GARRISON- Historian Alex Prizgintas traced the history of Hudson Valley architecture during his visit to Putnam County on Thursday.
“From the beauty of Central Park to the many Gilded-Age estates across our nation that featured sprawling grounds, much of the legacy of Landscape Architecture in our country finds its roots in the Hudson Valley,” he told a large audience at the Desmond-Fish Library in Garrison.
Prizgintas, president of the Woodbury Historical Society and town historian of both Woodbury and Tuxedo, highlighted the local and national work of Calvert Vaux, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Andrew Jackson Downing by exploring their rise to fame while contrasting their noted national projects with some of their contributions to the Hudson Valley.
He described Vaux and Olmsted as partners with very different views of landscape architecture, adding that without Newburgh’s Andrew Jackson Downing, the two men might never have met.
Adapted from Prizgintas’ 2021 film documentary produced in part with Marist University’s Hudson River Valley Institute, both Olmsted and Vaux remained tied to the Hudson Valley even after their fame with the construction of Central Park—particularly through Vaux’s architectural works and the business of the Olmsted Bros. firm.
The program paid particular attention to multiple landmarks that received influences from both minds, including Matthew Vassar’s Springside Estate, Newburgh’s Downing Park, Middletown’s Hillside Cemetery, and the Hudson River State Hospital.
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