Category: Uncategorized
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Finding Arryl House
Chancellor Livingston was in Kingston with the State Senate while his mansion was going up in flames. On October 17, 1777, British Major General Vaughan drew his boats up to Clermont\’s dock on the Hudson River, sent troops ashore, and burned Clermont to the ground. The old mansion was not the only building worth burning;…
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What did Fulton have that Fitch didn\'t?
This post is the first in a series dealing with early tourism on the Hudson … !– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>If you were visiting Clermont during out Halloween season, you might have encountered the ghost of John Fitch. He was the cranky one watching the…
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"Under the Window" and Under My Nose
Ah the Livingstons\’ historic library: it is always a source for new curiousities. The last time I poked my nose in there, I found Beatrix Potter books. This time, I found… Illustrated children\’s books as we know them today were in their infancy when Alice Livingston was growing up in the last quarter of the…
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Underneath it All
\”What did they wear… under there?\” asks the visitor. The question is tentative and curious, but a little nervous that they are diving into some personal territory. In the process of offering more costumed interpretation at Clermont, I\’ve gotten this question a lot. It\’s because much of historic women\’s clothing requires a complex array of…
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Endgame
This is the sixth and final post in a series on Nicholas van Rensselaer… It\’s been six long and winding posts since Nicholas Van Rensselaer told Charles II that he\’d be restored to the throne. Let\’s recap, shall we? (The following section sounds a lot better if you imagine it being read by James Burke.…
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A Greyhound Named Wagon
Here is another dog story to add to the series on pets that I\’ve been building up. Since I will be absent next week for the holidays, I thought I would double up and post an extra blog this week. I will be back to blogging again before the New Year. I was prodded to…
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Nicholas\' Legacy
This is the fifth post in a series on Nicholas van RensselaerThe death of Nicholas was like the breaking of a mirror: it brought the Rensselaer family seven years of misfortune. Not only had they lost their access to the King\’s ear, but they lost control over some of their property as Nicholas\’ widow now…
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Dog Blog: "Aha moment!"
Last August, I posted the Dog Blog, which has subsequently received more hits than any other of Clermont\’s blog entries. Apparently I need to write a little more about Clermont\’s ample pet population! In my earlier Dog Blog mentioned that I could not for the life of me read this particular headstone in our little…
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Mythical Mirrors
It made me laugh that a week after I posted the blog \”Mythical Beasts\” about common historic house myths, I had a personal run-in with disproving one: The myth of the petticoat mirror. This one is a costume myth so I am always tickled by it. The myth begins with pier tables, like ours pictured…
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Hardenbergh 2: Even Harder
The second post in a series on the Hardenbergh Patent… Robert of Clermont could look out from his front door, cast his gaze upon the Catskill Mountains, and declare that he owned all he could see. But could he do that honestly? Yes and no. He owned perhaps a third of the Great Hardenbergh Patent,…
Clermont State Historic Site 