Olana & Hudson River Mansions

I spent last Saturday visiting a few historical homes on the Hudson River starting with Olana built by Frederic Edwin Church in 1872.  There is much to see between the grounds and the home and I recommend the following article to learn more about the magnificent Persian architecture and the setting of the structure overlooking the Hudson, which is the background carefully chosen by the painter.http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200506/a.treasure.house.on.the.hudson.htm

What amazed me is that each of these homes, Olana in particular but also some of the other mansions like Montgomery Place, Wilderstein and the others demonstrate powerful design fantasy on the part of the owners who often drew their inspiration from extensive travels to Europe and other parts of the world at a time when only the wealthiest Americans could afford them and Europeans seldom traveled far for pleasure. The  financial success of these industrialists gave them tremendous freedom and the result is an important cultural heritage   that we can all enjoy today.  These homes are close to one another but very different in style (Persian, Federal, Italian, French, Victorian) and each has a  different commanding view of the Hudson River because the outdoors is as important as the indoors.  The powerful landscape of the Hudson River impacted the way people thought, they wanted to build important structures that fit in the natural setting and enhanced it.  This is completely different from what was familiar to me growing up in France:  there the region determined the style of the house you would build and most of the time in recent history you inherited a structure and its land.

Another cultural difference comes to mind:  in France  architecture is recognized as an important part of the culture and as such schools take children to visit the chateaux and important sites so that something is passed on from generation to generation but in America  it is up to the families to introduce children to their history.  I find that regrettable because most children in the New York area for example don’t know these wonderful homes even exist and therefore don’t develop a taste for architecture and a sense of esthetics.