Dale Stewart reports from Greenport, NY.No doubt that one of the season’s best views of near-peak foliage was at Historic Hudson’s Seventh Annual House Tour sunset cocktail reception on Saturday, October 6. This year’s theme, A Room With A View, was based upon local landscapes that inspired America’s first great art movement. Nowhere was that more evident than at the reception site, the Oliver Wiswall House, located up Mount Merino Road, with views reaching from the Catskill Mountains and up the Hudson River as far as Albany. The participants on the full day tour visited six houses, ranging in age from 1805 to 2011. The architecture was each quite different from another: a two-story brick schoolhouse turned sewing factory, a Ukrainian Catholic Church, now de-consecrated and fashioned into a private residence, and a newly completed modern masterpiece– a first for Historic Hudson. Fittingly, party host and current owner Carl G. Whitbeck Jr., pictured left with Alan Neumann and Historic Hudson's Peter Frank, put together a treasure map of fine art and antiques located throughout his 1835 Greek Revival Mansion.
Artist Monica Mechling and graphic designer Bob Mechling; designer Peter Frank and Rick Rector.
Stephen King and Perfect Ten director, Paula Forman; Rural Residence proprietor and Historic Hudson president, Timothy Dunleavy with Phil Forman.
Misty McGee and Alderman Dave Marston; Thomas Cole House docent Cynthia Lambert and artist David Franck.
Linda Ziskind and Jan Johnstone; Lucinda Atkins with Rosemary Love.
Izzy Forman with Tom Gilmartin; gallerist Tom Swope and John Schobel.
The view of the Hudson-Athens lighthouse from the Oliver Wiswall House's side yard.
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
