John Thompson House (Highland, New York)
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| John Thompson House | |
|---|---|
 House in 1998, Eastern-facing side | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Victorian Italianate |
| Location | Highland, New York |
| Completed | 1870 |
The house now called the John Thompson House was built in 1870[1] by John Thompson (1802-1891),[2] founder of Chase National Bank, a predecessor of the Chase Manhattan Bank,[3] for his wife, Electa Ferris (1807-1902),[4] as the family's country home in the Hudson Valley. Electa was a native of Highland, NY. John Thompson and his wife used the house was a getaway from their main house on 295 Madison Avenue in New York City.[5][6] The house, affectionately called the "Anchorage"[7][8] by the Thompson family, is located on Maple Avenue in Highland, NY and has been maintained as originally built.
The importance of the house to the history of Ulster County and Dutchess County is augmented by generous philanthropy of the Thompson Family to institutions in the Hudson Valley. Fredrick F. Thompson, who summered at the Anchorage as a young boy with his parents, John and Electa, gave Vassar the funds to build its main library, The Thompson Library. [9]
House and grounds
The Anchorage is built in the style of local villa design-style of Andrew Jackson Downing, American landscape designer, horticulturist and writer of American architecture. The house is one of the best examples of Victorian Italianate[10] style in Ulster County.[11]
The John Thompson house, a highly decorated three-and-a-half story brick house with 16 rooms and eleven-foot ceilings, captures the grand style required by New York socialites of the Victorian age. A third-story tower-room typical of Italianate architecture provides views of Poughkeepsie, NY, across the Hudson River Its 10 fireplaces, 7 of which have highly-sculpted Italian-marble mantles, provided heat during the spring and fall months in the late 1800s while its design provided protection from the summer heat. The lighting, including a massive brass Italian chandelier in the living room, were originally gas and have since been converted to electricity. The wide plaster moldings, intricate medallions, and hand-painted wood-grain doors continue the grandeur of the exterior design.
A wrap-around porch, added in 1900 overlooks multiple gardens that so often graced the grounds of country villa homes. Multiple springs, managed by french drains throughout the property, feed into a 40-foot circular stone in-ground pool that provided refreshment on hot summer days.
The house was originally accompanied by a wood gate house, stone garage with a carriage pit and a carriage apartment above the garage for the gardener, and stone barn. The Thompson family enjoyed riding horses along bridle paths on their 100 acres that led to a bluff overlooking the Hudson. The main house, on 4.5 acres, continues paired with the garage and gardener's apartment, while the barn and gate house have since been converted to single-family houses. The house across Maple Avenue, also in the Italianate villa style, was a wedding gift by John Thompson for his niece.
References
- ^ Early Architecture in Ulster County, Junior League of Kingston, 1974, 210
- ^ Obituary, Highland Post, April 27, 1891
- ^ History of JPMorgan Chase: 1799 to present. JPMorgan Chase & Co.
- ^ Obituary, Highland Post, September 26, 1902
- ^ The Social Register of New York City, 1890
- ^ Lewis, Arnold. The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age. Dover Publications, pp 74-77, 1987
- ^ The New York Social Register, Summer of 1910
- ^ Wadlin, Beatrix Hasbrouck. The Times and Tales of the Town of Lloyd. 1974
- ^ "Vassar College: History of the Libaries". Retrieved 2007-08-11.
- ^ Delehanty, Randolph and Richard Sexton. In the Victorian Style. Chronicle Books, 2006.
- ^ Rhoads, William. The Architecture of Ulster County. SUNY New Paltz, forthcoming.
