This past weekend I toured six “country seats” built by various members of the venerable and prominent Livingston family of the Hudson River Valley in the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: most privately-owned, one owned by the state of New York. My brother and brother-in-law live in Rhinebeck, so I have visited this region quite a bit, but I find new old houses every single time I return, and this time was no exception. When we started off, I was thinking only 6 houses? we’ll be done in a flash and $60 for six houses! as our Christmas in Salem tour features more houses and a lower ticket price but it took us most of the day and was well worth it: I had an urban house tour in my mind where you just walk from place to place but these are rural county seats situated on vast acres of land—-mostly waterfront. The scale of both houses and land was much larger than your average house tour, and the tour was a bargain: I’m alway happy to support historic preservation in any case, and in this case it was Hudson River Heritage. I’m going to present the tour in the very order that we saw these houses and give you my impressions of each along the way: no interior photography was allowed except in the state-owned property, Clermont, but as one of the houses is currently for sale and others are included in the amazing (again, expensive but worth it) newly-published book by Pieter Estersohn titled Life Along the Hudson. The Historic Country Estates of the Livingston Family and other publications I can show you some interior views.
You will notice it getting progressively brighter; the day started out pretty dreary and ended with sun. Still all houses shone.
RICHMOND HILL, built in 1808
This federal—-no I think proper Palladian is more accurate–house was simply stunning: beautiful proportions and details. It is the most formal farmhouse I have ever seen as it sits in the midst of 58 acres and many outbuildings, including a period Dutch barn, also unlike anything I have ever seen (I’m such a New Englander!). It has not been lived in for some time and is currently for sale: the photographs on the real estate site (I’m including the west bedroom and basement kitchen below–there’s a modern kitchen too!) are not really doing it justice in terms of the details: one of the mantles had a pinecone design which (again) I have never seen before.
CHIDDINGSTONE, Built in 1860
This is a “Bracketed Italianate” house which has recently been restored and redecorated with 15-foot ceilings and a stunning river view. The interior is all about height over width: the rooms were not all that large in terms of size but those high ceilings, along with the floor-to-ceiling windows and furnishings, made them seem positively grand.

The front parlor photographed by Pieter Estersohn
CLERMONT, Built from 1779-82
Then it was on to the oldest Livingston house, Clermont, which was built in the 1730s but burned mostly to the ground by the British during the Revolutionary War and rebuilt between 1779 and 1782. Clermont is a state historic site with an informative visitors’ center and extensive grounds along the river. Here we had a proper (essentially genealogical) tour and were able to take photographs: the interiors are furnished in the Colonial Revival style adopted by the last Livingstons to live at Clermont in the 1930s.
MIDWOOD, built in 1888
Midwood is a sprawling Colonial Revival house situated on 87 acres along the Hudson: it made quite the contrast from Clermont as it is a very much lived-in and lively house, furnished in an eclectic style that must reflect the spirit of its owner and felt very “Bloomsbury” to me: we spent quite some time there just because there was so much to see and we were not alone. You can take your own tour here, and I’m sharing two interior views below.

Side Parlors photographed by Christopher Baker
CLARKSON CHAPEL, built c. 1860
One of many board and batten Carpenter Gothic structures in the region, the Clarkson Chapel was built following a dispute–a schism, I suppose– at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in nearby Tivoli. Here we met a wonderful guide/steward who had made her own chart of the division of the original Livingston Manor. This was very helpful, and another informative source is here.
EDGEWATER, Built in 1825
Our last stop was at Edgewater, a magnificent Greek Revival mansion perched on the Hudson shore in Barrytown, the long-time home of Richard Jenrette, who died earlier this year. My first house was a Greek Revival, and so I studied and bought everything I could about this iconic architectural style, and Mr. Jenrette’s Adventures with Old Houses (1995) became a bible of sorts: my copy is coffee-cup stained, page-marked, and well-worn. Edgewater is preserved, polished, and furnished to perfection, and signs of Mr. Jenrette were all around within: notes, cards, the lift on the magnificent stairs, the program to his memorial service. Of course the whole house is a memorial to him, as is the foundation which now owns Edgewater and his other homes: the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. I had pored over pictures of Edgewater so many times that when I finally found myself inside, I felt like I was returning to it, which is the first time I’ve had that experience. That said, it’s even more beautiful than its photographs and is a very real, much-loved house indeed.

Photographs of the Music Room and Dining Room by Dorothy Hong for the Wall Street Journal (above); the Edgewater guesthouse (below) was built in 1996.
October 16th, 2018 at 8:21 am
Thank you for more pix – I’m definitely going to remember this tour for next autumn!
October 16th, 2018 at 8:23 am
Well worth it! Mark your calendar! I have about 100 other photographs (even without interiors): it was really hard to choose!
October 16th, 2018 at 8:59 am
Nice houses! And a great narrative! My favorite picture is the green wood floor.
October 16th, 2018 at 9:09 am
Hi Mark–nice to hear from you. I love that green floor too–we have painted floors on our 3rd floor and I am currently searching for just that shade.
October 16th, 2018 at 10:12 am
Richmond Hill certainly Palladian
but even Chiddingstone with that wonderful back porch and relationship to the garden has the classic Palladian front to
rear relationship.
October 16th, 2018 at 10:22 am
Thanks, Lou— I had no architect with me!
October 16th, 2018 at 11:41 am
Hi!
I thought you might enjoy this for the next time you and Josh want a little road trip. Also, Best Friends’ shelter in Soho has a kitten nursery with big windows on the lobby, so you can watch the baby kitties being bottle fed! No place like NY.
No headache today for me. Just got back from the hairdresser; I will have a decision about the article anon.
Sent from my iPad – L
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October 16th, 2018 at 3:44 pm
Hi Donna,
Thank you for another wonderful armchair excursion to a place I have always wanted to visit – the Hudson Valley area in fall. It reminds me of my favorite short story of all time, THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW written by Washington Irving circa 1820 …
“…From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. …”
Gorgeous pics too!
October 16th, 2018 at 6:32 pm
Oh Helen, you must go there—you would love it!
October 17th, 2018 at 7:20 am
Thank you Donna for a great armchair tour. I’ve always dreamed of living beside a river. The storied Hudson gave these trading families their fortunes and their fertile land, the view and the raison d’etre.
Would love to see these in person.
October 18th, 2018 at 9:29 am
Thanks, Nina!
October 21st, 2018 at 5:48 am
Wow! This is the most enthusiastic post you’ve put up since PEM darkened your days. And quite enjoyable, too.
October 21st, 2018 at 6:51 am
I’ve been four for that long? Good to know!
October 21st, 2018 at 6:53 am
DOUR, not four!
October 21st, 2018 at 10:19 am
Not all the time. But this is definitely perkier than you’ve been in a while.
And I did sit there scratching my head about “four.” “Is she accusing me of calling her a four-year-old?” “Four for what?” “Foul?” “Pour? No, that’s can’t be right.”