For Historic Hudson Valley, a pledge of $675,000 from several local philanthropists represents the seed money for its dream of enticing visitors to Montgomery Place ”“ the most ambitious site the organization administers.
The five-year financial commitment “came from the knowledge of these several donors of what a challenge it can be in tough economic times to promote a historical site, especially one that is remote from our other locations,” said Waddell W. Stillman, president of the Tarrytown-based HHV.
An extensive complex that was once the home of orchardist Janet Livingston Montgomery ”“ widow of Revolutionary War Gen. Richard Montgomery ”“ Montgomery Place is the only one of the six sites that HHV oversees that is not in Westchester County. Its 17 buildings make up much of the village of Annandale-on-Hudson in the town of Red Hook in Dutchess County.
“It”™s a great cultural asset for Dutchess County and the mid-Hudson region,” said Benjamin Krevolin, president of the Dutchess County Arts Council, adding that the infusion of funds is “a very good sign that Historic Hudson Valley is still able to access strong individual support for Montgomery Place. Others will have to step up to the plate as well.”
Montgomery Place is also the largest of the properties HHV manages, its 380 acres is able to contain the five other sites ”“ Sunnyside, author Washington Irving”™s snug, Dutch-influenced home in Tarrytown; Philipsburg Manor, an 18th-century farm and mill in Sleepy Hollow;Â post-Revolutionary Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson; Kykuit, the landmark Rockefeller family home; and neighboring Union Church of Pocantico Hills, renowned for its stained-glass windows by Matisse and Chagall.
Though the names of the donors won”™t be announced until April, the effects of their generosity can already be felt.
“One thing the new pledge will do is to provide more access,” Stillman said.
HHV has already opened the grounds of Montgomery Place so that each day the public can enjoy burgeoning orchards, winding trails, classically inspired architecture and commanding views of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains. The Manor House, which dates from the Greek Revival period (circa 1860), will open for tours in May.
But perhaps the greatest impact of the pledged money is in the area of outreach as it enables HHV to toast neighbors, volunteers and other donors on the mansion”™s north portico; partner with Dutchess businesses and institutions; and bring back beloved events. (See accompanying box for details.)
Â
HHV will team with The Madalin Hotel in Tivoli for Madalin at Montgomery Place, a catering venture that will serve up sunset dining on Fridays. HHV has also created an internship for a Bard College graduate to help develop programs at Montgomery Place that will complement the adjacent college”™s Family Weekend in October.
Â
All of which represents an astonishing turnaround for the Dutchess estate. It was just last fall when a New York Times article suggested that HHV was looking to dispose of the property. While that intimation turned out to be unfounded, Stillman acknowledges that the board of trustees wrestled with what to do with the sprawling site in the face of the current economic crisis. Like many area cultural institutions, HHV saw its endowment erode ”“ to the tune of about $20 million ”“ along with the attendant hiring and wage freezes and staff furloughs. Though the conservatively invested endowment is now at $50 million and cost-cutting measures appear to be things of the past, the difficulty in attracting the public to Montgomery Place ”“ which absorbs some $500,000 of HHV”™s $8-million budget annually ”“ has remained. Over 23 years of ownership, HHV has pumped more than $24 million into the property, mostly from the unrestricted portion of the endowment.
Recently, HHV has completed two renovation projects there with money from New York state ”“ a $950,000 grant to install water, sewer and electrical infrastructure in some of the buildings and a $200,000 matching grant to restore the exterior of the Swiss Factory Lodge. Once the home of mill workers, the lodge is one of four buildings on the estate that bear the stamp of architect A.J. Davis, along with the Manor House, the Coach House and the Farm House. The lodge is the only extant example of a Davis dwelling in a Swiss chalet style.
Exterior restorations, approved before the economic collapse, continue this year with the Farm House. But perhaps more important, the face-lift accompanies a new inner direction. HHV has reinterpreted the site to reflect America”™s changing relationship with the environment ”“ much as it reinvented Philipsburg Manor to mirror the contributions of the African slaves who actually ran and worked that locale for the Philipse family.
At Montgomery Place, about a dozen poster-size text panels ”“ some vertical, some tilted like easels ”“ will be installed around Columbus Day to explore the transformation of this “American Arcadia,” from working farm to summer estate to country retreat. The cost of the panels is still to be determined as the project is being put out to bid, Stillman said. An expanded website, due later, will further plumb the issues raised in the panels, not the least of which is the role that four women played in shaping the site”™s destiny. Janet Livingston Montgomery ”“ who bought the property and built a mansion, farm and fruit-tree nursery business at a time when a young America sought to tame the land ”“ “was not just a female version of a gentleman farmer,” Stillman said. “She was an accomplished businesswoman who knew how to make a profit.”
Her sister-in-law, Louise Livingston, who inherited the property in 1836, and her daughter, Cora Barton, turned the place into a pleasure palace of gardens and sun-dappled lawns. In 1921, heiress Violetta White Delafield and her husband, John Ross Delafield, added such healthy features as a tennis court and a swimming hole.
“In lots of ways, each of these eras speaks to how we look at the land ”“ as sources of business, beauty and good health and as places to enjoy athletics and aesthetics,” Stillman said.
HHV is taking its cue from these entrepreneurial women as it considers ways to drive traffic to Montgomery Place. These could include river tours, creating an artists”™ colony, renting more living space to Bard professors or expanding Montgomery Place Orchards, the fruit stand Doug and Talea Fincke operate as part of the site”™s historical character.
Â
Given the current economic climate, Krevolin said he sees more hybrid partnerships between not-for-profits such as Montgomery Place and businesses, adding that not-for-profits will have to take care to protect the integrity of their status.
Â
“I”™m also looking forward,” he added, “to seeing how Montgomery Place can leverage the attendance of the other Historic Hudson Valley properties.”
Says Stillman: “We”™re open to all kinds of ideas.”
Â
More on Montgomery
The grounds of Montgomery Place are open free of charge daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pets are not allowed.
The Manor House will be open May 15-Oct. 31 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursdays through Sundays. Tours begin on the hour with the last at 3 p.m. The 45-minute tour costs $10. Group tours include the complex”™s Coach House.
Montgomery Place”™s first “porch party” ”“ so named for the trio of classically inspired porticos architect A.J. Davis added to the Manor House ”“ takes place the evening of June 5. The fund-raiser features catering by The Madalin Hotel in Tivoli; wine from Millbrook Vineyards proprietor John Dyson, a former trustee and board chairman of Historic Hudson Valley; and fruits from Montgomery Place Orchards, which Doug and Talea Fincke operate on the estate.
The antique car show returns to Montgomery Place Sept. 12. The estate will also play host to special programming for Family Weekend at nearby Bard College Oct. 22-24. For more information, call 914-631-8200 or log on to www.hudsonvalley.org
