Hudson Valley Architecture

The Hudson Valley is a distinctive and diverse architectural region with buildings spanning nearly four centuries and ranging from the elaborate Hudson River mansions of wealthy land grant patentees and capitalists to the modest farmhouses and working-class dwellings dispersed among its rural towns and villages.

From before its settlement by the Europeans, the Valley was a verdant garden, abundantly watered by the river and its numerous tributaries. Since then, the region has enjoyed continuous prosperity and growth, which has created a cultural landscape filled with a variety of types, periods, and classes of architecture that is unrivaled by any other American place. This great range and complexity of buildings have deprived the Hudson Valley of a concise and coherent architectural history, but we shall try to identify some of the landmarks here.

I. Colonial Era (1609-1783)
II. Federal Era (1783-1840)
III. Pre-Civil War Era (1840-1865)
IV. Late 19th-century Era (1865-1900)
V. Early 20th Century Era (1900-1945)
VI. Late 20th Century Era (1945-2000)
Bibliography

Marist College Student Presentations on Hudson River Valley Art and Architecture

Samuel F.B. Morse and A.J. Davis at Locust Grove

Related Links

Neil Larson, Architectural Historian Associate, Hudson River Valley Institute, Marist College, www.larsonfisher.com/