Staatsburgh State Historic Site

Beaux-Arts mansion

Staatsburgh State Historic Site

North elevation and east (front) facade at sunset, 2016

Location| Staatsburg, Dutchess County, New York
Coordinates| 41°51′23.83″N 73°55′47.59″W﻿ / ﻿41.8566194°N 73.9298861°W﻿ / 41.8566194; -73.9298861
Architect| McKim, Mead, and White
Architectural style(s)| Beaux-Arts
Livingston mansion, frontage

The Staatsburgh State Historic Site preserves a Beaux-Arts mansion designed by McKim, Mead, and White and the home's surrounding landscape in the hamlet of Staatsburg, Dutchess County, New York, United States. The historic site is located within Ogden Mills & Ruth Livingston Mills State Park.[1] The mansion, a New York State Historic Site, is considered a fine example of the great estates built during the Gilded Age.

## History

[edit]

The dining room Ruth Livingston Mills's bedroom

In 1792, Morgan Lewis, the third governor of New York, purchased an estate covering of about 334 acres (135 ha) and commissioned the construction of a colonial-style house on the site of the present-day mansion. In the summer of 1824, on his visit to the United States, the Marquis de Lafayette dined there on his way upriver to visit Lewis' brother-in-law, Chancellor Livingston.[2] In 1832, this first house was destroyed by a fire, said to be an act of arson committed by disgruntled tenant farmers. After the fire, Morgan Lewis and his wife, Gertrude Livingston, a sister of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, immediately replaced the structure with a Greek Revival mansion with 25 rooms. The house was inherited in 1844 by Morgan Lewis's daughter Margaret and her husband Maturin Livingston; and in 1847 by the couple's son Maturin Livingston Jr. (1816–1888).

In 1890, Ruth Livingston Mills, the great-granddaughter of Morgan Lewis and the mother of Ogden L. Mills, Secretary of the Treasury, inherited the estate.[3] Not long afterwards, Ruth Livingston Mills and her husband, the financier and philanthropist Ogden Mills, commissioned a remodeling and enlargement of the mansion to the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White; the principal architect was Stanford White. Work started in 1895 and when completed in the following year, he had turned the house into a Beaux-Arts mansion with 65 rooms, 14 bathrooms, and 23 fireplaces.[4] The work is reported to have cost about $350,000. As part of the process, a coal-powered electricity plant was constructed near the Hudson River to supply the electric lights in the mansion, which was also equipped with central heating. The mansion was used as a residence and for entertaining by the family; they owned five homes in total, and stayed at Staatsburgh mainly during the fall season between mid-September and the Christmas holidays. During this time, they hosted house parties, balls, and dinners. At the remainder of the year, the family stayed in one of their other residences in New York City, Paris, Newport, Rhode Island, and California. Before her death, Ruth Livingston Mills began acquiring lands surrounding the estate. After her death in 1920, Ogden Mills continued to purchase the surrounding property, enlarging the acreage of the property to total over 1,600 acres (650 ha), the size of the mansion grounds at the time that it was given to the state of New York. In 1929, the property was passed on to their son, Ogden Livingston Mills[3] and upon his death in 1937, on to his sister Gladys Mills Phipps.

In 1938, Gladys Mills Phipps donated the house and 192 acres (78 ha) of land to the state of New York as a memorial to her parents.[3] As a State Historic Site, the estate is operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. In 1988, the Friends of Mills Mansion were organized to support the preservation and educational work at the site.

## Design

[edit]

The outside of the mansion features a massive portico, balustrades, pilasters, and floral festoons. The central part of the mansion is layered into a basement, three floors, and an attic. In the north and south wings, there is a subbasement, a basement, and two floors. Ceilings in the older part of the building dating prior to the enlargement (the first floor of the central part) are about 14 feet (4.3 m) high, whereas the ceilings of the later construction (first floor of the north and south wings) can be about 18 feet (5.5 m) high. The interior of the building is decorated in French styles of the 17th and 18th century. However, some architectural elements of the previous home have been preserved in the process.

## Preservation

[edit]

The Mills Mansion poses several challenges to preservation: On the outside, a gray sprayed concrete finish which was added later as a preservation measure needs to be removed and replaced with a more suitable surface treatment. At the same time, the decorative cornice and many decorative elements need to be either restored or replaced. On the inside of the building, wall paint and furnishing fabrics are in need of replacement, marble and wooden surfaces need to be cleaned and the objects of the mansion's collection need to be conserved.

## See also

[edit]

* List of Gilded Age mansions
* List of New York State Historic Sites

## References

[edit]

Notes

1. ^ "Ogden Mills & Ruth Livingston Mills State Park". NYS Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
2. ^ Morse, Howard Holdridge. Historical Old Rhinebeck, Echoes of Two Centuries, Rhinebeck. 1908, p. 242 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. ^ a b c "Staatsburgh State Historic Site" New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation
4. ^ "Staatsburgh State Historic Site", Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area

Further reading

* Dwyer, Mark Middletown (ed.) (2001) Great Houses of the Hudson River, Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, in association with Historic Hudson Valley. ISBN 0-8212-2767-X.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Staatsburgh State Historic Site.

* Staatsburgh State Historic Site \- NYS Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation
* Ogden Mills & Ruth Livingston Mills State Park \- NYS Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation
* Friends of Mills Mansion

* v
* t
* e

McKim, Mead & White

List of works

Residential structures|

| Apartments and houses|

* 11 West 54th Street
* 12 West 56th Street
* 998 Fifth Avenue
* Isaac Bell House
* College Hill Residential Historic District
* Cramond
* Florham
* The Grove
* Kingscote
* Loeb House
* William G. Low House
* William H. Moore House
* Naumkeag
* Thomas Nelson Page House
* Park Avenue Houses
* Patterson Mansion
* Redtop
* Percy R. Pyne House
* Rosecliff
* Staatsburgh State Historic Site
* Stuyvesant Fish House
* Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site
* Villard Houses
* Wood Lawn

|

Hotels|

* Hotel Nacional de Cuba
* Hotel Pennsylvania
* Cafe Rouge
* Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia
* Savoy-Plaza Hotel

Commercial structures|

* 108 Leonard
* 110 Livingston Street
* 390 Fifth Avenue
* 900 Broadway
* Astor Home for Children
* Bank of Montreal Head Office
* Bowery Savings Bank Building
* Cable Building
* Judge Building
* Munsey Building
* Munsey Trust Building
* Newport Casino
* New York Life Building
* Omaha National Bank Building
* Rochester Savings Bank
* Savoyard Centre
* The Towers
* Tiffany and Company Building

Churches|

* First Presbyterian Church
* Ira Allen Chapel
* Lovely Lane Methodist Church
* St. Paul's Episcopal Church
* St. Peter's Episcopal Church
* Trinity Episcopal Church

Clubhouses|

* Algonquin Club
* American Academy in Rome
* Collectors Club of New York
* Colony Club
* Germantown Cricket Club
* Harmonie Club
* Harvard Club of New York City
* Metropolitan Club
* Mount Royal Club
* Racquet and Tennis Club
* University Cottage Club

Educational structures|

| School /
College buildings|

* Adelphi University campus
* Baker Library/Bloomberg Center
* Columbia University halls
* Brooks and Hewitt Halls
* Casa Italiana
* Earl Hall
* Hamilton Hall
* John Jay Hall
* Philosophy Hall
* President's House
* Schermerhorn Hall
* Carr's Hill
* English Building, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
* FitzRandolph Gate
* Hall of Fame for Great Americans
* Little Red Schoolhouse
* Morgan Hall
* Roosevelt Hall
* Salem School
* Students' Building

|

Libraries|

* 115th Street Library
* Boston Central Library
* Gould Memorial Library
* Hamilton Grange Library
* Low Memorial Library
* Orange Public Library

Governmental structures|

* James A. Farley Building
* Liggett Hall
* Manhattan Municipal Building
* Milwaukee County Courthouse
* Rhode Island State House
* Schenectady City Hall
* West Wing
* Roosevelt Room

Memorials and monuments|

* Adams Memorial
* National McKinley Birthplace Memorial
* Protection of the Flag Monument
* Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument
* Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park
* Washington Square Arch

Museums|

* Bowdoin College Museum of Art
* Brooklyn Museum
* Butler Institute of American Art
* George Eastman Museum
* Minneapolis Institute of Art
* Morgan Library & Museum
* National Museum of American History

Transportation|

* Arlington Memorial Bridge
* IRT Powerhouse
* Newark Penn Station
* New York Penn Station
* Waterbury Union Station

Others|

* Adams Power Plant Transformer House
* Boston Symphony Hall
* Madison Square Garden (1890)
* Narragansett Pier Life Saving Station
* Neponsit Beach Hospital
* The Town Hall
* Trinity High School

Founders|

* Charles Follen McKim
* William Rutherford Mead
* Stanford White

* v
* t
* e

Protected areas of New York

Federal

| National Estuarine Research Reserves|

* Hudson River

|

National Forests|

* Finger Lakes

National Historic Sites and Historical Parks|

* Eleanor Roosevelt
* Harriet Tubman
* Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt
* Kate Mullany House
* Lower East Side Tenement
* Martin Van Buren
* Sagamore Hill
* Saint Paul's Church
* Saratoga
* Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace
* Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural
* Thomas Cole
* Vanderbilt Mansion
* Women's Rights

National Marine Sanctuaries|

* Lake Ontario

National Memorials|

* Federal Hall
* General Grant
* Hamilton Grange

National Monuments|

* African Burial Ground
* Castle Clinton
* Fort Stanwix
* Governors Island
* Statue of Liberty
* Stonewall

National Recreation Areas|

* Gateway
* Upper Delaware

National Seashores|

* Fire Island

National Trails|

* Appalachian
* North Country
* Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route

National Wildlife Refuges|

* Iroquois
* Long Island Complex
* Amagansett
* Conscience Point
* Elizabeth A. Morton
* Lido Beach
* Oyster Bay
* Sayville
* Seatuck
* Target Rock
* Wertheim
* Montezuma
* Shawangunk Grasslands
* Wallkill River

Other|

* National Historic Landmarks (New York City)
* National Natural Landmarks
* National Register of Historic Places
* Wilderness Areas

State parks

* Allen H. Treman
* Allegany
* Amherst
* Amsterdam Beach
* Battle Island
* Bayard Cutting Arboretum
* Bayswater Point
* Bear Mountain
* Beaver Island
* Beechwood
* Belmont Lake
* Bethpage
* Betty & Wilbur Davis
* Big Six Mile Creek
* Blauvelt
* Bonavista
* Bowman Lake
* Braddock Bay
* Brentwood
* Bristol Beach
* Brookhaven
* Buckhorn Island
* Buffalo Harbor
* Burnham Point
* Buttermilk Falls
* Caleb Smith
* Camp Hero
* Canandaigua Lake
* Canoe-Picnic Point
* Captree
* Catharine Valley Trail
* Caumsett
* Cayuga Lake
* Cedar Island
* Cedar Point
* Chenango Valley
* Cherry Plain
* Chimney Bluffs
* Chittenango Falls
* Clarence Fahnestock
* Clark Reservation
* Clay Pit Ponds
* Cold Spring Harbor
* Coles Creek
* Conesus Lake
* Connetquot River
* Crab Island
* Croil Island
* Cumberland Bay
* Darien Lakes
* De Veaux Woods
* Deans Cove
* Delta Lake
* Devil's Hole
* Dewolf Point
* Donald J. Trump
* Earl W. Brydges Artpark
* Eel Weir
* Empire – Fulton Ferry
* Evangola
* Fair Haven Beach
* Fillmore Glen
* Fort Niagara
* Four Mile Creek
* Franklin D. Roosevelt
* Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms
* Franny Reese
* Frenchman Island
* Galop Island
* Gantry Plaza
* Genesee Valley Greenway
* Gilbert Lake
* Gilgo
* Glimmerglass
* Golden Hill
* Goosepond Mountain
* Grafton Lakes
* Grass Point
* Green Lakes
* Hallock
* Hamlin Beach
* Harriet Hollister Spencer
* Harriman
* Hart's Brook
* Haverstraw Beach
* Heckscher
* Helen L. McNitt
* Hempstead Lake
* High Tor
* Highland Lakes
* Higley Flow
* Hither Hills
* Honeoye
* Hook Mountain
* Hudson Highlands
* Hudson River
* Hudson River Islands
* Hunts Pond
* Iona Island
* Irondequoit Bay
* Jacques Cartier
* James Baird
* John Boyd Thacher
* Jones Beach
* Joseph Davis
* Keewaydin
* Keuka Lake
* Knox Farm
* Kring Point
* Lake Erie
* Lake Lauderdale
* Lake Superior
* Lake Taghkanic
* Lakeside Beach
* Letchworth
* Lock 32
* Lodi Point
* Long Point – Finger Lakes
* Long Point – Thousand Islands
* Long Point on Lake Chautauqua
* Macomb Reservation
* Margaret Lewis Norrie
* Mark Twain
* Marsha P. Johnson
* Mary Island
* Max V. Shaul
* Mexico Point
* Midway
* Mine Kill
* Minnewaska
* Mohawk River
* Montauk Downs
* Montauk Point
* Moreau Lake
* Napeague
* Newtown Battlefield
* Niagara Falls
* Nissequogue River
* Nyack Beach
* Oak Orchard
* Ogden Mills & Ruth Livingston Mills
* Old Croton Aqueduct
* Old Erie Canal
* Oquaga Creek
* Orient Beach
* Peebles Island
* Pinnacle
* Pixley Falls
* Point Au Roche
* Reservoir
* Riverbank
* Robert G. Wehle
* Robert H. Treman
* Robert Moses – Long Island
* Robert Moses – Thousand Islands
* Robert V. Riddell
* Roberto Clemente
* Rock Island Lighthouse
* Rockefeller
* Rockland Lake
* Sampson
* Sandy Island Beach
* Saratoga Lake
* Saratoga Spa
* Schodack Island
* Schunemunk Mountain
* Selkirk Shores
* Seneca Lake
* Shadmoor
* Shirley Chisholm
* Silver Lake
* Sonnenberg Gardens
* Sojourner Truth
* Southwick Beach
* St. Lawrence
* State Park at the Fair
* Sterling Forest
* Steuben Memorial
* Stony Brook
* Storm King
* Strawberry Island
* Sunken Meadow
* Taconic
* Tallman Mountain
* Taughannock Falls
* Thompson's Lake
* Trail View
* Two Rivers
* Valley Stream
* Verona Beach
* Walkway over the Hudson
* Waterson Point
* Watkins Glen
* Wellesley Island
* Westcott Beach
* Whetstone Gulf
* Whirlpool
* Wildwood
* Wilson-Tuscarora
* Wonder Lake
* Woodlawn Beach

State historic sites

* Bennington Battlefield
* Caumsett
* Clermont
* Clinton House
* Crown Point
* Darwin D. Martin House
* Fort Crailo
* Fort Montgomery
* Fort Ontario
* Ganondagan
* Grant Cottage
* Herkimer Home
* Hyde Hall
* John Brown Farm
* John Burroughs Memorial (Woodchuck Lodge)
* John Hay Homestead
* Johnson Hall
* Knox's Headquarters
* Lorenzo
* New Windsor Cantonment
* Olana
* Old Croton Aqueduct
* Old Erie Canal
* Old Fort Niagara
* Oriskany Battlefield
* Philipse Manor Hall
* Plantings Fields Arboretum
* Sackets Harbor Battlefield
* Schoharie Crossing
* Schuyler Mansion
* Senate House
* Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion
* Staatsburgh
* Steuben Memorial
* Stony Point Battlefield
* Walt Whitman Birthplace
* Washington's Headquarters

Preserves and sanctuaries

| Public
preserves|

* Albany Pine Bush
* Forest Preserve
* Adirondack Park
* Saint Regis Canoe Area
* Santanoni Preserve
* wilderness areas
* Catskill Park
* Hudson River Estuary
* Long Island Pine Barrens
* Reinstein Woods
* Rome Sand Plains
* Tahawus
* Vischer Ferry
* Welwyn

|

The Nature
Conservacy|

* Accabonac Harbor
* Andy Warhol Visual Arts
* Arthur W. Butler Memorial
* Atlantic Double Dunes
* Bear Swamp
* Calverton Ponds
* Chaumont Barrens
* Clintonville Pine Barrens
* Coon Mountain
* Deer Lick
* Denton
* El Dorado Beach
* Eugene and Agnes Meyer
* Everton Falls
* Freund
* Gadway Sandstone Pavement Barrens
* Hannacroix Ravine
* Henry Morgenthau
* Indian Brook Assemblage
* Ironsides Island
* Kenrose
* Limestone Rise
* Lisha Kill
* Long Island Center for Conservation
* Long Pond
* Lordsland
* Lower Poultney River and Saddles
* Marrion Yarrow
* Mashomack
* Mianus River Gorge
* Mildred E. Grierson Memorial
* Moccasin Kill
* Montauk Mountain
* Moss Lake
* Mount Holly
* Nellie Hill
* Neversink
* O.D. von Engeln
* Otter Creek
* Pawling
* Peconic Estuary Big Woods
* Pine Neck
* Roger Perry Memorial
* Ruth Wales
* Schunemunk Mountain
* Shadmoor
* Silver Lake Bog
* Spring Pond Bog
* Stewart
* Lewis A. Swyer
* Thompson Pond and Stissing Mountain
* Uplands Farm
* West Branch
* Whitbeck Memorial Grove

Other
preserves|

* Angle Fly
* Baxter
* Bergen-Byron Swamp
* Black Rock Forest
* Brandreth Park
* Cornell Botanic Gardens
* Ferncliff Forest
* Great Camp Sagamore
* James
* Lime Hollow
* Louis Calder Center
* Louis C. Clark Sanctuary
* Mohonk
* Peabody
* Plotter Kill
* Sam's Point
* Svend O. Heiberg Memorial Forest
* Teatown Lake Reservation
* Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center
* Turkey Mountain
* Turner Brook
* Wallkill Valley Rail Trail
* Woodlawn
* Zurich Bog

Other (lists)

* Botanical gardens and arboretums
* Nature centers
* New York City parks
* POPS
* WWI
* New York state
* forests
* wild
* historic sites
* parks
* wildlife management areas
* Trails
* rail trails

* Category
* Erie County
* Nassau County
* New York City
* NYS DEC
* NYS OPRHP
* Commons

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template