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RI Archives: Rural Road Trips

View past Excursions articles.

View all past Rural Road Trip articles.

Travel Essentials

Amtrak Empire Service between Albany, Hudson or Rhinecliff, NY and Penn Station, NYC

Bonanza Bus Lines between Williamstown, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, MA, or Canaan, CT and Port Authority Bus Terminal, NYC

Metro-North Railroad between Wassaic, Dover Plains, or Poughkeepsie, NY and Harlem (125th Street)  or Grand Central Station, NYC

Weather Underground
The radar is especially useful for tracking snow, sleet and thunderstorms.

Gas Prices
The price of gas at many of the stations in your area (enter zip code) and those immediately surrounding it. 

Historic Homes, Museums & Gardens

Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

Montgomery Place 434-acre intact Hudson River Valley estate

Athens, NY

Howard Hall Farm a laboratory for restoration training

Austerlitz, NY

Old Austerlitz

Catskill, NY

Cedar Grove home of Hudson River School founder, painter Thomas Cole

Hudson, NY

The American Museum of Firefighting

Hyde Park, NY

Home of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Vanderbilt Mansion relic of the Gilded Age

Germantown, NY

Clermont an early Hudson River estate

Olana home of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church

Kent, CT

Sloane Stanley Museum artist’s studio and tool collection

Kinderhook, NY

U. S. President Martin Van Buren house

Lenox, MA

The Mount Edith Wharton’s estate and gardens

Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio Cubist paintings in a Modernist house

Ventfort Hall the Gilded Age Museum

Old Chatham, NY

Shaker Museum and Library

Pittsfield, MA

Hancock Shaker Village

Arrowhead home of Herman Melville.

Rhinebeck, NY

Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome aircraft and auto museum; air shows

Wilderstein Historic Site elaborate Queen-Anne style house of the Suckleys. 

Poughkeepsie, NY

Locust Grove home of Samuel F.B. Morse

Sheffield, MA

Ashley House c. 1735 house; oldest in Berkshire County

Staatsburgh, NY

Mills Mansion house remodeled in Beaux Arts style by McKim, Mead & White

Stockbridge, MA

Chesterwood Estate & Museum home of Lincoln memorial sculptor Daniel Chester French

Mission House 1739 house with Colonial Revival garden

Naumkeag McKim, Mead & White summer cottage and gardens

Williamstown, MA

The Folly at Field Farm Modenist house and sculpture garden

[See more Excursion articles]

The Mount: Drop by for a Drink

Rural Intelligence: Rural Road Trips: Excursions Image

The masterminds behind The Mount, the troubled but on the mend (we hope) Edith Wharton property in Lenox, have had an idea so brilliant it gives us hope for the historic site’s future.  On Friday and Saturday evenings throughout July and August, the cafe there will remain open from 5 to 8 to serve wine and hors d’oeuvres.  In other words, at the very hour when Wharton herself would have taken a break from writing her masterpiece, The House of Mirth (on any well-considered list of the top 10 English-language novels), to walk the magnificent grounds when the light is at its most beautiful and to relax on the terrace, so may we.  Moreover, like Wharton, we get to park the Duesenberg for free, and we may enter without so much as a dime changing hands.  If afterwards, you realize you had a magical moment there, and hope to do it again next summer, we suggest you sit down at once and write The Mount a big, fat tax-deductible check.   

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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/17/08 at 02:55 PM • Permalink