Olana State Historic Site — Attraction in Town of Greenport

This is the house that Frederick Church, a successful Victorian landscape painter, built for himself after becoming enamored of the architecture of the Middle East. It is an incredible home in a fascinating style, and the estate is a beautiful wooded expanse overlooking the Hudson River. I imagine the grounds are stunning in spring and summer, though even in winter they were pleasant to hike around. You can wander the property with its guideposts for free, or take a guided tour of the house for $15. I didn't expect to need reservations in winter, but when I went online many of the tours for the day were sold out, so I bought tickets for the next day.

The house itself was incredible, but the tour left rather a lot to be desired. I was confused when booking online. There are a number of 60-minute specialty tours in the morning (one focusing on his art, another on his family, another on the architecture), and shorter 40-minute tours in the afternoon that seem to be more general interest. I chose the architecture tour because my main interest was the house rather than the painter. But our guide introduced the tour by saying "I know this is an architecture tour, but really it's your tour, so we can take it whatever way you want." True to this introduction, he gave us a generic tour, not at all architecture focused. I asked a number of questions about the architecture (what wood is the floor, did the paints use natural or alkaloid pigments), but the guide was unable to answer them. I'm not sure if this is how the specialty tours normally go, or if he was a sub for the usual guide for this tour, but it seems strange to have specialty tours if you're just going to give...

Olana State Historic Site is a historic house museum and property in Greenport, New York, near the city of Hudson. The estate was home to Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The centerpiece of Olana is an eclectic villa which overlooks parkland and a working farm designed by the artist. The residence has a wide view of the Hudson River Valley, the Catskill Mountains and the Taconic Range. Church and his wife Isabel (1836–1899) named their estate after a fortress-treasure house in ancient Greater Persia (modern-day Armenia), which also overlooked a river valley.

Olana is one of the few intact artists' home-, studio- and estate-complexes in the United States; it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. The house is also a prime example of Orientalist architecture. It is owned and operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and is also supported by The Olana Partnership, a non-profit 501 organization. The main building is an architectural masterpiece designed by the architect Calvert Vaux working closely with Church. The stone, brick, and polychrome-stenciled villa is a mixture of Victorian, Persian and Moorish styles. The interior remains much as it was during Church's lifetime, exotically furnished and decorated with objects from his global travels, and with some 40 paintings by Church and his friends. The house is intricately stenciled inside and out; Church designed the stencils based on his travels in the Middle East. The house contains Church's last studio, built as an addition from...

I purchased tickets online for The Artist-Designed Landscape tour and The Artist's House: Main Floor tour back-to-back. The landscape tour was a 1-mile walk around the house. It focused primarily on the landscape surrounding the house, and Frederic Church's intentions and purpose for designing the landscape as it is seen today. This place is unique, and unlike many of the historic homes I have visited. For one, the exterior is quite eccentric. You should take your time studying the painted flowers, colorful tiles, and golden hues of the exterior. All I need to say about the interior is WOW! The amount of chachkies and trinkets is overwhelming but in the most artistic and bohemian kind of way. It was truly amazing to see the Persian influence, and kind of refreshing. It was an eclectic space that you could tell was enjoyed and lived in, and I really loved seeing Church's artwork as well inside of the house. I highly recommend doing a tour inside the house if you haven't already!

Recommendation: Despite being a nice prelude to the house tour, I think I could have gone without the walking tour. I recommend coming earlier than your house tour so that you have time to stroll the paths yourselves. You can have a nice picnic before the house tour, go bird-watching, or even enjoy the landscape by sitting on one of the twisted wood benches. I even saw someone painting a landscape! This is a great way to get a sense of the landscape at your own pace, and to also use some of the guided materials that are already provided to you without the...