The lover of the expressive in nature, or the beautiful in art, will find here innumerable subjects for study. The natural scenery in many portions approaches the character of grandeur, and the foreground of rich woods and lawns, stretching out on all sides of the mountain, completes a home landscape of dignified and elegant seclusion, rarely surpassed in any country. - Andrew Jackson Downing
Montgomery Place, a serene reflection of nearly 200 years of continuous family stewardship, is best known as an architectural landmark designed by Alexander Jackson Davis and a landscape influenced by the great Andrew Jackson Downing. But the totality of the estate - house furnishings, gardens, woodlands, orchards, and hamlet make it a unique American treasure.
A National Historic Landmark, Montgomery Place is an extraordinary 434-acre Hudson River estate with magnificent views of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains. It is located on historic River Road in the hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, just north of the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge.
Montgomery Place was established by Janet Livingston Montgomery, widow of Revolutionary War hero General Richard Montgomery. She built the Federal-style house in 1804-05 and established a prosperous commercial nursery on the property. During the first half of the 19th century, her descendants created one of the most beautiful estates in the nation. The era's preeminent designers, architect Alexander Jackson Davis and landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing, assisted them in their endeavor. In 1850, Downing wrote that Montgomery Place is "...nowhere surpassed in America in point of location, natural beauty, or landscape gardening charms." In the 1930s, the generation living there created a 20th-century horticultural showcase, one that continues to flourish today.
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College offers an architecturally bold and dynamic environment for innovative artistic presentation in the Hudson Valley. The center provides audiences with a world-class complex that inspires risk-taking performances and provocative programs in orchestral, chamber, and jazz music and theater, dance, and opera by American and international artists.
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, situated on the east bank of the Hudson River in the beautiful Hudson Valley, about 90 miles north of New York City and 220 miles southwest of Boston. It is surrounded by several Hudson Valley estates, including Montgomery Place, Clermont, Olana, Mills Mansion, the Vanderbilt Estate, and the Roosevelt Home and Museum, all of which are open to the public. Other nearby attractions include the Culinary Institute of America, Cary Arboretum, Innisfree Garden, country auctions, wineries, pick-your-own vegetable and fruit farms, nature sanctuaries, and historic river ports. Special events during the Bard Music Festival include daily tours of the Hudson River houses and riverboat excursions.
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