Two Centuries of Redesign, Continued
by Daniel Middleton
Each Christmas season, the crowds are particularly dense at the New York Botanical Garden. They come to be charmed and mesmerized by the Garden’s annual model train show at which 11 garden-gauge trains of every vintage circle past replicas of famous New York State buildings constructed entirely of natural materials. From combinations of leaves, twigs, berries, pine cones, and various barks emerge wonderfully intricate recreations of such notable landmarks as Yankee Stadium, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Rockefeller Center. This year, a new replica was added to the display: a beautiful neoclassical house overlooking the Hudson called Montgomery Place, which since 1992 has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. Though Montgomery Place is not a city building of great size and scale, its representation in the exhibit was nevertheless an apt choice, for among all the great 19th century Hudson River estates, Montgomery Place is unrivaled for the historical significance of its architectural and landscape design.
Since 1986, the 434 acre Montgomery Place has been owned and maintained by Historic Hudson Valley, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of six historic sites: Montgomery Place in Dutchess County and five properties in Westchester county. These sites are open to the public, and since an extensive restoration of the mansion was completed in 1988, thousands of visitors a year have come to Montgomery Place to tour the house and grounds.
In early 2005, Historic Hudson Valley announced a five-year plan of further restoration to the house and other buildings on the estate, as well as a complete reinterpretation of the visiting experience. Though the grounds are still accessible for touring, the house has been closed, staff reduced, and hours of operation limited to weekends between May and October. These changes are the cause of local concern; some fear that the reduced access to the estate mandated by the five-year plan may indicate a wavering in commitment by Historic Hudson Valley to the continued preservation of Montgomery Place as a resource for public education and enjoyment.
Waddell W. Stillman, president of Historic Hudson Valley, acknowledges these concerns, but says that the five-year plan is necessary not only to do much-needed repairs and improvements, but to rethink how to present the estate in a way that best communicates its landscape history and architecture. Mr. Stillman emphasizes that while Montgomery Place is in a period of transition, the public can still enjoy its magnificent landscape in all of its variety: open lawns with views of the river and mountains, the extensive gardens (which under the guidance of horticulturist Sarah Price are being expertly restored and maintained), the orchards and arboretum, as well as a network of woodland trails. And the farming operation, always an important part of the history of Montgomery Place, continues uninterrupted. The orchards, under the direction of Doug and Talea Fincke, produce peaches, pears, apples, raspberries, and grapes for local sale. Indeed, the growing season in 2005 was one the most successful in recent memory.
Mr. Stillman’s confidence in the five year plan is reinforced by the success Historic Hudson Valley has had at Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., where a thorough reinterpretation and redesign of the visiting experience was implemented over a five year period, funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Historic Hudson Valley has begun a similar funding application process for Montgomery Place restoration project.
This is reassuring news, for the story of Montgomery Place is an inspiring example of how people can build within their natural surroundings and create beauty. Unlike many estates, which in their size and grandiosity can become disproportionate and even vulgar, Montgomery Place is a harmonious combination of house and grounds in which each element is in perfect balance with the other. Montgomery Place did not attain this balance suddenly. Like any great exercise in architectural and landscape design, the conception of the estate evolved through time, adjusting to the aesthetic desires of the succeeding generations who oversaw its evolution.
In 1802, Janet Livingston Montgomery purchased 242 acres of land overlooking the Hudson River just south of what today is the campus of Bard College. Janet was widowed in 1775 when her husband Richard, a brigadier general and leader of the Continental Army in its critical first offensive expedition against the British, was killed at the Battle of Quebec. She never remarried, and at the age of 59 established herself at what she called “Chateau de Montgomery.” A drawing of her house (the building of which was completed by 1805) shows a simple but elegant mansion in the Federal style made of stuccoed fieldstone, with that style’s characteristic simplicity of classical design. Janet could afford to be ambitious in the planning of her river estate, for after all, she was a Livingston before she became a Montgomery.
By 1820, Janet’s farm was a successful enterprise. Her orchards were as abundant as her nursery, which sold an array of seeds, bulbs and fruit trees. Her knowledge of horticulture was extensive; she built a greenhouse which was filled with exotic specimens imported from Louisiana, Antigua, and Europe. Land surrounding the house was cleared to open up views of the river and the distant peaks of the Catskills.
When Janet died in 1828, Chateau de Montgomery passed to her brother Edward: a lawyer whose political career included terms as mayor of New York City, a member of both houses of Congress, Minister to France, and Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson. Like Janet, he was very interested in horticulture and was influenced by his exposure to the gardens and estates in England and France. Edward commissioned an extensive reworking of the landscape of Montgomery Place, writing to a brother-in-law in 1835 that “we are all very well and very busy, planting, cutting down, leveling, sloping, opening views, clearing walks . . . laying out gardens. When you return to stay at Montgomery Place you will scarcely know it again.”
Edward died in 1836, but the evolution of Montgomery Place continued under the direction of his widow Louise, daughter Cora and son-in-law Thomas Barton. Over the next 30 years Montgomery Place was transformed into a meticulously crafted showplace. Besides the expansion of the gardens and the planting of an arboretum, new walking paths were installed throughout the property that emphasized the transitions in scenery from woodlands to river and mountain vistas. The most dramatic path remains on the northern border of the estate, following the Sawkill River as it winds and descends through a dramatic set of falls before joining the Hudson.
Though Janet’s farming operation was certainly not ignored, the evolution of Montgomery Place into an aesthetic pleasure ground would have been impossible without the collaboration of the best creative minds of the era: architects Frederick Catherwood, Alexander Jackson Davis and cultural critic Andrew Jackson Downing, who besides running a successful nursery in Newburgh, wrote extensively about landscape theory and design.
In 1840, the Livingstons built a splendid neogothic conservatory designed by Catherwood which was 70 feet long and fronted by gardens and decorative urns and statuary. But the most dramatic architectural additions to the estate were contributed by Davis, who remodeled the main house in two phases between 1842 and 1863. Davis transformed the outside of the house completely; it was no longer rather spare and stern, but elegant and ornamental in the Classic Revival style. Balustrades and delicate bas relief plaster and woodwork decorated the core block of the house, with new porches supported by Corinthian columns added to the north and west sides of the house and a beautiful curved portico framing the main entrance on the east elevation. Davis provided designs for three other new buildings on the estate, a coach house, farmer’s cottage, and Swiss cottage, with more projects proposed but never constructed.
Andrew Jackson Downing was a friend of Davis who supplied Montgomery Place with plants and trees from his nursery and was an invaluable advisor to the Livingstons as they reshaped the grounds. In his many writings, he became a leading American proponent of the Romantic principle of landscape and garden design, which envisioned picturesque houses and grounds mirroring the beauty of the surrounding natural scenery. He was a particular champion of Montgomery Place, noting that it was “remarkable for its extent, for the wonderful variety of scenery—wood, water, and gardenesque.”
By the end of the 19th century the second phase of transformation at Montgomery Place had finished, and there came a period of slight decline. The conservatory was dismantled and the forest encroached upon the gardens and arboretum. This decline was dramatically reversed from the 1920s through 1940s when a third renaissance restored and added new beauty to the house and grounds. John Ross Delafield, a Livingston descendant, inherited Montgomery Place and was meticulous in his stewardship of the estate; not only did he refurbish and improve the buildings to suit 20th century needs, but he collected and cataloged irreplaceable memorabilia of his illustrious ancestors. His vivacious and accomplished wife Violetta, a passionate gardener with expert knowledge of botany and horticulture, stabilized the 19th century landscape and created a network of new gardens for herbs, roses, and perennials. She also terraced the lawns overlooking the river, built a new greenhouse which is still in use, and installed decorative elements to the grounds such as a hedged ellipse enclosing a pool for aquatics.
By the time of Violetta’s death in 1949, Montgomery Place was once again an epitome of human creativity. But modern life is not always sympathetic to the aesthetic principles of people like A.J. Downing and A.J. Davis, and there are few with the financial means of the Livingstons and Delafields to protect an estate the size of Montgomery Place from decay. The 1980s were a time of challenge for the estate, as it seemed doubtful whether the same kind of meticulous attention to house and grounds could continue. Thankfully, Historic Hudson Valley’s purchase of Montgomery Place in 1986 not only insured that the estate in all of its splendor would remain intact, but that the public could now share in that splendor.
Organizations like Historic Hudson Valley are indispensable for the preservation of unique places of beauty like Montgomery Place. And with the dramatic population growth in our area creating a constant pressure to develop, the commitment to preservation is required more than ever.
