A Fabulous What’s Out There Weekend: Rhinebeck & the Mid-Hudson Valley
There’s no experience quite like fall in the Hudson River Valley when the temperatures cool and the trees are ablaze with color. On September 30 and October 1 the area was the perfect setting for The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s (TCLF) latest What’s Out There Weekend. For more than a decade TCLF’s weekends of free expert led tours have promised that attendees would “discover the design history of places they may pass every day but don’t necessarily know about.” According to one participant who toured the residential estate Wethersfield TCLF delivered: “I've been to Wethersfield many times in the last 40 years, and I learned more on the tour than I ever knew about it before.”
Some 600 attendees enjoyed two dozen tours, which were described as “magical,” and “could not have been better.” One participant remarked, “this was my second time touring with TCLF, but it won't be my last!” Destinations included some of the region’s best-known and beloved landscapes, including Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site and Montgomery Place, as well as hidden gems, such as Springside and Hoyt House. In addition, TCLF created a richly-illustrated 48-page What’s Out There Rhinebeck & the Mid-Hudson Valley guidebook (available for purchase and as a free downloadable PDF). Importantly, TCLF also launched a new digital guide to the region, featuring a detailed history, more than 40 site entries, and nearly 40 biographies of landscape architects and other shapers. The latter guide will continue to grow with the addition of more site entries and biographies.
On Saturday morning, hardy attendees were met with brisk cloudy weather during tours of Blithewood Garden, Staatsburgh State Historic Site, and Wilderstein Historic Site, each situated on rises along the east bank of the Hudson River. At Wilderstein attendees sheltered under the boughs of a mature oak tree before walking the property’s drives and trails laid out by Calvert and Downing Vaux. As tours continued at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, Edgewater, and Locust Grove Estate, the rain abated and the veil of clouds over the river lifted. At the latter site, attendees gathered on a bluff overlooking the river, where executive director and curator Kenneth Snodgrass provided a detailed history of the property and unpacked its landscape legacy. Concurrently, participants joined Bill Jeffway of the Dutchess County Historical Society’s and Susan McIntosh and Jackie Harper of Celebrating the African Spirit, at Hackett Hill Park to learn about the New Guina Community; a settlement of free and formerly enslaved people established in the late eighteenth century. At College Hill Park, attendees examined a large facsimile of Downing Vaux’s 1898 plan and toured the elevated site, among the highest points of Poughkeepsie, embellished by a colonnaded pavilion erected in 1935.
On Saturday afternoon participants had the unique opportunity to tour two landscapes shaped by pioneering landscape gardener, Beatrix Farrand: Bellfield (1912) and Vassar College (1925-1929). On the college tour, Vassar Art Professor Yvonne Elet traced the history of the campus from its nineteenth century origins, highlighting the contributions of pioneering practitioners and faculty, including John Charles Olmsted, Farrand, Edith Roberts and Eero Saarinen.
With cool temperatures and a cloudless sky, Sunday included tours of contemporary landscapes such as T-Space Reserve in Rhinebeck, designed by Steven Holl and Stven Holl Architects; and Long Dock Park, designed by Reed Hilderbrand landscape architects in Beacon. At Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, landscape curator Kate Kerin led visitors through the twentieth-century masterpiece. What made the Innisfree tour remarkable was the combination of landscape architect Lester Collins’ extraordinary design, created, edited, and refined over the space of more than a half century, and Kerin’s extensive knowledge about the intricacies of the site and her ability to tell its story in a captivating and compelling way. At Wethersfield Estate & Garden in Amenia, Toshi Yano, the former director of horticulture, provided an exceptional tour of the twentieth century site, expertly detailing the “history of the place and history of the plantings including the changes over the years,” as one attendee noted after the event.
What’s Out There Weekend Rhinebeck and the Mid-Hudson Valley would not have succeeded without the support from our Lead Sponsors Dutchess Tourism and the Town of Rhinebeck; Presenting Sponsors Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Maple Leaf Associates; Educational Partners ASLA Upstate New York State, Dutchess County Historical Society, Innisfree Garden, and all our Supporting Sponsors and Friends.
