Winnakee Land Trust's High Society Bash

The Locusts on Hudson in Staatsburg, recently acquired by hotelier Andre Balasz, was the glamorous setting on Saturday, May 14, for a benefit for the Winnakee Land Trust, an organization dedicated to protecting open space and farmland in Northern Dutchess County. At present only available for private functions (this event was catered by The Artist's Palate, in Poughkeepsie), the 70-acre property was once site of a 92-room Italianate mansion with a Chinese tower. This extravaganza had been built on 2000 acres by the grandfather of Helen Hungtington Hull (1893-1976) as a surprise for his wife, who is said to have fainted when she saw it. Hull, a musically-inclined philanthropist, was the ex-first wife of Vincent Astor, remarried to Lytle Hull, when she purchased the property from a maiden aunt, tore down the Victorian pile, and built this 1941 John Churchill-designed neo-baroque, relatively-homey alternative, below. Fortunately, on the property at some distance from this house, a remarkable grouping of c. 1872 barns remains intact, awaiting Balazs' attention. At right, WLT supporters Michael Dupre and Angela Henry

Joe Croshier and Rosalind Ashford-Croshier; Jim Langan and Caroline Carey, editor and publisher respectively of The Hudson Valley News.