Olana State Historic Site facts for kids
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Olana
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The Olana mansion
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| Location | Columbia County, New York |
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| Nearest city | Hudson |
| Area | 250.2 acres (101.3 ha) |
| Built | 1870–72 |
| Architect | Frederic Edwin Church, Calvert Vaux |
| Architectural style | Exotic Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000509 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | June 22, 1965 |
Olana State Historic Site is a special place in Greenport, New York. It is a historic house and a beautiful landscape that you can visit. This amazing estate was once the home of Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900). He was a very important artist known for his landscape paintings. He was part of a group called the Hudson River School.
The main building at Olana is a unique villa. It looks out over a large park and a working farm. Frederic Church designed all of this himself! From the house, you can see wide views of the Hudson River Valley, the Catskill Mountains, and the Taconic Range. Church and his wife, Isabel, named their home "Olana." They chose this name after an ancient fortress in Greater Persia (which is now Armenia). That fortress also overlooked a river valley, just like their home.
Olana is special because it's one of the few places in the United States where an artist's home, studio, and entire estate are still in their original condition. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1965. The house is also a great example of "Orientalist" architecture. This means it uses design ideas from the Middle East. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation owns and runs Olana. A group called The Olana Partnership also helps take care of it.
Frederic Church designed the main building with help from architect Calvert Vaux. The house is made of stone and brick. It has colorful patterns painted on it. It mixes styles from the Victorian era, Persia, and Moorish designs. Inside, the house looks much like it did when Church lived there. It has interesting furniture and decorations from his travels around the world. There are also about 40 paintings by Church and his friends. Church even designed the patterns for the walls and outside of the house, based on his trips to the Middle East. The house also has Church's last art studio, which was added between 1888 and 1890.
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History of Olana
Frederic Church first drew sketches on this land in 1845. At that time, he was a student of Thomas Cole. Cole is known as one of the founders of the Hudson River School of painters. In 1860, Church bought a 126-acre farm on a hill in Columbia County. It was close to the towns of Hudson and Catskill.
First, Church added a small country cottage to the property. It is thought that Richard Morris Hunt designed it. Church also created gardens and orchards. He dug out a marsh to make a 10-acre lake. He planted many trees and built a studio. Frederic and Isabel Church called their first house "Cosy Cottage." They called their whole property "the Farm."
The Churches had two children, a son born in 1862 and a daughter in 1865. Sadly, both children passed away in March 1865 from an illness. After this very difficult time, the parents traveled for a few months. In late 1865, they returned to Cosy Cottage to start fresh. Their son, Frederic Joseph Church, was born in 1866. They went on to have three sons and one daughter who grew up at Olana.
In 1867, Church bought more land with mature trees at the top of his hill. He then started planning a larger house for this spot. After an 18-month trip to Europe and the Middle East, Church hired architect Calvert Vaux. They worked together on the design of the main mansion. It was built between 1870 and 1872.
The Churches welcomed many famous people to Olana. These included writers like Charles Dudley Warner and Susan Hale, sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer, and humorist Mark Twain. For Christmas in 1879, Isabel Church gave her husband books about the geography of the ancient Middle East. Soon after, they started calling their property "Olana."
Church kept improving the property. He planned beautiful carriage roads and added a studio wing to the house from 1888 to 1891. Even though the Churches often spent winters in warmer places and time in New York City, Olana was their main home.
After Isabel Church passed away in 1899 and Frederic Church in 1900, their son Louis Church inherited the property. Louis and his wife, Sally, kept the property much as it was. They also added more land for farming. When Sally Church passed away in 1964, a nephew inherited the estate. He planned to sell it to developers. But a scholar named David C. Huntington led a campaign to save Olana. This effort even included a cover story in Life magazine. In 1966, New York State bought the property, and it was opened to the public.
Designing the Landscape
For the last forty years of his life, Frederic Church created a 250-acre designed landscape at Olana. In a letter from 1884, Church wrote that he could make "more and better landscapes" by working on his land than by painting in his studio. Today, Olana is known as one of the most important "Picturesque" landscapes in the United States. These are landscapes designed to look like beautiful paintings. Olana's landscape has even been compared to Central Park in New York City. Central Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.
Church began designing the landscape by looking for the perfect property for three years. He had explored and sketched in many places. But his time studying with Thomas Cole in nearby Catskill, New York, brought him back to the Hudson Valley. The Church estate covers several small hills. The main house is on the highest one, called the Sienghenbergh. From different spots on the property, you can see the Hudson River and the Catskill, Taconic, and Berkshire Mountain ranges. You can even see parts of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
In 1860, Frederic Church first bought a 126-acre farm. He turned it into a "ferme ornée," which means an ornamental farm. Around Cosy Cottage, he created a profitable 15.5-acre orchard and 4.3 acres of vegetable and fruit gardens. There were also pastures and fields for crops. Each area had its own unique look. The family always called their home "the farm." But when Church bought the land, he set aside about half of it from farming. He used this part to create a landscaped park.
In this park, Church planted thousands of native trees. Many of these trees were moved from other parts of the property. He also created a 10-acre lake from a swamp. He built a separate studio, a summer house, and rustic benches and railings. He designed 5 miles of carriage drives, paved with crushed red shale from the site. Church kept buying more land until his property covered 250.2 acres. This included the top of the hill where the main house at Olana now stands.
Church carefully planned the layout of the carriage drives and planted many trees and shrubs. He did this to hide, show, and frame views of his own property and the wider Hudson Valley. Frederick Law Olmsted thought of such landscapes as "pictures" that people could wander through. The Churches often entertained guests. They also opened the Olana grounds to the public. Visitors could drive along the carriage roads and experience the artist's landscape views. It was almost like watching a movie, with scenes planned by Church.
The most amazing part of Church's designed landscape is the view from the main house. From there, the ground drops away sharply. The Hudson River widens to 2 miles across, and the Catskills rise steeply. Like Church's paintings of Niagara Falls or South American volcanoes, this scene shows the grandeur of nature. For Church and people of his time, this view also represented the spirit of their new nation. It connected to pioneering history, economic strength, and the rich artistic heritage of the region.
The Main Residence
The main house at Olana is made of stone and brick. It has colorful patterns painted on it. It's a unique mix of Victorian building styles and Middle Eastern decorations. These decorations come from different times and places. For example, Moorish designs are mixed with Italianate ideas. Frederic and Isabel Church were very impressed by the buildings they saw on their trip to Beirut, Jerusalem, and Damascus in 1868.
When they returned to their farm, they changed their plans for the house. They had first thought about a French-style manor house. Instead, Church worked closely with architect Calvert Vaux to create his own unique vision. Church was in charge of the overall design and many of the small details. Vaux mostly acted as a helper. 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 towers and block walls that were not perfectly balanced. It had interesting windows and porches. The outside of the house looked uneven. But inside, the rooms were arranged more regularly around a central hall. On the outside, Middle Eastern designs were made with colored brick, slate, and ceramic tiles. The colorful patterns were also painted on the house. Church designed these patterns himself. The painted patterns continued inside the main rooms on the first floor.
All these different designs and themes create a special artistic look. It's hard to put it into one category. Some people have called it Persian-Moorish-Eclectic. Others have called it Italianate-Eastern-Picturesque. The poet John Ashbery said it was "breathtaking." He also said that even with all the different parts and colorful tiles, it felt "solemn and wildly fanciful, like Church's painting."
Church also designed or ordered many other special features. These included amber glass windows with cut-paper designs. He also had carved teak wood from Lockwood de Forest's workshops in India. Without an architect, Church designed and built the studio wing on the west side of the house. This part included guest rooms and a glass-enclosed observation room in the tower. Church described his house to a newspaper reporter as "Persian, adapted to the Occident." This means Persian style made to fit Western tastes.
The furniture and decorations that Frederic and Isabel collected throughout their lives are still in the house. There are paintings by Frederic Church. There are also artworks by his teacher, Thomas Cole, and friends like Martin Johnson Heade and Erastus Dow Palmer. The dining room has a collection of older, famous paintings. The mix of furniture and art includes carpets, metalwork, ceramics, and clothes from the Middle East. There is also folk art and fine art from Mexico, and fancy American and Oriental furniture. The main house at Olana is a great example of the Aesthetic Movement in America. This movement focused on creating beauty in art and design.
Exterior views
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Tower at the south corner of the house
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Detail of the southwest facade
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Studio addition at the northeast
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Closeup of the piazza and studio tower
Interior views
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Court Hall
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Dining Room
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A first-floor interior
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Fireplace in the studio
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A first-floor interior
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A first-floor interior
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Porch
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Main staircase
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A second-floor bedroom
Artworks Created at Olana
Frederic Church created some of his most famous paintings at Olana. He had a studio on the hill above Cosy Cottage. Throughout his life, especially in the 1850s, Church traveled across North and South America. He made oil and pencil sketches that he used later for his artworks.
Even though Church's major paintings look like exact copies of landscapes, he called them "compositions." This means he created them from his sketches and his own artistic ideas. In the 1860s and 1870s, he did this work at Olana. He also worked at his Tenth Street Studio Building in New York City. Usually, Church did most of his painting in the studio at Olana. Then he would finish the painting in New York. Church also made lively sketches of the Olana landscape. He framed some of these and hung them in the main house.
In his studio at Olana, he made hundreds of pencil and oil drawings. These were for the patterns on the walls, fireplaces, railings, and other parts of the main house. In the 1870s, Church developed rheumatism, which made it hard for him to paint as much. He started to focus more on Olana itself. He improved the landscape, bought art for the house, and built the studio wing.
Olana was one of several grand artists' homes in the Hudson River valley. Other examples include Albert Bierstadt's Malkasten and Jasper Francis Cropsey's Ever Rest.
Protecting the Views
The Olana Viewshed includes amazing panoramic views. These views start in the Hudson River Valley and reach toward Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut. To the west, the Sieghenbergh hill drops off steeply. This offers a view of the Hudson River through native trees that Frederic Church planted. West of the Hudson River, you can see the eastern part of the Catskill Mountains. To the southwest and south, the land goes down to Quarry Hill. This directs your eye three miles away to Inbocht Bay. To the southeast and east, Blue Hill rises in the distance.
In 1876, a New York journalist wrote, "There are no finer views in the world than he can command from his windows." Church spent over thirty years carefully designing the landscape. This included digging an artificial lake in 1873 to reflect the Hudson River. This helped balance the views. Church bought the property on Long Hill because of its grand views. He told his father, who was paying for the land, that it was important for "securing fine openings for the views."
After Frederic Church's lifetime, The Olana Partnership has worked hard to stop industrial projects that would block the views from Olana. In 1977, there were plans to build a nuclear power plant in Cementon. This area is south of Catskill and within Olana's viewshed. The proposed cooling tower would have been 250 feet tall. It would have released a large cloud and blocked views of the Catskill Mountains from many places, including Olana. A painting by Frederic Church of the south view from Olana was used in the hearings. It showed how important the Olana Viewshed was culturally and historically. In 1979, the power company announced they were stopping plans for the nuclear power plant.
In 1998, a company announced plans for a large coal-fired cement plant in Hudson and Greenport, New York. This was near the Hudson River banks. In 2001, a group of environmental organizations, including Olana, fought against this project. On April 24, 2005, after strong protests from the community and environmental groups, the company gave up its plans for the Greenport project.
Since 1992, Scenic Hudson and its partners have helped protect over 2,400 acres in the Olana Viewshed. In 2015, a special agreement protected views from Letterbox Farm Collective, a nearby farm.
Restoration and Management
Olana is managed by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The Olana Partnership also provides support. Both groups work to restore Olana to how it looked in the 1890s.
There is a large museum and archive at Olana, which was part of Church's original property. It is open to the public. It includes over 700 artworks by Church. It also has thousands of artworks by other artists. These include paintings by Martin Johnson Heade, Arthur Parton, and John Thomas Peele. There are also many works by Church's close friend, the sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer. The archive is open to scholars. It contains letters, scrapbooks, bills, and other historical papers.
A visitor center is located in the old carriage house. An upstairs bedroom has been turned into the Evelyn and Maurice Sharp Gallery. This gallery shows changing art exhibitions, mostly from the archive collections.
The site was closed in 2006 for major renovations. Patterns on the walls were made stable, and new carpets were put in the Court Hall. Experts worked on the furniture, upholstery, and fabrics. Fire safety and climate control systems were also improved. When Olana reopened in May 2007, Commissioner Carol Ash said that the new equipment shows New York State's dedication to protecting this important historic landmark.
The old wagon house in the barn area now hosts educational programs. Future plans include rebuilding the wagon house and making the main barn stronger. This will help them serve as year-round centers for education. Olana is seen as a good example of how public and private groups can work together. Olana also supports protecting its views by encouraging donations of scenic easements on properties. They also work to stop industrial projects, like the proposed cement plant and power plant.
The Name "Olana"
The name "Olana" has been studied by many experts on Frederic Church's life. David C. Huntington's work in the 1960s was very important. He is credited not only with saving the site but also with making Church's art famous again.
Huntington thought that the name "Olana" came from an ancient language. An article from the 1890s in the Boston Herald had suggested this. In 1966, Huntington wrote that the Arabic word Al'ana, meaning "our place on high," might have been changed to "Olana" in Latin.
However, art historian Gerald L. Carr found no proof that the Churches ever thought of this meaning. Instead, Carr believed the answer was in a copy of Strabo's Geographica in Olana's library. This was a multi-volume reference book that Isabel Church gave to her husband for Christmas in 1879. One part of this classic Greek book describes a fortified treasure-house named Olana, or Olane. It was located on a hillside near the Araxes River in Artaxata. This city is in modern-day Armenia, close to the borders of Turkey and Iran. Carr thought that the Churches started calling their home "Olana" after reading Strabo. John Ashbery agreed. He wrote in 1997 that Strabo's Artaxata "was one of the supposed sites of the Garden of Eden." He believed the Churches must have felt a connection to both the peaceful and protected qualities of ancient Olana.
Visiting Olana
Olana is in the southern part of Greenport, New York, in Columbia County. It is south of Hudson and east of Catskill. You can drive to the estate from New York State Route 9G. It's less than an hour's drive south of Albany. The closest Amtrak train station is in Hudson.
The grounds are open during the day all year round. You can walk or drive on the original carriage roads. Guided tours of the house are usually available Tuesday through Sunday, and on holiday Mondays, from April to October. From November to March, tours are on Friday through Sunday. It's a good idea to make reservations for house tours. You are allowed to take photos anywhere on the grounds, including inside the house.
The Hudson River Skywalk is a pedestrian walkway across the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. It opened in 2019. This walkway connects Olana to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill.
See also
In Spanish: Olana para niños
- Historic Artists' Homes and Studios
