Fredric Edwin Church's Eclectic Olana House on the Hudson River Valley

In the Hudson River Valley sits several unique and diverse houses, from the Livingston Family house Clermont, to Lynhurst a gothic style castle. Nestled in with these eclectic houses sits another called Olana House, whose original owner was the famed Hudson River School artist Frederic Edwin Church. From a distance it looks to be some kind of Middle Eastern palace that brightly radiates uniqueness as it sits among the beautiful landscape of the Hudson River Valley. It was built in the latter part of the nineteenth century and is proclaimed by many to be a prime example of the Aesthetic Movement in America.

While living on a small farmstead near what is known as Long Hill, Church purchased 18 acres of land with the intent of building a new house that would take advantage of the far reaching views of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains. He initially consulted Richard Morris Hunt about designing his new home which would have been a French chateau-style building but Hunt never received the commission to proceed. Instead in 1867 Church took his family on an extended trip abroad to Europe and the Middle East. During his visit to places such as Jerusalem, Beirut, and Damascus Church took an avid interest in the architecture he saw and learned more about the decorative traditions of Persian and Islamic architecture and art.

Upon his return to the United States in 1869, Church with a desire to build his own Persian castle engaged a new architect Calvert Vaux who was one of the designers of Central Park. Although Vaux was enlisted as the architect, Olana House would primarily be a creation of its owner. Among Olana’s collection includes several architectural sketches by both Vaux and Church and the final product resembl...

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... of Oriental, Indian and South American pieces that gave the room a decisive eclectic and exotic look and feel.

Church’s house has been called many things from a Persian palace to a treasure house. It’s certainly unique no matter what it’s called it is a unique and special historic site. Thanks to the determination of Church’s daughter-in-law to keep things the same and some quick action by some architectural preservationist and the state of New York, Olana is the same as it was over a hundred years ago. This provides an exceptional opportunity to glimpse into a time that is long past. Particularly a look into the life of a famed artist who fell in love with the beauty of Middle East and wanted to capitalize on the beauty of his home in the Hudson River Valley. Treasure house seems to be an appropriate description of one of Frederic Church’s final creations.