Montgomery Place-Bard College
26 Gardener Way & River Road
Red Hook, NY 12571
https://www.bard.edu/montgomeryplace/
Open: Sunday-Saturday From Dawn to Dusk/Mansion is closed
My review on TripAdvisor:
The front of Montgomery Place in the summer of 2023
On a recent trip to the Hudson River Valley for Fall events I took a tour of Bard Campus to visit their campus and tour Montgomery Place which the college bought from the Hudson River Historical Society in 2016. It is now part of the campus and you can tour the grounds but not the inside of the house.
The back of Montgomery Place
Montgomery Place on the Bard College Campus
Before 2016 when the house was owned by the Historic Hudson Valley Society, who used to have tours of the mansion. When the family sold the mansion and all its contents to the Society, they left the house untouched when they moved out you got to see how the Livingston family lived not just in current times but with all the historical furniture that came with the house.
The view from the house to the Hudson River
The gardens from the back of the house
The former tour used to take you through each room that had antique furniture and decorations but much of the house had been modernized over the years. Older furnishings had either been conserved or slipcovered because of age. Since the house has been sold to Bard College, you can only tour the house by appointment only through the college.
The mansion’s portico overlooking the Hudson River
The grounds are still impressive. During the Spring, the formal gardens next to the house are in full bloom and the last time I had taken a tour there, the gardens were being maintained by a local garden club.
The entrance to the Montgomery Place gardens
There were flower beds, herb gardens and cutting gardens on top of the flowing lawns from the house to the river. The gardens are broken into three different sections: the Eclipse Gardens, the Wilderness Gardens and the Walled Gardens. Each of them connects to the other and some have returned to their natural state over time and care of them.
The Montgomery Place Gardens are changing from Summer to Fall
Pathways through the gardens
The gardens were developed over time from Louise Livingston’s day to her daughter, Clara Livingston Barton and her husband building on them the to Delafield family, who were the last owners of the house maintaining and adding to them.
The formal gardens
The Garden Sign of the Ellipse and Rough Gardens
The Rough Garden
The Rough Garden was in full bloom with lotus and frogs all over the pond
The Ecllipse Garden has gone back to nature in comparison to the garden’s original plans
In the Fall on a recent visit, most of the gardens had been cut back with a few seasonal flowering bushes still showing color. The trees surrounding the house were turning a gold hue while the lawn that had been freshly cut was still emerald green. The house while a little worn from the outside still looked like it was ready to receive guests for the Fall season in the Hudson River Valley. The views from the back of the house are breathtaking from the window views of the Hudson River and the paths leading to it.
The Garden sign
In the Summer of 2023, the mansion grounds are open until dusk for people to walk around the estate and visit the gardens. The gardens were in bloom with summer flowers and plantings. The Rough Garden with it ponds were full of frogs who were making all sorts of noise. I had not seen a frog in the wild in many years and you just don’t see those and turtles anymore in the woods. The mansion is still not open except by appointment through the college.
The formal gardens in the summer of 2023
The grounds are well maintained but there is more detail in the maintenance of the gardens that are needed. They could use some weeding with all the crabgrass coming into the beds. Still the gardens are breathtaking on a warm sunny day and make quite an impression. They must have been something when the family maintained them with their gardeners.
the beauty of the formal gardens
There are all sorts of hiking trails to the Sawkill River and through the forests, a trail down to the Hudson River and tours of the property. The grounds are open from dawn to dusk and there is plenty of parking by the Visitor’s Center along with a history of the estate.
The History of the Estate:
(Taken from Wiki)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Place
The property had been home Native Americans for at least 5,000 years as a seasonal hunting ground. The Dutch settled in the area in the late 18th century using the Saw Kill River for various mills.
In the late 1770’s, Janet Livingston Montgomery purchased from Abraham Van Benthuysen 242 acres of land on the Hudson River after the death of her husband General Richard Montgomery at the Battle of Quebec. She moved into the home they built after the Revolutionary War. She later had plans made for a Federal style mansion on the riverfront property she bought and moved into her new home, Chateau de Montgomery, in 1805. She established a working farm with the help of friends who gave her tree samples (Wiki).
The Sun Dial in the Walled Garden during the summer of 2023.
Upon her death in 1828, the mansion was inherited by her brother, Edward Livingston. He had spent his summers vacationing here with his wife, Louise. They renamed the estate ‘Montgomery Place’. He died the next year and his wife, Louise hired Alexander Jackson Davis to convert the mansion into a more ornate villa. Two wings and exterior decoration were added at this time of the renovation. With the help of Andrew Jackson Downing, a friend of Louise’s and mentor to Davis, she developing the landscapes. Her daughter, Cora Barton worked with the architect on designing garden and conservatory (Wiki).
The front of the mansion
The back of the mansion from the grassy gardens facing the Hudson River
Upon Louise’s death in 1860, Cora and her husband hired Davis again to build some the earlier outbuildings including Coach House, Swiss Cottage and farmhouse and then extended the landscaping to turn the estate into more ‘pleasure grounds’ and have a separation from the farming operations.
The Coach House for Carriages and then cars
The house then passed on to another relative in 1921, John Ross Delafield who added heating and modern plumbing to the house. He and his wife also extended the gardens on the estate as well (Wiki). The gardens had more ornate features to them.
The “Walled Gardens” to the right of the mansion
Upon his death, his son John White Delafield inherited the house and they opened two corporations to own and operate the property.
The expansion of the gardens
In 1981, the estate was sold to the Historic Hudson Valley, the historical society. After an extensive renovation, the house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992 and it was bought by Bard College in 2016 who is its current owner (Wiki).
The Montgomery Place Mansion sign and the evolution of the home.
