Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for new york
An Ancient Forest of the Northeast
By Linda Tancs
Located in western New York, Panama Rocks Scenic Park is an imposing world of towering rocks, deep crevices, dens and small caves. Its impressive geology extends over 300 million years. After the Ice Age a forest grew over the site, eventually producing the maple, beech, black ash and hemlock seen today. In fact, the forest at Panama Rocks is recognized and included in The Sierra Club’s Guide to the Ancient Forests of the Northeast, and its hemlocks are over 500 years old. Open from May through October, the park’s formations are easily hiked via a Class 1 trail.
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Confectionery Bliss in New York City
By Linda Tancs
Now appearing in New York City, the pop-up exhibition Candytopia is a bit of confectionery bliss in The Big Apple, featuring interactive art installations in over a dozen environments, from flying unicorn pigs to a marshmallow tsunami. Think of it as Pablo Picasso meets Willy Wonka, courtesy of Hollywood “candy queen” Jackie Sorkin and design expert Zac Hartog. Reservations are required; get your tickets before the show moves on after November 15.
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Hudson River Valley Heritage
By Linda Tancs
The Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area stretches from New York City to Albany, New York. One of the gems along that route is Wilderstein Historic Site in Rhinebeck. Sporting an exquisite Queen Anne mansion and Calvert Vaux-designed landscape, it’s widely regarded as one of the Hudson Valley’s most important examples of Victorian architecture. Home to three generations of the Suckley family, it was Thomas Suckley who named the site Wilderstein (wild man’s stone) in reference to a nearby Indian petroglyph. The regular season for guided tours of the elaborate mansion is May through October, featuring the 1888 interiors of the first floor of the mansion, the exterior architecture and the landscape. The grounds and trails, located on a wooded bluff overlooking the Hudson River, are open year round and offer spectacular views.
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A Castle in the Hudson
By Linda Tancs
Pollepel Island (popularly known as Bannerman Island) is a nearly seven-acre island in the Hudson River in New York. The island’s original name derives from a romantic legend involving a girl named Polly Pell who was rescued from breaking river ice by her sweetheart and delivered to the island, where they married. The site’s contemporary name derives from one of its owners, Francis Bannerman, a Scotland-born munitions dealer who built the island’s signature castle in 1901. Tours of the island (May through October) are conducted from nearby Beacon, New York, on weekends with meetups at the dock opposite the train station.
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Inspiration in Saratoga Springs
By Linda Tancs
Yaddo was the country estate of financier Spencer Trask and his wife Katrina, a writer. Located in Saratoga Springs, New York, the 400-acre estate boasts tranquil rose and rock gardens and a Queen Anne Revival mansion. A haven of inspiration for artists, Yaddo offers residencies to about 200 professional artists each year in categories such as choreography, film, literature, musical composition, painting, performance art, photography, printmaking, sculpture and video. Notable visitors have included James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, Aaron Copland, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Katherine Anne Porter, Amy Sillman, Clyfford Still and David Foster Wallace. Admission to the gardens is free year round, and guided tours are available (for a nominal fee) during the summer months. The roses are peaking again, and the rock garden remains in bloom until September.
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Boating Artifacts in New York
By Linda Tancs
The Antique Boat Museum is a freshwater nautical museum in Clayton, New York, located on the St. Lawrence River along the northern edge of upstate New York. The location is ideal for showcasing over 300 unique and beautifully preserved boats and thousands of recreational boating artifacts ranging from the 19th century to the present. A premier attraction is the houseboat La Duchesse, built in 1903 for famed hotelier George Boldt. A guided walking tour of its luxurious interior is available for an additional fee.
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The Merchant’s House
By Linda Tancs
New York City’s Merchant’s House is a National Historic Landmark as well as a state and city landmark. The 19th century row house is considered one of the finest examples of architecture from the period, boasting an 1832 late-Federal brick exterior and Greek Revival interior rooms. The house was purchased by Seabury Tredwell, a prosperous New York City hardware merchant, in 1835. The Tredwell family continued to live in the landmark building for nearly 100 years. Located at 29 East Fourth Street, the house tour includes four floors of period rooms furnished with the family’s original possessions – furniture, decorative objects, household goods, books and clothing. This remarkably preserved home has functioned as a museum for over 80 years now.
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An Exceptional Sense of Place
By Linda Tancs
Frederic Church, a major Hudson River School painter, had talents beyond the brush. A self-taught architect and landscape designer, he indulged his influences from world travels in the design and construction of a Victorian villa with Middle Eastern accents and named it Olana after a fortress-treasure house in ancient Greater Persia. Its 250-acre naturalistic landscape is one of Church’s great works of art and is one of the most intact artist-designed landscapes in the United States. Because it was created in the area of the birthplace of the Hudson River School arts movement, it possesses an exceptional sense of place—not to mention enviable views of the Hudson River valley. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Olana’s opening to the public, which includes the seasonal, popular guided house tour and year-round, self-guided landscape tours.
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Paulding’s Folly
By Linda Tancs
New York City mayor William Paulding constructed a Gothic Revival mansion in the 1800s overlooking the Hudson River in Tarrytown, New York. Unusual in the post-Colonial era, it sported fanciful turrets and an asymmetrical design that earned it the moniker “Paulding’s Folly.” Its second owner, merchant George Merritt, doubled down you might say by adding to the fanciful Gothic structure and naming it Lyndenhurst after the abundance of Linden trees on the property. Railroad tycoon Jay Gould was the third owner of the estate who, like other wealthy patrons of his day commissioning the construction of mansions along the bluffs of the river from New York City to Albany, used the property as a country retreat. Known today as Lyndhurst, the art, furnishings and antiques remain intact and reflect the character of its three owners, and its grounds survive as an outstanding example of 19th century landscape design.
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The Richest Man’s House
By Linda Tancs
In his day, philanthropist and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller was the richest man in America. He built a hilltop paradise in New York’s Hudson Valley and named it Kykuit, a Dutch word meaning “lookout.” The stately mansion and its grounds are aptly named, overlooking the Hudson River and affording views of New York City 25 miles to the south. The classic tour is perfect for first-time visitors to this expansive, historic estate that was home to four generations of the Rockefeller family. The visit includes the main floor of the house complete with its fine furnishings and art, the subterranean art galleries, the Inner Garden and West Terrace (with spectacular views of the Hudson River and the outdoor sculpture collection) and the Coach Barn with its collection of antique carriages and classic automobiles.
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