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 BLITHEWOOD - Red Hook, NY Posted by:  nomadwillie
N 42° 01.258 W 073° 54.995
18T E 589697 N 4652671
A simply stunning mansion. I came here for an entirely different purpose to capture the 350+ year old Red and Silver Maple tree, called New York State Champion Tree, for one of the motorcycle grand tours I was participating in.
Waymark Code: WM162Q3
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 04/22/2022
Views: 0
The quaint hexagonal gatehouse (R), at 0.9 m., marks the entrance to BLITHEWOOD (private), an estate established in 1795 by General John Armstrong (1758–1843), who married Chancellor Livingston's sister Alida. Armstrong was the author of the famous 'Newburgh Addresses' (see Tour 21A), U.S.senator 1801-4, Minister to France 1804- 10, and Secretary of War 1813-14. In 1810 the place was purchased by John Cox Stevens (1785-1857), another brother-in-law of the Chancellor and one of the first in- fluential amateur sportsmen in the United States. His yachts Trouble and Black Maria were built in a cove on the estate; in 1844, on his yacht Gimcrack, anchored off the Battery in New York harbor, the New York Yacht Club was organized. Stevens headed the syndicate that built the America, which in 1851 won the Hundred Guinea Cup at Cowes, England. Six years later this ‘America's Cup' was presented as a perpetual challenge cup to encourage friendly competition with British yachtmen. Sixteen British and Canadian challenges between 1870 and 1935 failed of their purpose, and the cup has never left the United States.
Robert Donaldson, who acquired this property in 1835, employed the landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing to lay out the grounds. Downing built the gate house and planted the magnificent white pines along the driveway; the turf he planted is still in place. Dr.John Bard lived here after 1853; in 1899 Andrew C. Zabriskie erected the present late Georgian mansion.
American-Guide-Series - New York: a Guide to the Empire State, p.610-611
A simply stunning mansion. I came here for an entirely different purpose to capture the 350+ year old Red and Silver Maple tree, called New York State Champion Tree, for one of the motorcycle grand tours I was participating in. Essentially this is a nation wide scavenger hunt. The tree and sign are pictured in the gallery as well.
Book: New York
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 610-611
Year Originally Published: 1940
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