Cedar Grove's front
entrance, facing south.
Cedar
Grove:
CATSKILL, N.Y. - Built in 1815, the cottage known as Cedar Grove
was the homestead for the Thomson-Cole family for five
generations and is one of 4,000 historic sites in the United
States. It became the home and studio for artist Thomas Cole who
created the Hudson River School of art, considered to be one of
the foremost native American art movements.
The house opened to the public this summer, after a restoration
project sponsored by the Greene County Historical Society. The
society worked in collaboration with The Catskill Center for
Conservation and Development to raise money for the project.
During the development process, grants were received from the New
York State Council on the Arts, the Hudson River Improvement
Fund, and Benjamin Moore Paints.
A number of significant objects have been added to the Cole
artifacts and artworks already in the society's collections.
Earlier gifts to the society have been returned to Cedar Grove
from exhibits at the Bronck Museum. Monuments and tombstones,
including those of Thomas Cole and his family, have been restored
and it is the intention of the Cole heirs to transfer titles to
three of these plots to the historical society.
Cedar Grove's 3 1/2 acres with Federal brick house, old studio
and privy are what remain of the 88-acre Thomson-Cole fruit farm
which stretched from the Vosenkill on the west to the Hudson
River on the east.
The West parlor window.
In 1815, Thomas T. Thomson commissioned the house to be built in
what was then a rural district of Catskill. Thomas (a bachelor),
his brother John Alexander and their spinster sister Catherine
moved into the new home just before the Christmas holidays of
1815. Soon, four nieces of John Alexander Thomson (including one
Maria Bartow who would eventually marry Thomas Cole) moved to
Cedar Grove as well. The girls affectionately referred to Thomson
as "Uncle Sandy."
In 1825, artist Thomas Cole (1801-1848) traveled up the Hudson
from New York City to hike and sketch in the northern Catskills.
He became so enamored of the location that he returned nearly
every year and in time rented an "outbuilding" from "Uncle Sandy"
for a summer studio.
He fell in love with Maria Bartow, and they were married in the
west parlor on November 22, 1836. Cedar Grove would be the
couple's permanent home for the rest of their lives.
Cedar Grove was a very crowded household in the years before the
north wing was built. While the west parlor and the ground floor
rooms were used by all, Uncle Sandy had his bed-sitting room in
the east parlor, which today is the renovated Florence Haswell
Cole Vincent Gallery.
Directly above was sleeping space for Maria Cole's unmarried
sisters, while the Cole family used the two bedrooms on the west
side across the upstairs hallway. One served as the nursery, and
the other was the master bedroom, the room in which Cole
ultimately died.
Visitors to Cedar Grove entered the house via the main entrance
off the piazza, a long open porch which afforded unimpeded views
of the Catskills and surrounding areas. In the 1800s one could
linger on the piazza and enjoy an unobstructed view of the
Catskills and the house's pastoral surroundings. In 2001, one can
still gaze out from the piazza and see the Catskills, but
development has brought more houses and other structures into the
view.
Entering through the main hallway, one sees the tiger maple
banister, which runs uninterrupted for four flights from Cedar
Grove's basement to the "Sky parlor." Two Empire style pier
tables in this hallway are original to the house and belonged to
the Cole family. The coat hooks by the door are like the ones the
family would have used for coats and wraps.
One continues to the west parlor, the room in which Maria Bartow
and Thomas Cole were married in 1836. A small oil painting on the
wall of Cedar Grove (circa 1868) is the work of artist Charles
Herbert Moore, a local artist who lived just north of the Rip Van
Winkle Bridge. He founded the Harvard School of Art and later, in
England, became an expert on Gothic architecture and was knighted
by Queen Victoria. The painting was a gift to the house from
Edith Cole Silberstein, Thomas and Maria Cole's great
granddaughter.
This parlor also contains several of Thomas Cole's personal
belongings including his only surviving sketch box with an
interior scene he painted in Sicily; his folding sketch field
chair; and mortar and pestle used to grind his paints before
prepared tube paints came into use. On the nearby sofa table are
Cole's flutes and by the window is the harp zither-like
instrument he designed.
On the wall over the antique mantel is a reproduction of Cole's
"The Angels Administering to Christ in the Wilderness." The
original hung there for decades.
Other antique furnishings in the room include the sofa, the
Sheraton fancy armchair, tea table, reading chair and drop lid
card table.
Past the west parlor is the north gallery, which will be used in
the future for exhibits.
The east parlor is now the principal exhibit space in the house
but was originally
Uncle Sandy's bed-sitting room. Today it houses the Florence
Haswell Cole Vincent Gallery, which offers exhibits and
information illustrating Cole's life at Cedar Grove.
Three original Thomas Cole paintings hang in the gallery to the
right of the fireplace. Three paintings by Cole's sister Sarah
are hanging on the wall to the left of the fireplace. They depict
English scenes, including the Anglican Church in which their
parents were married.
A display case in the room's center holds Cole family memorabilia
including a letter written from Cedar Grove and pieces of
daughter Emily's tea set.
The master bedroom, where Cole died.
On the second floor we see the west bedroom and nursery which
were the living quarters for the Cole family described earlier.
Down the hall, the north gallery was Thomas Cole's winter studio.
It also may have been the room used by artist Frederic Church
during the two years that he studied with Cole. Items on display
in this room include Cole's large easel, which was used for his
large canvases such as "Voyage of Life" and "The Course of the
Empire;" folio reference volumes on the slant-top desk; a cabinet
of curiosities collected by Thomas Cole at various times during
his travels; and plaster casts created by Cole.
The upstairs east wing, originally sleeping quarters for the
Thomson-Cole nieces, has been transformed into another spacious
gallery and renamed the Kaaterskill Clove Gallery as a memorial
to Catherine Shaffer Beecher.
The Kaaterskill Clove Gallery is home to artwork by Benjamin
Bellows Grant Stone, a student of Benjamin Champney and Jasper
Cropsy. He was a member of the second generation of Hudson River
School artists.
On the grounds of Cedar Grove, a Victorian privy still stands and
has been restored to its original charm. Behind it stands the
building originally rented as a summer studio by Thomas Cole
before he married Maria Bartow and moved into the main house.
This studio will be renovated as part of the long-range plans for
the continued restoration of the entire site.
Cedar Grove is at 218 Spring Street. For information,
518-943-7465 or 518-943-9350.
