Travels in the 2nd half

   A trip along the Hudson River offers a lot to see and do. From the old river towns to the hikes along the water, there is something for everyone. One of my favorite things to do is to visit the historic mansions that served as vacation homes to rich and powerful of New York City. The Vanderbilt Mansion , in Hyde Park, NY, is one of the best examples of these homes.   Frederick Vanderbilt by NPS uploaded by Jillian Jack Louise Vanderbilt - Photographer Unknown   In 1894, Frederick Vanderbilt (1856-1938) and Louise Vanderbilt (nee Anthony, 1878-1926) purchased this 800+acre estate from Dorothea and Walter Langdon, daughter and son-in-law of John Jacob Astor. Like many of New York’s richest families, they were attracted by the beauty of the Hudson River Valley. The opening of the New York Central Railroad, which was owned by the Vanderbilt family, made travel to Hyde Park from the city, an easy trip. The Vanderbilts hired the firm of McKim, Mead and White to design...

The Hudson River Valley is filled with the former estates of the very rich. These were “summer cottages” that their families used when they wanted to escape the city. Many of them are open to the public to tour the grounds, even if the buildings are closed due to COVID-19. One of the oldest is the Boscobel House and Gardens in Garrison NY.   The Apple Grove Hudson School Statue Garden   Boscobel was built by States Dyckman , a loyalist New Yorker who somehow was able to maintain his fortune and his land after the Revolutionary War. He spent the war working for the British Quatermaster Corps, and for ten years afterward he was in England, supposedly investigating corruption among that Corps. By the time he returned to New York, in 1789, he had “earned” a lifetime pension while exonerating everyone he investigated. Herb Garden Over the next fifteen years, Dyckman traveled back and forth between New York and London, looking to guarantee his income. In 1803, he began construction...