Bringing back a Vaux treasure

Staatsburg — While Newburgh is rich with examples of 19th-century architect Calvert Vaux's buildings, a neglected brownstone on a small knoll along the Hudson River is ready for restorers to help it take its rightful place in the lineup of great river estates. Hoyt House at The Point is the earliest example of Vaux' private residential Gothic revival designs that blended architecture with the surrounding landscape.

"This is an extraordinary property," said historian Frank Kowsky, who recently wrote a book on Vaux's career. "The way the building is sited is exceptional. The railroad is distant here at The Point, and you have the feel of what it must have been like in the 1800s. We need to bring it back."

Kowsky and several members of the Vaux family, visiting from England, attended a reception Aug. 15 at Hoyt House to highlight new preservation efforts to stabilize the structure.

Alexander Vaux, 24, had never seen his ancestor's work at Hoyt House and was eager to bring the images from books into a real-time view. Preservationist Winthrop Aldrich walked alongside the young man for a quarter of a mile, telling him the building's history since it was built in 1855 and plans for its future, but eventually dropped back as the young man's stride quickened uphill. Great estates along the river include Roosevelt's Springwood in Hyde Park and Olana in Hudson, which was also designed by Vaux as a "Moorish Villa" for painter Frederic Church.

Alex strode up the steepening driveway as the view opened out onto a promontory. The boarded-up stone house perched forlornly, surrounded by a dead copper beech and some struggling oaks.

"It looks like a proper house," Alex said with smiling surprise. He remembered his ancestor was very particular about keeping select trees around the building during construction. His younger brother, Ben, 21, caught up.

"It's larger than I expected. I've seen drawings and photos. It's lovely," Ben said, walking with his brother and father, Robert Vaux, to the veranda entrance.

Like a smaller version of Olana, the building has windows that overlook the Hudson River's Esopus Meadows and the Catskills. The stone for the building was quarried from the land it sits on, weathering to natural soft tones that camouflage its mass among the trees and rock outcroppings. A formal reception hall, redesigned since Vaux's time, sports deep ornamental moldings and fan windows. The solid walnut paneling in the library remains smooth to the touch more than 40 years after it was last dusted or oiled.

Alan Strauber, chairman of the Hoyt House Preservation Committee, said the organization has assembled academics, preservationists and philanthropists to do what they can to restore the building. "The house was taken over by the state in 1962. They almost turned it into a swimming pool, but it was not done, so the house still stands," Strauber said. "It needs to be stabilized, but it's still saveable."

Dennis Wentworth, regional supervisor for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, puts a price tag of $5 million-$10 million to complete the project.

"It depends on whether they're working on just the building, just the landscape or on both, which were of critical importance to Vaux together when he designed it," Wentworth said.

A key enticement to preservation might be purely self-serving for a wealthy individual or institution. The state is willing to enter into a 40-year long-term lease with a person or organization willing to foot the bill for the restoration. The lease could include up to 25 acres of the surrounding park lands adjacent to the Mills Mansion.

"We're talking with institutions about various possibilities, either as an educational research center or architectural restoration working program," Strauber said. "Our first choice is to consider a viable option that would actually save the building before it's too late."

Ben Vaux stepped carefully through the inner salons of the house, looking at the crumbling grandeur around him.

"There are possibilities here, aren't there?" Vaux said.

For more information on the Hoyt House Preservation Committee, contact Alan Strauber at

astrauber@gc.cuny.edu or the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation,

Dennis.Wentworth@oprhp.state.ny.us.

Keys to the story:

Calvert Vaux, 1824-95, was born and educated in London and brought to America by Andrew Jackson Downing to work in his architectural firm in Newburgh. Downing soon made Vaux a partner, but their work together was cut short by Downing's tragic death in a steamship accident in 1852 on the Hudson River. Vaux took over Downing's thriving architectural practice. Vaux's greatest accomplishments were as designer of the original Metropolitan Museum of Art building and as co-designer of Central Park, Prospect Park and the grounds of the White House.

The Times Herald-Record/DEBORAH MEDENBACH

Descendents of 19th-century architect Calvert Vaux point out highlights of Hoyt House adjacent to the Mills Mansion in Staatsburg. Robert Vaux, left, and his sons Alexander and Ben visited last week from London to attend a reception marking efforts to save this early example of their ancestor's architectural work.

The reception hall of Hoyt House is not as originally designed by Calvert Vaux for the Hoyt family, the only residents of the home. The upper floors of the building remain original.


Bringing back a Vaux treasure

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