Quarry Hill directing the eye three miles away toward Inbocht Bay. To the southeast and east Blue Hill rises in the distance. In 1876 a New York journalist reported "There are no finer views in the world than he can command from his windows." Church spent over thirty years meticulously designing the landscape—including the excavation of an artificial lake in 1873 to mirror the Hudson and add balance to the viewshed—meanwhile producing dozens of oil sketches of the view from Olana. The property on Long Hill was purchased by Church because of its grand views: "To his skeptical father (who was financing the purchase), Church argued that the lot was important in 'securing fine openings for the views.'" After Frederic Church's lifetime, the Olana Partnership has been pivotal in discouraging the production of two industrial projects that would have impeded the Olana Viewshed. In 1977, The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Power Authority of the State of New York held hearings on siting a nuclear power plant in Cementon, south of Catskill and in the Olana Viewshed. The proposed cooling tower would have reached 250 feet in diameter at its highest point discharging a heavy plume and obscuring views of the Catskill Mountains from several locations, including Olana. A painting of the south view of Olana by Frederic Church was used in the hearings as evidence to support the cultural and historical significance of the Olana Viewshed. In 1979 the Power Authority of the State of New York announced that it was abandoning plans for the proposed Cementon nuclear power plant. On September 14, 1998, St. Lawrence Cement announced plans for a 2.2 million ton coal-fired cement plant in Hudson and Greenport, New York, near the banks of the Hudson River. In 2001,
Riverkeeper Riverkeeper is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water. It started out as the Hudson River Fisherman' ...
and a broad environmental coalition, including Olana, petitioned for consulting party status in a
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (informally referred to as NYSDEC, DEC, EnCon or NYSENCON) is a department of New York state government. The department guides and regulates the conservation, improvement, and protection ...
permit hearing for the proposed project. On April 24, 2005, after severe protest from the Hudson Valley community and environmentalists, St. Lawrence Cement abandoned the Greenport project Since 1992
Scenic Hudson Scenic Hudson is a non-profit environmental organization in New York that protects land, creates, and enhances parks, and advocates for environmentally responsible policies and development practices. History Scenic Hudson was founded as the Scen ...
and its conservation partners have contributed to the protection of more than 2,400 acres in the Olana Viewshed. In 2015, a conservation easement protected views from Letterbox Farm Collective, a farm nearby.


Restoration and management

Olana is managed by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, with support from the Olana Partnership. Both work to restore Olana to its 1890s appearance. A large museum and archive, part of the original Church property, is open to the public and includes over 700 works by Church as well as thousands of works of art by other artists, including paintings by
Martin Johnson Heade Martin Johnson Heade (August 11, 1819 – September 4, 1904) was an American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, and depictions of tropical birds (such as hummingbirds), as well as lotus blossoms and other still lifes. His pai ...
, Arthur Parton and
John Thomas Peele John Thomas Peele (1822-1897) was a British painter specializing in portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes. Born in Peterborough, Northamptonshire, Peele immigrated to America with his parents in about 1834. The family settled in Buffalo, Ne ...
and numerous works by Church's close friend, the sculptor
Erastus Dow Palmer Erastus Dow Palmer (April 2, 1817March 9, 1904) was an American sculptor. Life Palmer was born in Pompey, New York. He was the second of nine children. He showed early artistic promise, and pursued his father's trade of carpentry. Palmer married ...
. The archive, open to scholars, contains letters, scrapbooks, bills, receipts and other ephemera. A visitor center is housed in the former carriage house, and an upstairs bedroom has been converted into the Evelyn and Maurice Sharp Gallery, which shows changing exhibitions of artwork drawn mainly from the archival collections. The site was closed during the 2006 season for extensive renovation. Stencils on the walls were stabilized and new carpeting was laid in the Court Hall. Curators and conservators performed rehabilitation work on furniture, upholstery and textiles. Fire safety and climate-control systems were improved. Commissioner Carol Ash said at the re-opening in May 2007, "The installation of new state-of-the-art equipment underscores the commitment of New York State to protect this remarkable historic landmark, and we look forward to once again showcasing the unique collections and extraordinary landscapes of one of our most important cultural resources." The former wagon house in the barn complex now houses educational programs. Future plans include a reconstruction of the wagon house and a stabilization of the main barn, to better fit their role as year-round centers for education. Olana has been cited as an innovative example of a public-private partnership. Olana advocates the preservation of its viewshed by encouraging donations of scenic easements on properties and by discouraging development of industrial projects, such as a proposed cement plant and a proposed power plant.


Historiography

Olana has been the subject of scholarly study by a succession of students and experts on Church's life. David C. Huntington's cataloging and analysis in the mid-1960s is acknowledged as the first foundational work.Avery, 2005, p. 11 Huntington is credited not only with saving the site from public auction but with bringing Church's reputation from obscurity to prominence in relation to the
Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, ...
. Huntington theorized that the sketches and paintings that Church displayed at Olana, ones he either kept outright or reacquired, were key to understanding the painter's personal values. Huntington supposed that the name "Olana" was a corruption of an ancient language—an article to that effect had been published in the 1890s in the ''
Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...
'' and believed for many decades.Ashbery, 2005
p. 266
Retrieved on April 8, 2010
In 1966, Huntington re-established this story, writing that the Arabic word ''Al'ana'', meaning "our place on high", was possibly transliterated to
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
as "Olana". Art historian and Church scholar Gerald L. Carr found no confirmation that the Churches ever considered this meaning; instead, Carr believed the answer to be in a copy of
Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
's ''
Geographica The ''Geographica'' ( Ancient Greek: Γεωγραφικά ''Geōgraphiká''), or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Greek and attributed to Strabo, an educated citizen of the Roman ...
'' in Olana's library, a multi-volume reference work given by Isabel Church to her husband on Christmas 1879. One volume of this classic Greek work describes a fortified treasure-house named Olana, or ''Olane'', situated on a hillside near the
Araxes River , az, Araz, fa, ارس, tr, Aras The Aras (also known as the Araks, Arax, Araxes, or Araz) is a river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan exc ...
in
Artaxata Artashat ( hy, Արտաշատ); Hellenized as Artaxata ( el, Ἀρτάξατα) and Artaxiasata ( grc, Ἀρταξιάσατα), was a large commercial city and the capital of ancient Armenia during the reign of king Artaxias I; the founder of ...
, a city in modern-day Armenia, close to the eastern border of Turkey and the northwestern arm of Iran. Carr assumed that the Churches began calling their residence "Olana" after reading Strabo. John Ashbery agreed, writing in 1997 that Strabo's Artaxata "was one of the supposed sites of the
Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2-3 and Ezekiel 28 ...
", and that the Churches must have felt kinship with both the idyllic and the protected qualities of ancient Olana.


Visitation

Olana is in the south part of Greenport, New York, in Columbia County, south of Hudson and east of Catskill. By car, the estate can be reached from
New York State Route 9G New York State Route 9G (NY 9G) is a state highway in the Hudson Valley of New York in the United States. It runs north from U.S. Route 9 (US 9) at Poughkeepsie, starting out as Violet Avenue, then follows the Hudson River mos ...
, less than an hour's drive south of Albany. The nearest
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
train station is in Hudson. The grounds are open during the day throughout the year and the original carriage roads are accessible. Organized tours of the residence are generally available Tuesday through Sunday, and holiday Mondays, from April to October. From November to March, tours are conducted Friday through Sunday. Reservations for house tours are recommended. Photography is permitted anywhere on the grounds, including the interior of the house. The Hudson River Skywalk, a pedestrian walkway across the
Rip Van Winkle Bridge The Rip Van Winkle Bridge is a cantilever bridge spanning the Hudson River between Hudson, New York and Catskill, New York. Affording of clearance over the water, the structure carries NY 23 across the river, connecting US 9W and NY 385 on ...
opened in 2019, connects the site to the
Thomas Cole National Historic Site The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, also known as Cedar Grove, is a National Historic Landmark that includes the home and the studio of painter Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School of American painting. It is located at 218 Spring ...
in Catskill.


In popular culture

* Olana was featured in
Bob Vila Robert Joseph Vila (born June 20, 1946) is an American home improvement television show host known for '' This Old House'' (1979–1989), ''Bob Vila's Home Again'' (1990–2005), and ''Bob Vila'' (2005–2007). Early life and education Vila, a ...
's
A&E Network A&E is an American basic cable network, the flagship television property of A&E Networks. The network was originally founded in 1984 as the Arts & Entertainment Network, initially focusing on fine arts, documentaries, dramas, and educational enter ...
four-part production, ''Guide to Historic Homes of America.'' For the first episode, on the subject of historic homes in the Northeastern U.S., Vila and his crew traveled to five locations containing historic structures, including Olana. *The
Marc Cohn Marc Craig Cohn (; born July 5, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1992. Cohn is best known for the song " Walking in Memphis" from his eponymous 1991 album, which was a Top 40 ...
1998 album ''
Burning the Daze ''Burning the Daze'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, released in 1998 on Atlantic Records. The album peaked at number 114 on the ''Billboard'' 200 Chart. Track listing All tracks written by Marc Cohn, except wh ...
'' features a song titled "Olana," about Church and the building of the estate.


Gallery

Olana - IMG 8031.JPG Olana 2007 06 4.jpg Olana south side.JPG Olana 2017 40.jpg Olana 2017 32.jpg Olana 2017 28.jpg Olana 2017 23.jpg Olana 2017 21.jpg Olana 2017 19.jpg Olana 2017 15.jpg Olana 2017 10.jpg Olana 2017 06.jpg Olana 2017 04.jpg


See also

* Historic Artists' Homes and Studios


References

;Notes ;Bibliography * This chapter first appeared as an article in ''
Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast, which also publishes internati ...
'', Volume LIV, Issue 6, June 1997, pp. 60, 62, 68, 70, 74, 78. * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


The Olana PartnershipOlana State Historic Site
NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
Summary information about Olana
from Hudson Valley Network *
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 ...
(HABS): ** ** ** ** ** ** ** {{Authority control Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) National Historic Landmarks in New York (state) New York (state) historic sites Historic house museums in New York (state) Biographical museums in New York (state) Hudson River School sites Houses completed in 1872 Artists' studios in the United States Museums in Columbia County, New York Art museums and galleries in New York (state) Moorish Revival architecture in New York (state) Houses in Columbia County, New York Parks in Columbia County, New York Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area Historic American Buildings Survey in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Columbia County, New York Calvert Vaux designs Gilded Age mansions