Sleepy Hollow, NY
Hudson River Valley
Hudson River Valley
I love highbrow 19th-century
and early 20th-century homes. Something about the glory of the
fin-de-siècle and Belle Époche tempered by late-Victorian sensibilities and
good taste not entirely corrupted by the nouveau riche. A little dash of Art
Nouveau and Arts and Crafts never hurts, either. The problem with earlier
residences from the 18th century is one always runs the risk of
encountering too much Rococo silliness or Baroque drama.
I also quite enjoy
getting out of the city from time to time. There’s no end to the arts in NYC,
but sometimes the period rooms at the Met or even a visit to the Frick can’t
cut it. Sometimes you want to see the real deal. Times like that call for a $10
hour-long train ride on Metro North or the LIRR. The Hudson River Valley and
Long Island are resplendent with fabulous homes built by the wealthy of
yesteryear—Theodore Roosevelt’s manly Sagamore Hill, William Vanderbilt’s
mansion, Washington Irving’s Sunnyside. But for my first foray into opulent
mansion-gazing, I headed straight for the mother load: John D. Rockefeller’s
Kykuit.
When Rockefeller built
Kykuit for his family in 1913 he was the richest man in the world. Yet Kykuit
is a surprisingly modest manor home, verging even on small. There is nothing
small about the estate itself, however, which occupies over 3000 acres of
Pocantico Hills near Sleepy Hollow and includes a reversible nine-hole golf
course. Downton Abby this is not. Ten Rockefeller families still live within
the large estate, but upon his death in 1979 Nelson Rockefeller bequeathed
Kykuit and its surrounding 250 acres of garden (referred to by the family as
“the park”) to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, opening the manor to
public tours.
Kykuit is fiercely
guarded by the National Trust. Visitors cannot simply show up to the home and
browse through the home and gardens; admission is by scheduled tours only, and
even then visitors must buy their tickets at the center at Philipsburg Manor
some three miles away and then be bussed to and from Kykuit for their tour.
I decided to go all-out
and go on the three-hour Grand Tour. The Trust also offers several different
two-hour tours, but the Grand Tour was the one to take to see “absolutely
everything.” I also opted for the morning tour over the afternoon tour,
thinking correctly that the earlier group would be smaller. Between the two of
us, my domestic partner and I possess a fairly encyclopedic art historical
knowledge. We usually avoid guided tours, but as this wasn’t an option at
Kykuit, we thought at least we could try to avoid a large group of people which
almost always contains that one guy who doesn’t know anything and asks way too
many questions. Or, worse, that guy who knows a little bit but thinks he knows
a lot and really really wants to share. Our strategy worked out—it was just us
and two other couples. Aside from one man who spent the entire tour jingling
the loose change in his pocket, we were a docile crew.
Kykuit is a grey stone
Classical Revival Georgian mansion surrounded by a sumptuous French Beaux-Arts
park that includes a Japanese garden and teahouse, a Greek temple, and
Italianate fountains, grottos, coach house, and loggia. New York was originally
settled by a large number of Dutch traders and the word “kykuit” is Afrikaans
for “lookout.” On a clear day, visitors can see the Palisades and Tappan Zee.
Our guide was a sprightly
sexagenarian who often left the older ladies on the tour
struggling to keep up—they apparently didn’t heed the website’s warning that
the Grand Tour is not wheelchair accessible and, as such, would include a good
deal of stairs. While her knowledge of art and design history was a bit
lacking, she was a wealth of Rockefeller information. John D. Rockefeller was
one of America’s infamous rag-to-riches stories. He was a serious, religious
man who didn’t let his children know they were wealthy for fear it would hinder
their moral development. His son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., knew such subterfuge
would not be possible with his own children, and instead opted for imparting
the value of money and importance of charity. The children of Rockefeller, Jr.
had to earn their weekly allowance and had to make weekly accounts of
it—one-third went to savings, one-third could be spent as they wished, and
one-third was given away to the poor. It’s this spirit of philanthropy that led
millions of Rockefeller dollars to support medical research, black
universities, and arts institutions. Imagine if all millionaires and
billionaires raised their children in such a manner!
No matter what one’s
level of art knowledge, there is something for everyone at Kykuit. Rockefeller
was a huge collector of Chinese ceramics—the foyer is flanked by two
magnificent Tang Dynasty horses, the likes most art museums could never dream
to afford—while his daughter-in-law, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, was one of the
key founders of the Museum of Modern Art. Abby’s son, Nelson Rockefeller, went
on to collect major works of Modern art and sculpture; Nelson even commissioned
Picasso to execute some of his most famous works as tapestries so the family
would have easily transportable Picassos!
From the very beginning,
John D. Rockefeller raised his children to appreciate art as something that was
both beautiful and that served a purpose. His children took turns picking which
China set guests would be served on, and Nelson’s children had their own
display case of glass bottles they had found on the estate. Even visitors who
couldn’t care less for Asian or Modern art will be struck by the beauty of the
gardens or the home itself. And, if those fail to impress, there’s always the
antique cars and carriages in the coach house. The collection includes a Ford
Model S, the precursor to the Model T! The coach house also contained
apartments for the gardeners and mechanics who worked for the estate. The
Rockefeller’s were notoriously generous employers, so much so that the grandson
of one of the original gardeners still works for the estate.
After two hours of
winding our way through the home and gardens, our guide was clearly short on
things left to show us. To try to make up the entire three hours we often
doubled back and took the long way around to various sites, often seeing things
more than once. It became apparent that two hours is more than sufficient to
show off the home and gardens. When we saw a few of the larger two-hour tour
groups, however, laden with loud tweens and teens, we were infinitely grateful
that we had spent more for the longer tour. Kykuit does not offer student or
senior citizen discounts, and it seems amazing that parents would cough up $25
a head to take their children on a two-hour tour of a house, but it happens.
While Kykuit can’t actually justify a three-hour tour, it seems worth the extra
$15 to avoid said children as apparently a $40 three-hour tour is more than
even the most generous parent is willing to provide (or put up with). It also
helps to take a morning tour, as few parents are able to rally their troops at
6am to get the visitor’s center in time for anything before late-morning or
early-afternoon. Also, many of the rooms and spaces were quite small—at times
it felt crowded with even our small group—so I can’t imagine how cumbersome a
group of eighteen would be.
A visit to Kykuit is not
for the weak of heart. While the train ride is short and affordable, there’s
still the subway ride to Grand Central and walk to the Visitor’s Center to take
into account. It may be best to opt for a two-hour tour, but I definitely
recommend getting up early for a morning tour in order to avoid a large group.
Be sure to book your tickets in advance, though, as they sell out rather
quickly.
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