Saturday, January 9, 2010
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Road Kill 2008
A two-day road trip to the Hudson River Valley region was an ideal get-away to celebrate the fading foliage season. We made a six o’clock start on Sunday morning and after a drive time of less than three hours we were in Dutchess County, New York State. Our first destination was Springwood, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home overlooking the Hudson River in Hyde Park. The National Park Service does an adequate if not a stellar job of preserving the mansion and grounds as an historic memorial to our 32nd president. From the Henry Wallace Visitor Center we began our tour under the guidance of Park Ranger Cooper Leatherwood or “Coop” to his daily audience of tourists. Coop was a plump gentleman with a round torso from which appendages sprouted almost like Mr. Potato Head. Outside, a small express cart was declared by Coop to be only for the infirm or handicapped. “It is not an amusement ride,” he admonished, at which point three members of our party immediately scampered aboard. As a park historian his knowledge and delivery of Roosevelt Family history were professorial but still interesting and we parted having a greater sense of the Roosevelt domain in American society in a bygone era.
Our next destination was a 10 minute drive north on Route 9 to the Mansion of Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt, a “country place” designed by the prominent architectural firm of the day, McKim, Mead and White. Margaret, our tour guide commented that the 54 room house, completed in 1898, is an exquisite example of the Beaux-Arts architectural style. The men’s and ladies parlors, segregated from an elegant dining room for “just eighteen” were extraordinary windows on the Gilded Age of opulence and wealth in post civil war America.
Next, we skedaddled to nearby Wilderstein, the landmark home of Margaret “Daisy” Suckley who was a sixth cousin and "confidant" to FDR. The Victorian style mansion is being painstakingly restored by an independent non-profit organization. We were fifteen minutes too late for the last tour and David’s effort to finagle a last minute viewing of the house was firmly rebuffed by a middle-aged talkative lady who, for reasons unknown, sported a nasty gash on the bridge of her nose. None-the-less we enjoyed our brief self-guided hike around the grounds with its grand view of the Hudson River that recalled a more romantic era.
A forty-five minute drive to Albany completed the day’s trek where we retreated to a brand spanking new Marriott Hotel/Suites. We dined leisurely at Carmines, an excellent Italian Restaurant hidden away in a small strip mall several blocks south of our hotel before retiring for the evening. Monday morning we awakened refreshed and headed to the New York State Capitol Building high atop Albany’s State Street Hill. When Governor Theodore Roosevelt declared this building complete in 1899 it had been under construction for almost a quarter of a century. The edifice survived a 1911 fire that nearly destroyed the west wing. It was declared a historic landmark in 1979 and is presently undergoing a restoration to return it to its elegant appearance of a century ago. Inside we visited both the Assembly and Senate Chambers climbing several levels of historic staircases in the process. Outside, we wandered through the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, which is distinguished by the “Egg,” a theater and arts center, as well as four identical skyscrapers that dominate the cityscape.
Back in the car again, we redirected our journey to Route 9H near the village of Kinderhook and Lindenwald the post-presidential home and farm of our nation’s 8th president, Martin Van Buren. The National Park Service operates Lindenwald and a young NPS guide greeted us and led us through a superb tour of the historic Van Buren household. It is too bad that we never learned his name because his energy and obvious enthusiasm for the Van Buren legacy made this a fun and engaging visit. He was most knowledgeable and had a raconteur’s way of re-telling history. At one point, donning white sanitary gloves, he displayed with obvious admiration, a hickory cane adorned with an engraved sterling silver handle and knob that was presented to the former President by allies of his mentor Andrew Jackson.
By mid-afternoon and we found our way to Route 90 East toward the Massachusetts Turnpike leading to Stockbridge, home of the Norman Rockwell Museum. This was a fanciful and up-lifting museum with many original works of this artist and inspirational chronicler of Americana. In the lower level there were reproductions of every Saturday Evening Post cover illustration he produced as well as a short video on his creative life.
We logged 160 miles and two and a half hours from Stockbridge to home, concluding our autumn exploration of the Hudson River Valley. This was a splendid tour of discovery to select segments of our country’s history and geography, with more exploration to come when wanderlust inspires yet another road trip.
Our next destination was a 10 minute drive north on Route 9 to the Mansion of Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt, a “country place” designed by the prominent architectural firm of the day, McKim, Mead and White. Margaret, our tour guide commented that the 54 room house, completed in 1898, is an exquisite example of the Beaux-Arts architectural style. The men’s and ladies parlors, segregated from an elegant dining room for “just eighteen” were extraordinary windows on the Gilded Age of opulence and wealth in post civil war America.
Next, we skedaddled to nearby Wilderstein, the landmark home of Margaret “Daisy” Suckley who was a sixth cousin and "confidant" to FDR. The Victorian style mansion is being painstakingly restored by an independent non-profit organization. We were fifteen minutes too late for the last tour and David’s effort to finagle a last minute viewing of the house was firmly rebuffed by a middle-aged talkative lady who, for reasons unknown, sported a nasty gash on the bridge of her nose. None-the-less we enjoyed our brief self-guided hike around the grounds with its grand view of the Hudson River that recalled a more romantic era.
A forty-five minute drive to Albany completed the day’s trek where we retreated to a brand spanking new Marriott Hotel/Suites. We dined leisurely at Carmines, an excellent Italian Restaurant hidden away in a small strip mall several blocks south of our hotel before retiring for the evening. Monday morning we awakened refreshed and headed to the New York State Capitol Building high atop Albany’s State Street Hill. When Governor Theodore Roosevelt declared this building complete in 1899 it had been under construction for almost a quarter of a century. The edifice survived a 1911 fire that nearly destroyed the west wing. It was declared a historic landmark in 1979 and is presently undergoing a restoration to return it to its elegant appearance of a century ago. Inside we visited both the Assembly and Senate Chambers climbing several levels of historic staircases in the process. Outside, we wandered through the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, which is distinguished by the “Egg,” a theater and arts center, as well as four identical skyscrapers that dominate the cityscape.
Back in the car again, we redirected our journey to Route 9H near the village of Kinderhook and Lindenwald the post-presidential home and farm of our nation’s 8th president, Martin Van Buren. The National Park Service operates Lindenwald and a young NPS guide greeted us and led us through a superb tour of the historic Van Buren household. It is too bad that we never learned his name because his energy and obvious enthusiasm for the Van Buren legacy made this a fun and engaging visit. He was most knowledgeable and had a raconteur’s way of re-telling history. At one point, donning white sanitary gloves, he displayed with obvious admiration, a hickory cane adorned with an engraved sterling silver handle and knob that was presented to the former President by allies of his mentor Andrew Jackson.
By mid-afternoon and we found our way to Route 90 East toward the Massachusetts Turnpike leading to Stockbridge, home of the Norman Rockwell Museum. This was a fanciful and up-lifting museum with many original works of this artist and inspirational chronicler of Americana. In the lower level there were reproductions of every Saturday Evening Post cover illustration he produced as well as a short video on his creative life.
We logged 160 miles and two and a half hours from Stockbridge to home, concluding our autumn exploration of the Hudson River Valley. This was a splendid tour of discovery to select segments of our country’s history and geography, with more exploration to come when wanderlust inspires yet another road trip.
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