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| Sculpture-topped fountain at Kykuit. Photo by Ariella Brown (all rights reserved) |
If you decide to explore some of New York's historic Hudson Valley, you can see a study in contrasts between two Rockefeller estates: William Rockefeller's Rockwood Hall in Tarrytown and John D. Rockefeller's Kykuit in Sleepy Hollow.
Now you see it, now you don't
The first obvious difference is that you can drive right over to the site of Rockwood Hall and walk about it freely, as it is now a public public park. You cannot just drop in to see Kykuit. You have to first stop at the the Viistor Center at Phillipsburg Manor to meet for the tour there -- even if you have purchased your ticket online to save $2 . (You cannot tour the Phillipsburg Manor freely either, so if you want to work out that tour, budget both the time and the cost to do so on your visit).
(Below is a picture of the grist mill at Phillipsburg Manor that I took in August 2022. I was on the tour years of the property several years ago. I'd say it's worth doing once but not necessarily doing twice.)
Aside from the cost of free vs. $20, $40, or $60 (depending on whether you go for 90 minutes, 2.25 hours or a full 3 hour tour) to see Kykuit, the most striking difference between the two is that in one you get to see a house, and in the other the house is gone. Below is all that remains of the 204 room Gilded Age tour de force built in "castellated Elizabethan style," which was demolished in 1941. Alas, no Escape to the Chateau style revival is possible. (The fact that the estate was designed to be self-sustaining with all the food grown and/or bred on it to serve the family, servants and guests reminded me of the Strawbridges' ambition to use the Chateau's property in the same way).
These structures pictured above were not part of the building itself but a front area for tennis, etc. It does give off quite an Ozymandias vibe when you know the history of the house. In fact, the hiking tour that is offered for this -- a mere $4.02 expenditure with EventBrite's fee -- offers visitors a sticker with a picture of the house that is conspicuously absent shown below:
William Rockefeller was not the first one to scope out that site for an impressive mansion. There was already one there when purchased the property. But as he expanded his holding to a full thousand acres and hired Frederick Law Olmsted -- famous for the design of both Central Park and Prospect Park -- , to design the landscape, he also expanded the house. It's not clear if he tore down the existing structure or added to it. You can read more about that and see some (not color) photographs of the interior decorated in the "more is more" style that defined the Gilded Age here:
Crazy Rich Baptists
While William went for the over-the-top look of a castle, his brother John settled for a mere 40 rooms in his mansion that didn't even boast a ballroom. The largest room in the house is the music room, which was used for playing the organ and piano but not for dancing. Nor was alcohol served under John's domain because he was devout Baptist. However, that level of observance didn't last too long, and his son met his wife at a dance (according to the account of our tour guide) and also invested in wine glasses. on display in the butler's pantry when he gained control of the house.
If you zoom in on the picture below, you can notice a great deal of detail on the front of the house -- from the eagle on top to the carvings below -- including representation of the arts and agriculture around the center windows. but aside from the art of the architecture, the house is home to many pieces of art --placed in various rooms, set out in the art gallery below the first floor, and scattered throughout the extensive and meticulously manicured grounds.
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| The Oceanus fountain holds a prominent place in the front of the property. It is a copy of the fountain that Giovanni Bologna designed for the Pitti Palace at the Boboli Gardens in Florence. |
There are many fountains around the grounds, but not all of them were on, as you can see from what's pictured above. Even the fountain that was the parallel one to the one in front of the front entrance shown below wasn't on.
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| Kykuit: The gate shown here notes the year of construction. the one opposite it notes the year of completion. |
Below is one of the many outdoor sculptures. The one below is by Karl Bitter.
The picture above is one I took on a tour several years ago, though it was also in August. We saw more of the grounds on that tour and I took this picture of the view, sculpture and space that also frames garden views.
On this visit, we got to see the inside of the garage with a vast collection of carriages for horses and a section of the automobiles that were used by the succeeding generations of people who lived in the house, ranging from a Ford Model S (earlier than T) to cars made in the 60s. Many of them still retained inspection stickers form 1981-1984, indicating they were still used about a decade before the house was turned over to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1992.
Use it or lose it
And that is really why this house remained standing. It was occupied and used as a home for several generations and then turned over to a trust to be preserved a historic home that also functions as an museum. In contrast, the vast castle that William built was not kept as a family home, and so it became a white elephant of a property turned to use as a country club but not a residence. When that use failed, the lack of maintenance caused the crumbling property to become a potential hazard, which is what prompted the 20th Century heir of Rock Hall to demolish it and supposedly throw its parts into the Hudson.
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