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Springside (Matthew Vassar Estate)
Encyclopedia
Springside was the estate
of Matthew Vassar
in Poughkeepsie
, New York
, USA. It is located on Academy Street just off US 9. Detailed plans for a landscape and complex of farm buildings were drawn up by the influential Andrew Jackson Downing
prior to his death. The landscaping was completed and remains Downing's only surviving work, but only a few of the buildings were ever built and most have since been lost to fire and structural failure. A cottage where Vassar resided, Downing's only known surviving building, had to be dismantled and removed in the mid-1970s. Its facade
is on display in the New York State Museum
.
Downing's landscape
, in the English Landscape Garden
style, has survived several serious efforts to redevelop the property in the last half-century due to opposition from local preservationists
. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Matthew Vassar Estate, and further it was declared a National Historic Landmark
in 1969, but the estate was not permanently protected for almost two decades, when a lawsuit was settled with the transfer of the land to its current owners, Springside Landscape Restoration.
of roughly 45 acres (18 ha), twice its current size. It takes its name from a spring
on the property. It was considered as a site for a cemetery
by the then-village of Poughkeepsie in 1848. Vassar, a village trustee
and founder of the nearby college
that bears his name, bought the property for $8,000, intending to sell subscriptions
to future plots at the cemetery to local investors, a common practice at the time. However, there were few takers.. He had planned to develop the property as a private summer estate himself if the cemetery plan failed, and so he contracted Downing, who lived downriver in Newburgh
, to begin planning the landscape
for the property.
By 1851, Downing, in collaboration with his associate Calvert Vaux
and Vassar, had detailed landscape plans ready. The next year, the city of Poughkeepsie chose another site for the cemetery, ending that possibility. Downing's death in a steamboat boiler explosion the following year did not halt development, as Vassar and Vaux continued along the lines Downing had established. At least two of Downing's planned structures, a barn and a gardeners' cottage, were built, and he eventually invested $100,000 in developing the site. However, the central villa that was to be the main house of the estate, a Gothic Revival work by Downing and Vaux, was abandoned (although artists' renderings survive), since Vassar preferred the cottage as a residence.
As Springside continued to grow and develop, Vassar regularly opened the lands to the public until he retired
to it full-time in 1867, the year before his death. It became a popular place to visit and inspired poetry and songs. One visitor, Russell Comstock, wrote:
, bought the southern half of the property and renamed it Hudson Knolls. He lived elsewhere while a boardinghouse operated on the site. The northern half was purchased by local shoe manufacturer John Whitehouse, who merged it with his own adjoining property to the west of the site, retaining the Springside name. It passed to his son-in-law
Eugene Howell upon his death, who kept up the landscape, at one point using it as a golf course
, despite the failure of the shoe factory in 1891.
In 1901, the property was reunified under the ownership of William Nelson, who had previously purchased the southern half when Judge Nelson (to whom he was not related) died in 1881, bought Howells' half following the shoe heir's bankruptcy
. Nelson, the founder of the Red Ball Line shipping
company, lived in the former boardinghouse with his family. He bequeathed it to his wife, and she in turn passed it on to their children.
The two daughters and son kept the property in the family and lived in various of its buildings. Gerald Nelson moved his family into the Hudson Knolls mansion, which Homer Nelson's widow
had built anew in 1911 after the former boardinghouse had succumbed to a fire three years previously. Gertrude Nelson Fitzpatrick and her husband lived in the cottage, while her sister Geraldine Acker built Spring Gable for themselves in 1929 on the site where Downing had intended for Springside's main house.
The combination of private ownership and benign neglect
had preserved much of Downing and Vassar's original design for a century. This situation would change as Poughkeepsie experienced rapid growth in the years after World War II
.
In 1952 development pressure began when the Poughkeepsie City School District
considered Springside as a site for a new high school. In the 1960s, historic preservation
efforts started in response to increasing development in the area led to the estate being declared a National Historic Landmark
(NHL) in 1969. The NHL designation could not protect the barn complex from being totally destroyed by arson
later that month, and the other buildings suffered from continued decay and neglect. Development threats continued as the landowner, developer Robert Ackerman, persuaded the city to rezone
the property to make it more amenable to the luxury apartment
complex he planned to build. He pledged to protect the gatehouse and cottage, but the landscaping would have substantially altered Downing's original design.
The cottage facade was removed to an Albany warehouse
by state order to preserve it in 1976; a quarter-century later it was put on display at the State Museum. Only the foundation clearing remains at the site. In 1982, a nearby condominium
complex proposed nearby, and approved by the city, would have cleared most of Downing's remaining landscape. A lawsuit two years later alleging an insufficient environmental impact statement
was settled in 1986 with the development of the farm portion of the property, close to Route 9 and the river, while the remaining landscape donated to a newly-established non-profit organization
, Springside Landscape Preservation, which continues to maintain the property. It took formal title to the land in 1990.
Today, only the Carpenter Gothic
gatehouse, a building not found on the original plans, survives. It has been restored to its original colors and is still used as a private residence.
Downing had become a bestselling writer by expounding on his theories of combining that which was beautiful in nature and art. The buildings at Springside, both planned and built, used consciously rustic board-and-batten
siding
, emphasized by some of the thousand trees he had transplanted
from nearby forests. On the ground, the curving pathways follow the contours
of the land beneath them and lead to scenic views, sometimes created by planting evergreens around rock outcrops
Statuary
embellishments unite the buildings and grounds, and Downing took advantage of the property's natural drainage to create streams and fountain
s. Above the spring that gave the property its name, later itself named Willow Spring by Vassar, he placed a statue of a dog, since replaced by one of a young maiden. Pond
s, too, were created, their irregular, natural shapes accentuated by similarly-shaped islands. Many of these features that Downing pioneered were later replicated by Vaux and his fellow associate of Downing's, Frederick Law Olmstead, in their designs for Central Park
and other major parks in American cities.
Today, with most of the buildings no longer extant on the site, the landscape still largely reflects Downing's original plan. Some secondary vegetation has grown in, but the pathways have been restored and many of the original trees remain.
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
of Matthew Vassar
Matthew Vassar
Matthew Vassar was an English-born American brewer and merchant. He founded the eponymous Vassar College in 1861.He was a cousin of John Ellison Vassar.-Background:...
in Poughkeepsie
Poughkeepsie (city), New York
Poughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany...
, 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. It is located on Academy Street just off US 9. Detailed plans for a landscape and complex of farm buildings were drawn up by the influential Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing was an American landscape designer, horticulturalist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival style in the United States, and editor of The Horticulturist magazine...
prior to his death. The landscaping was completed and remains Downing's only surviving work, but only a few of the buildings were ever built and most have since been lost to fire and structural failure. A cottage where Vassar resided, Downing's only known surviving building, had to be dismantled and removed in the mid-1970s. Its facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
is on display in the New York State Museum
New York State Museum
The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol...
.
Downing's landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
, in the English Landscape Garden
English garden
The English garden, also called English landscape park , is a style of Landscape garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical Garden à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe. The...
style, has survived several serious efforts to redevelop the property in the last half-century due to opposition from local preservationists
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Matthew Vassar Estate, and further it was declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1969, but the estate was not permanently protected for almost two decades, when a lawsuit was settled with the transfer of the land to its current owners, Springside Landscape Restoration.
History
Springside's development took up much of the last two years of Downing's life, and the latter years of Vassar's. The unfinished estate was maintained and developed by several other families for a century afterward. Their descendants were more amenable to selling the land for development in the years afterward, which led in turn to the efforts to protect and restore it.Planning and development under Vassar
The Springside property was the "Allen farm", first a family farm, then an ornamental farmFerme ornée
The term ferme ornée as used in English garden history derives from Stephen Switzer's term for 'ornamented farm'. It describes a country estate laid out partly according to aesthetic principles and partly for farming. During the eighteenth century the original ferme ornée was Woburn Farm, made by...
of roughly 45 acres (18 ha), twice its current size. It takes its name from a spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
on the property. It was considered as a site for a cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
by the then-village of Poughkeepsie in 1848. Vassar, a village trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
and founder of the nearby college
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
that bears his name, bought the property for $8,000, intending to sell subscriptions
Subscription business model
The subscription business model is a business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and websites....
to future plots at the cemetery to local investors, a common practice at the time. However, there were few takers.. He had planned to develop the property as a private summer estate himself if the cemetery plan failed, and so he contracted Downing, who lived downriver in Newburgh
Newburgh (city), New York
Newburgh is a city located in Orange County, New York, United States, north of New York City, and south of Albany, on the Hudson River. Newburgh is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown metropolitan area, which includes all of Dutchess and Orange counties. The Newburgh area was...
, to begin planning the landscape
Landscape architecture
Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions...
for the property.
By 1851, Downing, in collaboration with his associate Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux , was an architect and landscape designer. He is best remembered as the co-designer , of New York's Central Park....
and Vassar, had detailed landscape plans ready. The next year, the city of Poughkeepsie chose another site for the cemetery, ending that possibility. Downing's death in a steamboat boiler explosion the following year did not halt development, as Vassar and Vaux continued along the lines Downing had established. At least two of Downing's planned structures, a barn and a gardeners' cottage, were built, and he eventually invested $100,000 in developing the site. However, the central villa that was to be the main house of the estate, a Gothic Revival work by Downing and Vaux, was abandoned (although artists' renderings survive), since Vassar preferred the cottage as a residence.
Retirement
Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...
to it full-time in 1867, the year before his death. It became a popular place to visit and inspired poetry and songs. One visitor, Russell Comstock, wrote:
After Vassar
After Vassar's death, the lands were divided among several other local families, who continued to work the landscape. Judge Homer Nelson, New York's Secretary of StateSecretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
, bought the southern half of the property and renamed it Hudson Knolls. He lived elsewhere while a boardinghouse operated on the site. The northern half was purchased by local shoe manufacturer John Whitehouse, who merged it with his own adjoining property to the west of the site, retaining the Springside name. It passed to his son-in-law
Son-in-Law
Son-in-Law was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and an influential sire, especially for sport horses.The National Horseracing Museum says that Son-in-Law is "probably the best and most distinguished stayer this country has ever known." Described as "one of the principal influences for stamina in...
Eugene Howell upon his death, who kept up the landscape, at one point using it as a golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
, despite the failure of the shoe factory in 1891.
Bankruptcy in the United States
Bankruptcy in the United States is governed under the United States Constitution which authorizes Congress to enact "uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States." Congress has exercised this authority several times since 1801, most recently by adopting the Bankruptcy...
. Nelson, the founder of the Red Ball Line shipping
Shipping
Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...
company, lived in the former boardinghouse with his family. He bequeathed it to his wife, and she in turn passed it on to their children.
The two daughters and son kept the property in the family and lived in various of its buildings. Gerald Nelson moved his family into the Hudson Knolls mansion, which Homer Nelson's widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
had built anew in 1911 after the former boardinghouse had succumbed to a fire three years previously. Gertrude Nelson Fitzpatrick and her husband lived in the cottage, while her sister Geraldine Acker built Spring Gable for themselves in 1929 on the site where Downing had intended for Springside's main house.
Late 20th-century preservation
Benign neglect
Benign neglect was a policy proposed in the late 1960s by New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was at the time on Nixon's White House Staff as an urban affairs advisor. While serving in this capacity, he sent the President a memo suggesting that "the issue of race could benefit from a period...
had preserved much of Downing and Vassar's original design for a century. This situation would change as Poughkeepsie experienced rapid growth in the years after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In 1952 development pressure began when the Poughkeepsie City School District
Poughkeepsie City School District
Poughkeepsie City School District is located in Dutchess County, New York State. Approximately 75 miles north of New York City, the school district is situated on the banks of the Hudson River in an area known as the Mid Hudson Valley....
considered Springside as a site for a new high school. In the 1960s, historic preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
efforts started in response to increasing development in the area led to the estate being declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
(NHL) in 1969. The NHL designation could not protect the barn complex from being totally destroyed by arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
later that month, and the other buildings suffered from continued decay and neglect. Development threats continued as the landowner, developer Robert Ackerman, persuaded the city to rezone
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
the property to make it more amenable to the luxury apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
complex he planned to build. He pledged to protect the gatehouse and cottage, but the landscaping would have substantially altered Downing's original design.
The cottage facade was removed to an Albany warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
by state order to preserve it in 1976; a quarter-century later it was put on display at the State Museum. Only the foundation clearing remains at the site. In 1982, a nearby condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
complex proposed nearby, and approved by the city, would have cleared most of Downing's remaining landscape. A lawsuit two years later alleging an insufficient environmental impact statement
Environmental impact statement
An environmental impact statement , under United States environmental law, is a document required by the National Environmental Policy Act for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An EIS is a tool for decision making...
was settled in 1986 with the development of the farm portion of the property, close to Route 9 and the river, while the remaining landscape donated to a newly-established non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, Springside Landscape Preservation, which continues to maintain the property. It took formal title to the land in 1990.
Today, only the Carpenter Gothic
Carpenter Gothic
Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic, and Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures built by house-carpenters...
gatehouse, a building not found on the original plans, survives. It has been restored to its original colors and is still used as a private residence.
Aesthetics
Batten
A batten is a thin strip of solid material, typically made from wood, plastic or metal. Battens are used in building construction and various other fields as both structural and purely cosmetic elements...
siding
Siding
Siding is the outer covering or cladding of a house meant to shed water and protect from the effects of weather. On a building that uses siding, it may act as a key element in the aesthetic beauty of the structure and directly influence its property value....
, emphasized by some of the thousand trees he had transplanted
Transplanting
For botanical organ transplant, see GraftingIn agriculture and gardening, transplanting or replanting is the technique of moving a plant from one location to another. Most often this takes the form of starting a plant from seed in optimal conditions, such as in a greenhouse or protected nursery...
from nearby forests. On the ground, the curving pathways follow the contours
Contour line
A contour line of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value. In cartography, a contour line joins points of equal elevation above a given level, such as mean sea level...
of the land beneath them and lead to scenic views, sometimes created by planting evergreens around rock outcrops
Statuary
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
embellishments unite the buildings and grounds, and Downing took advantage of the property's natural drainage to create streams and fountain
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
s. Above the spring that gave the property its name, later itself named Willow Spring by Vassar, he placed a statue of a dog, since replaced by one of a young maiden. Pond
Pond
A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...
s, too, were created, their irregular, natural shapes accentuated by similarly-shaped islands. Many of these features that Downing pioneered were later replicated by Vaux and his fellow associate of Downing's, Frederick Law Olmstead, in their designs for Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
and other major parks in American cities.
Today, with most of the buildings no longer extant on the site, the landscape still largely reflects Downing's original plan. Some secondary vegetation has grown in, but the pathways have been restored and many of the original trees remain.
External links
- Springside Landmark Restoration
- Unofficial Springside website by a graduate student at City College of New YorkCity College of New YorkThe City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
- Springside at the Vassar College Encyclopedia
- Springside: 16 photos, at Historic American Building Survey