A SELF-GUIDED WALKING TOUR OF THE MONTGOMERY PLACE CAMPUS

Hudson River Pond Tivoli South Bay

8 Lower Squash S Falls Court Mansion aw Kill T SOUTH WOODS 7 rail 4 Rough Power Garden Station Formal 5 6 Bath Houses Gardens Ellipse NORTH WOODS 3 The Greenhouse Lake

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1 Parking Visitor Center

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North Orchards North Campus

Farm Complex Swiss Cottage 10 9 Farmhouse

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The Visitor Center (1) has a parking lot and public bathrooms. The Coach trees that are more than 150 years old. The Squash Court (7) currently House (2), designed by renowned 19th-century architect A. J. Davis, was houses the and has public restrooms on the first floor. originally stables, and later became an automobile garage. The upper floor The Mansion (8) was completed in 1805 as a federal-style structure. In the housed the grooms, chauffeurs, and their families. The Greenhouse (3) is 1840s, Davis redesigned it in the classical revival style with inspiration from currently used by the Bard College Farm and the Bard Horticulture , one of the America’s pioneers of landscape Department. The Formal Gardens (4) feature manicured flower beds based architecture. The mansion house is considered one of Davis’s finest on the original plans of Cora Livingston, the second-generation heir of examples of a country home. Porch furniture is available seasonally on the Montgomery Place. The Ellipse Pool (5), developed in 1930–31, is an oval for public enjoyment. Other structures on the property designed by reflecting pond, surrounded by hemlock trees. The adjacent Rough Garden Davis include the Swiss Cottage (9) and the Farmhouse (10), both of which (6) has beautiful flora in a less manicured layout, including many locust are now in private use. THE ARCHITECTURE MONTGOMERY PLACE: A DESIGNATED Montgomery Place has incorporated numerous styles of architecture over NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK AND the years. The original federal-style mansion was built by Janet Livingston Montgomery with help from her nephews, William Jones and Lewis SIGNIFICANT REPOSITORY OF HUDSON Livingston, who employed local laborers, stonemasons, and carpenters, including slaves owned by the family. The end result was a stucco-clad, VALLEY HISTORY rectangular, neoclassical structure. In 1841, Louise and Cora, the next generation, discussed the transformation of the mansion with the architect Andrew Jackson Davis, marking the start of a program of design AN AMERICAN TREASURE and construction that would span 30 years. The mansion is considered Montgomery Place, a 380-acre estate adjacent to the main Bard College Davis’s finest neoclassical country house, significant for both its design campus and overlooking the , is a designated National Historic excellence and its rarity. Other Davis-designed buildings on the property Landmark set amid rolling lawns, woodlands, and gardens, against the include the coach house, farmhouse, and Alpine-style Swiss cottage. Davis’s spectacular backdrop of the . Renowned architects, original cottage drawings are in the collection of the Metropolitan landscape designers, and horticulturists worked to create an elegant and Museum of Art. inspiring country estate consisting of a mansion, farm, orchards, farmhouse, and other smaller buildings. The Montgomery Place estate was In 1839, Louise and Cora commissioned architect Frederick Catherwood to owned by members of the from 1802 until the 1980s. design an opulent wood and glass conservatory. Andrew Jackson Downing designed formal garden beds and manicured paths to surround the gothic THE HISTORY revival-style conservatory, framed by a forest to the north and an allée of Originally, the land was occupied by Native Americans who used it for locust trees to the south. From its construction in 1840 until its destruction hunting and harvesting wild foods. During the 18th century, European circa 1880, the conservatory was the most commanding structure on the settlers farmed the area and harnessed the power of the Sawkill Creek for Montgomery Place landscape aside from the mansion. In 1935, Violetta gristmills and sawmills. In 1802, 58-year-old Janet Livingston Montgomery, Delafield designed the first “wayside stand” for a garden club display and widow of Revolutionary War hero Gen. , purchased the as a way to encourage local farmers to sell their produce and make land to create a fashionable country house. In 1804–5, she built a federal- roadsides more attractive. Eventually, it became a farm stand which still style mansion on the property. Janet’s true passion was for plants and exists today, selling the estate’s apples and other fruit. botany, and she established and ran a commercial nursery for fruit trees, shrubs, berries, and seeds. When she died in 1828, her brother Edward and MONTGOMERY PLACE TODAY his wife, Louise, inherited the property. After Edward’s death a few years Montgomery Place illustrates Americans’ changing relationship with later, Louise, daughter Cora, and son-in-law Thomas Barton transformed nature and landscape over time. As the attitudes of the people who lived portions of the estate from a working farm into a showplace. Renowned and worked there shifted, the estate changed from productive landscape to architect Andrew Jackson Davis redesigned the house, adding new wings ornamental showcase to recreational retreat. Today, the Montgomery Place and in classic revival style to suit prevailing Romantic sensibilities. setting functions as a microcosm of American landscape history, from the Landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing created plans for elaborate early wilderness to its latest reincarnation as part of the integrated campus flower gardens, several walking paths, rustic benches, and an arboretum. of Bard College. Bard is committed to conserving Montgomery Place’s (Both Davis and Downing were also involved in the original design and significant historic and cultural assets as well as preserving its landscape layout of the Blithewood estate, now part of the main Bard College and maintaining its public access and farm. campus.) FOR YOUR SAFETY AND ENJOYMENT In the 1920s, Violetta and John Ross Delafield (a Livingston descendent) Please help us maintain the beauty of these grounds by carrying out whatever inherited the estate. Violetta, a botanist, created multiple gardens, you bring in. Trash bins are located only at the Visitors Center. continuing the legacy of Cora, Louise, and Janet. In 1986, Livingston heir John Dennis Delafield transferred the estate to Historic in Please do not disturb or collect plants, animals, or rocks. whose hands it remained until 2016, when Bard College acquired the When walking the trails, please remain on the paths to assist with erosion property and a new chapter began. control and reduce incidents of Lyme disease.

THE LANDSCAPE The Sawkill Trail and South Woods Trail have uneven terrain and are The property’s basic layout and contours have remained constant occasionally steep and muddy. The West Lawn Trail features sloping terrain. throughout most of the estate’s existence. Apart from formal gardens and Pets are not allowed on the property. manicured lawns, 45 acres of farmland and 235 acres of woodlands stretch from the Hudson River to the front of the property on River Road. Much of MANSION TOURS the property’s original 19th-century design remains, as well as gardens, Beginning June 4 on Saturdays through September 3. water features, and trails from the early 20th century. Exceptional vistas Tour hours: 10:30 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2:15 p.m. include the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, the rushing waters of the No reservations required. $10 per person. Sawkill’s lower falls, and the 80-acre South Woods forest. Montgomery Montgomery Place grounds are open from dawn to dusk year-round. Place’s orchards and agricultural land are another vital component of the site’s heritage and appeal.

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