Staatsburgh State Historic Site - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Staatsburgh State Historic Site preserves a Beaux-Arts mansion designed by McKim, Mead, and White

McKim, Mead, and White

McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...

and the home's surrounding landscape in the hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

of
Staatsburg

Staatsburg, New York

Staatsburg is a hamlet in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 911 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined...

, Dutchess County

Dutchess County, New York

Dutchess County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The 2010 census lists the population as 297,488...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, USA. The mansion is
considered a fine example of the great estates built during the
Gilded Age

Gilded Age

In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...

History

In 1792, Morgan Lewis

Morgan Lewis (governor)

Morgan Lewis was an American lawyer, politician and military commander.Of Welsh descent, he was the son of Francis Lewis, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He graduated from Princeton in 1773 and began to study law on the advice of his father...

, a Governor of New York

Governor of New York

The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...

, purchased an estate covering about 334 acres (135.2 ha) and commissioned the construction of a colonial-style house on the site of the present day mansion. In 1832, this first house was destroyed by a fire said to be an act of arson committed by disgruntled tenant farmers. After the fire, Morgan Lewis and his wife, Gertrude Livingston, a sister of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, immediately replaced the structure with a Greek Revival mansion with 25 rooms. The house was inherited in 1844 by Gov. Morgan Lewis's daughter Margaret and her husband Maturin Livingston

Maturin Livingston

Maturin Livingston was an American lawyer and politician from New York.-Life:He was the son of Robert James Livingston and Susanna Livingston...

; and in 1847 by the couple's son Maturin Livingston (1816-1888).

In 1890, Ruth Livingston Mills, the great-grand daughter of Morgan Lewis and the mother of Ogden L. Mills

Ogden L. Mills

Ogden Livingston Mills was an American businessman and politician.-Biography:The son of Ogden Mills and Ruth T. Livingston, he had twin sisters Beatrice Mills and Gladys Livingston Mills. Odgen L. Mills was the grandson of Darius O...

, Secretary of the Treasury

United States Secretary of the Treasury

The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...

, inherited the estate. Not long afterwards, Ruth Livingston Mills and her husband, the financier and philanthropist Ogden Mills, commissioned a remodelling and enlargement of the mansion to the architectural firm

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

of McKim, Mead, and White

McKim, Mead, and White

. The principal architect was Stanford White

Stanford White

Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...

. Work started in 1895 and when completed in the following year, had turned the house into a Beaux-Arts mansion with 65 rooms, 14 bathrooms, and 23 fireplaces. The cost of the work is reported to have cost about $350,000. As part of the process, a coal-powered electricity plant was constructed near the Hudson river to supply the electric lights in the mansion, which was also equipped with central heating. The mansion was used as a residence and for entertaining by the family, which owned five homes in total, mainly during the fall season between mid-September and the Christmas holidays. During this time, they hosted house parties, balls, and dinners. At the remainder of the year, the family stayed in one of their other residences in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Newport

Newport

Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...

, and California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Before her death, Ruth Livingston Mills began acquiring lands surrounding the estate. After her death in 1920, Mr. Mills continued to purchase surrounding property, enlarging the acreage of the property to total over 1600 acres (647.5 ha), the size of the mansion grounds at the time that it was given to the State of New York.

In 1929, the property was passed on to Ogden L. Mills

Ogden L. Mills

and upon his death in 1937, on to his sister Gladys Mills Phipps

Gladys Mills Phipps

Gladys Livingston Mills Phipps was an United States socialite, sportsperson, and a thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder who began the Phipps family dynasty in American horse racing...

.

In 1938, Gladys Mills Phipps donated the house and 192 acres (77.7 ha) of land to the State of New York as a memorial to her parents. As a State Historic Site, the estate is operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation operates :*168 state parks*35 state historic sites*76 developed beaches*53 water recreational facilities*27 golf courses*39 full service cottages*818 cabins...

. In 1988, the Friends of Mills Mansion were organized to support the preservation and educational work at the site.

Design

The outside of the mansion features a massive portico, balustrades, pilasters, and floral swags. The central part of the mansion is layered into a basement, 3 floors, and an attic. In the north and south wings, there is a subbasement, a basement, and two floors. Ceilings in the older part of the building dating prior to the enlargement (the first floor of the central part) are about 14 feet (4.3 m) high, whereas the ceilings of the later construction (first floor of the north and south wings) can be about 18 feet (5.5 m) high. The interior of the building is decorated in French styles of the 17th and 18th century. However, some architectural elements of the previous home have been preserved in the process.

Preservation

The Mills Mansion poses several challenges to preservation: On the outside, a gray sprayed concrete

Shotcrete

Shotcrete is concrete conveyed through a hose and pneumatically projected at high velocity onto a surface, as a construction technique....

finish which was added later as a preservation measure needs to be removed and replaced with a more suitable surface treatment. At the same time, the decorative cornice

Cornice

Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...

and many decorative elements need to be either restored or replaced. On the inside of the building, wall paint and furnishing fabrics are in need of replacement, marble and wooden surfaces need to be cleaned and the objects of the mansion's collection need to be conserved.

History

Design

Preservation

Further Reading