Staatsburgh State Historic Site
| Staatsburgh State Historic Site | |
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North elevation and east (front) facade at sunset, 2016
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| Location | Staatsburg, Dutchess County, New York |
| Coordinates | 41°51′23.83″N 73°55′47.59″W / 41.8566194°N 73.9298861°WCoordinates: 41°51′23.83″N 73°55′47.59″W / 41.8566194°N 73.9298861°W |
| Architect | McKim, Mead, and White |
| Architectural style(s) | Beaux-Arts |
The Staatsburgh State Historic Site preserves a Beaux-Arts mansion designed by McKim, Mead, and White and the home's surrounding landscape in the hamlet of Staatsburg, Dutchess County, New York, United States. The historic site is located within Ogden Mills & Ruth Livingston Mills State Park. The mansion, a New York State Historic Site, is considered a fine example of the great estates built during the Gilded Age.
In 1792, Morgan Lewis, a Governor of New York, purchased an estate covering about 334 acres (135 ha) and commissioned the construction of a colonial-style house on the site of the present day mansion. In 1832, this first house was destroyed by a fire said to be an act of arson committed by disgruntled tenant farmers. After the fire, Morgan Lewis and his wife, Gertrude Livingston, a sister of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, immediately replaced the structure with a Greek Revival mansion with 25 rooms. The house was inherited in 1844 by Gov. Morgan Lewis's daughter Margaret and her husband Maturin Livingston; and in 1847 by the couple's son Maturin Livingston (1816–1888).
In 1890, Ruth Livingston Mills, the great-grand daughter of Morgan Lewis and the mother of Ogden L. Mills, Secretary of the Treasury, inherited the estate. Not long afterwards, Ruth Livingston Mills and her husband, the financier and philanthropist Ogden Mills, commissioned a remodelling and enlargement of the mansion to the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White. The principal architect was Stanford White. Work started in 1895 and when completed in the following year, had turned the house into a Beaux-Arts mansion with 65 rooms, 14 bathrooms, and 23 fireplaces. The cost of the work is reported to have cost about $350,000. As part of the process, a coal-powered electricity plant was constructed near the Hudson River to supply the electric lights in the mansion, which was also equipped with central heating. The mansion was used as a residence and for entertaining by the family, which owned five homes in total, mainly during the fall season between mid-September and the Christmas holidays. During this time, they hosted house parties, balls, and dinners. At the remainder of the year, the family stayed in one of their other residences in New York City, Paris, Newport, Rhode Island, and California. Before her death, Ruth Livingston Mills began acquiring lands surrounding the estate. After her death in 1920, Mr. Mills continued to purchase surrounding property, enlarging the acreage of the property to total over 1,600 acres (650 ha), the size of the mansion grounds at the time that it was given to the State of New York.
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