THOMAS COLE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

Catskill, N.Y.
Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Cedar Grove. The home of Thomas Cole, America’s earliest and most renowned landscape painter and founder of the Hudson River school style of art.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Thomas Cole’s home, Cedar Grove, fails to provoke the grandeur of his large canvasses or the scope of his ambitious themes. Heck, the grounds do not even provide a vista of the Hudson River; instead they face the Catskill Mountains which are currently obscured by encroaching trees.

The Federal-style mansion’s yellow exterior, while lovingly restored, is a bit of a yawner. The insides are much of the same. Most of the items are either reproductions of the originals or just time-period pieces. An upstairs room contains a few original Cole sketches but our tour guide scurried us out before we could even stop to look.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
Art books and historians often cite Thomas Cole as the first truly American artist, the first to portray a uniquely American perspective which spoke of our country’s place in the world. Cole’s painting used large canvasses and sweeping landscape, eschewing the British portraiture aesthetic utilized by most artists working in America at that time.

Cole and his fellow Hudson River school painters were the visual equivalent of the period’s transcendental writers, notably Emerson and Thoreau, the American romantics. They found beauty in America’s boundless nature and profound beauty.

Cole’s famed five-piece Course of Empire places his modern-day America at stage two of the cycle, The Pastoral State, from The Savage State to Desolation. Cole places America along the same course as the great Roman and Greek Civilizations of the past. We are their heirs. Cole would easily place today’s America at the opulent third stage, The Consummation. How close are we to The Destruction and subsequent Desolation? Who knows, but Cole proves that high-budget dystopian sagas are just as American as apple pie.

CROWDS (8/10)
Thomas Cole NHS sits just across the Hudson River from Hudson, N.Y. a small New York city whose downtown has recently seen an economic revival resulting in dozens of boutiques, galleries and fancy restaurants. As a result, the Thomas Cole NHS brings in a well-versed, artistic crowd.

Our tour was no exception. One visitor, a painter, discussed sunlight tones at different times of the day and explained how Cole would have mixed his pigments. Another tourist, an avid antique-hunter, helped our group with understanding restoration techniques. Our fellow visitors filled in a lot of loose ends and answered artistic questions that our guide was unable to resolve.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
Cedar Grove is located just off the New York Thruway, I-87, 35 miles south of Albany and 40 miles north of New Paltz. From the Thruway take exit 21. Make a left at the stop sign and a quick left onto Route 23 East. Go two miles. At Spring Street make a right. (If you miss this right turn you will go onto the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Bad news because it’s a toll bridge in that direction). After the right onto Spring Street make a quick left into the Site’s driveway. There is a sign.

If you are coming from Hudson, cross the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, turn left at the first stoplight and make a left into the Site. The Site is only open from May through late October. You must take a guided tour in order to see the house.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
The book carries a small selection of elaborate 19th Century American art coffee table books, some of which the Site says are rare and out of print. The pictures inside them were enchanting and glossy but somehow not worth their books’ $50+ price tags.

Also on sale were framed and matted photographs of the places that inspired the Hudson River School artists taken by modern day local artists. We thought the theme of art as a collective continuous community commodity was a cool idea.

COSTS (2/5)
Entry is $7 per person. Your National Parks Pass will not get you free admission, Cedar Grove is owned by the Greene County Historical Society rather than the NPS, but it will lop the tour price in half to $3.50 per. 2 for 1, not a bad deal.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
40-minute tours leave once every hour from 10 am to 4 pm and are limited to 12 visitors.

TOURS/CLASSES (5/10)
Local, non-Park Service-related docents offer a different set of skill sets than Rangers. Our docent had lived in Catskill her entire life. She serves on the Site’s Board of Governors and was present during the infamous 1970’s Cedar Grove front lawn auction when much of Cole’s estate was sold at shocking prices, including an original Cole painting for less than $1,000.

She was sincerely amazed and appreciative of the House’s incredible restoration because she had witnessed its nadir of disrepair in 1998 and instilled in her tour group her profound sense of Cole’s importance and personal appreciation. A Park Ranger might have been able to shed a greater light on Cole’s historical role, American context or artistic milieu but could not have given us a more localized viewpoint.

FUN (5/10)
Cedar Grove has been on our “must (not forget to) visit” list for well over two years, ever since we arrived in New York too soon in the season to see it. We saw Cole’s influence across the U.S. in landscapes of the American West done by the second and third generations of the Hudson River School. We heard his name mentioned in dozens of National Park sites. We have had time to ponder Cole, his historical significance and develop some preconceived notions about how his home and studio might look.

We were shocked to realize that he didn’t awake every morning to views of the Hudson.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (5/10)
The Hudson River Valley makes for a good travel destination for American art and literature lovers alike, both forms debatably began here, with Cole’s art and Washington Irving’s stories. The Hudson River School Art Trail travels around the region to places that inspired the famed painters and might make for a fulfilling day.

The Olana State Historic Site, home of Cole student Frederic Edwin Church is reportedly wonderful. Dozens of people told us to go there. Then they added, “Well not this summer because it’s under construction.” Another day perusing Hudson’s Warren Street shops and boutiques and dining in its chic restaurants could complete an artsy rural getaway from New York City.

TOTAL 43/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

MARTIN VAN BUREN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

Kinderhook, N.Y.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Lindenwald, the longtime home and farm of our 8th President, Martin Van Buren.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Lindenwald is a sinfully ugly yellow mishmash of unfortunate architectural styles: Italianate, Gothic, Palladian and Georgian because each renovation and addition to the house ushered in a new style. Couldn’t they just decide on one?

Lindenwald’s interior holds greater interest than the dismal exterior not because of spellbinding design but because it breathes the personality of old Marty, a son of a tavern keeper unsuccessfully hoping to be remembered as wealthy, learned man of manners and genius. A man of the people hoping that money could transform him into an aristocrat or a patrician.

The most stunning example of his social desires is the formal dining room, located in what would be the receiving lobby in most mansions of the time period. The wallpaper surrounding the 15-foot long dining table depicts an elaborate fox hunt presumably taking place in a rich Tuscan landscape.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
Martin Van Buren NHS describes its honoree as the first President born an American (meaning post-1776), the creator of the Albany Regency, New York first political machine, and an important contributor to the birth of the two-party American political system.

While these legacies may be lasting, they are in stunning contrast to the republican vision (unrelated to today’s Republicans) of the Founding Fathers. Andrew Jackson and Van Buren, his Vice President, were the first two American Presidents born to neither Virginia landowners nor Massachusetts patricians. But personality-wise, Van Buren was no Andrew Jackson.

Martin’s one term in office saw few positives, the worst of which being the Panic of 1837, America’s direst financial crisis to that date.

CROWDS (7/10)
We were the only two people who traveled to Lindenwald that rainy summer morning. Our unique interest meant a private extended Ranger tour where we learned every possible thing we could ever want to know about Martin Van Buren.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
Martin Van Buren NHS is located in Kinderhook, N.Y., about 20 miles south of Albany and only six miles south of I-90 exit B1 along New York Route 9H, the same road I-90 exits onto. Should be easy to get to, right? Wrong.

Route 9H weaves in out and even becomes U.S. Route 9. There’s traffic circles, forks in the road and lots of confusion. Our advice: drive slowly, look for the signs and stay on 9H.

In addition, nearby are New York Routes 9J, 9G and 9W. These are three different and largely unrelated roads. Do not confuse them or mix and match them. You will get lost. Also, Martin Van Buren NHS is open for house tours only half the year, from mid-May through October. We missed out in April 2004 and had to come back.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
There have not been many historical treatises to remember Mr. Van Buren. The Site carries all five of the texts that are currently in print. There is not much else for sale here aside from some Dover Thrift Edition of early 19th Century literary classics (a nice touch) and a few books on the history of the Presidency. We also liked the pen and ink reproductions of Van Buren-related political cartoons. But we didn’t buy any; where would we put them?

COSTS (3/5)
Entry is $4 per person or $9 per family. Entry is free with the National Parks Pass.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
We ran into three different Rangers at Marty World (what the Home of FDR NHS Rangers called this place) and enjoyed great conversations with all. We hardly minded the Site’s makeshift Visitor Center/Bookstore: a converted portable classroom unit.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
We relaxed in the portable unit, watching the brief introductory film and chatting with Ranger #1 until Ranger #2 came to fetch us for the house tour. Since the rain had stopped, we lingered outside as he briefed us on some Van Buren basics. Conversation soon turned to the cultivation of political machines and parties, an explanation of the term “patroon” and the aesthetics or lack thereof of the Albany Egg. Almost an hour later, we needed to gently prod our Ranger back on track and into the house.

The house tour was equally tangential and fun. We aren’t sure whether our customized tour followed the usual room pattern. We are fairly certain that we saw every nook and cranny of Marty World. The next tour group was just coming in as our Ranger excitedly asked, “do you guys want to see the basement?” And with that we scurried down the stairs to check out the unfinished kitchen, some servants’ rooms and piles and piles of what must have been meticulously catalogued period pieces that had yet to be unwrapped and placed in the main rooms of the house. Martin van Buren: Behind the Scenes. How cool!

FUN (7/10)
We had a terrific time because of our terrific guided Ranger tour. Often at National Park Sites, as the historical personality or incident becomes more obscure, the Rangers on duty delve into the history, its obscure facts and grander scope, with greater fervor. They understand that you just don’t happen upon Martin Van Buren’s country home. At Lindenwald, our historical curiosity was rewarded with high level discussion and earnest answers to our many questions. The Rangers even told us the best place to buy the area’s culinary contribution to the world: apple cider doughnuts.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (3/10)
Is there any reason to make the special trip up the Hudson to visit Marty World? Not really. But then again, where else can you learn about Martin Van Buren, the first forgettable American President.

TOTAL 45/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06