Friday Foto Friends & Skywatch Friday ~ My Area Sites To See

If you ever feel like visiting the area where I live that includes Catskill, Clermont, Germantown and Greenport all within a few miles of my town here are 4 well known places to see and spend a wonderful day of art, history and beautiful scenery and the Hudson River here in the Hudson River Valley. You won't be disappointed.

Clermont State Park

Between 1730 and 1750, Robert Livingston Jr. built a grand brick and stone home on a hill alongside the Hudson River. Over the next 230 years, the house underwent many changes, including a nearly complete rebuilding after being burned by the British in 1777 and a remodeling in the Colonial Revival style in the 1920s. The house, its contents, and grounds were given to the state in 1962. Today, the home appears as it did in the 1930s, with furnishings that reflect all three centuries of the Livingston family’s occupancy. Fine Empire period furniture is complemented by exquisite chandeliers, porcelain, and artwork. The surrounding grounds feature a walled garden, 1820s Lilac Walk, and a wilderness garden. Clermont’s trails feature some of the best bird watching in the region.

Montgomery Place

Montgomery Place, Annandale on Hudson just south of Bard College, a serene reflection of nearly 200 years of continuous family stewardship, is best known as a landscape influenced by the great Andrew Jackson Downing and an architectural landmark designed by Alexander Jackson Davis. But the totality of the estate - house, gardens, arboretum, woodlands, orchards, hamlet, and natural features - makes it a unique American treasure.The 380-acre property is an amazingly intact example of Hudson Valley estate life. Each of the estate's features has a story to tell about changing American attitudes toward nature, landscape, and home design over time.

Olana State Park

Olana State Historic Site is a historic house museum and property in Greenport, New York, near the city of Hudson. The estate was home to Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The centerpiece of Olana is an eclectic villa which overlooks parkland and a working farm designed by the artist. The residence has a wide view of the Hudson River Valley, the Catskill Mountains and the Taconic Range. Church and his wife Isabel (1836–1899) named their estate after a fortress-treasure house in ancient Greater Persia (modern-day Armenia), which also overlooked a river valley The house is also a prime example of Orientalist architecture. 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 house contains Church's last studio, built as an addition from 1888 to 1890.

Thomas Cole House

The Thomas Cole House, also known as Cedar Grove or the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, 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 Street, Catskill, NY, United States. The site provided Thomas Cole with a residence and studio from 1833 through his death in 1848. The property was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. It was declared a National Historic Site in 1999.

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For This Coming Sunday

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Until next time dear family and friends have a lovely weekend.