I was invited by the owner of this residential property to check out the old airplane hangar located on the property. It was built in the 1940s by a Fred Wright, whose family owned the property from 1947 until 2000.The meadow was used as a landing strip. Reportedly Fred’s flying buddies would land their planes and hang out.
Location: Not disclosed
The main house at Olana sits at the top of a large hill along the Hudson River in Greenport, NY. It is a unique mixture of Victorian architectural elements and Middle-Eastern decorative motifs created by Frederic Church and architect Calvert Vaux. Church continued to work on the house for much of the rest of his life. By 1891, the house was essentially complete, looking much as it does today.
The house is ornamented with elaborate stencils, inside and on the exterior cornices. By the 1950s, the patterns were barely visible, and the cornices were painted brown. Using a combination of archival documents and photographs and detailed analysis of a cross-section of each of the five original cornices, the exterior cornices were repainted in 2004-2005.
More information: Olana History
Location: Google Maps (42.217128, -73.829285)
This abandoned drive-in movie theater is located off Route 32. I don’t know anything about its history.
Location: Google Maps (41.455895, -72.108844)
There are several windmills in East Hampton, NY. These are some photos of a few I located, along with a nearby cemetery.
More information: East Hampton website
According to this website, the Craig House was built for the Civil War officer General Joseph Howland in 1859, and called Tioranda, and was turned into America’s first privately licensed psychiatric hospital in 1915. It was closed in 1999.
According to this website, the Tioranda School was built in 1865 by designed by Frederick Clarke Withers, a famous gothic architect. The building operated as a school, a chapel, and event a medical treatment space during the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918.
I don’t know anything about the house I found on the property and also photographed here, but I presume it is related to the estate.
Locations:
Sanita Hills was originally made for NYC sanitation workers (hence the name) by pulling old NYC rail cars, nicknamed Pullmanettes, into the woods and converting them into cabins. The cars came from the old Second and Third Avenue El elevated railway lines in NYC. Later the camp was taken over by the Boy Scouts before eventually being abandoned. At some point all of the cars were cut up and removed, except one. These are photos of what remains of the camp at Whaley Lake.
More information: Abandoned Hudson Valley
Locations:
Remaining car – Google Maps (41.549786, -73.655748)
Some of the camp – Google Maps (41.556562, -73.653208)
I came across this building one day and could not resist photographing it. According to this website, it was built in 1909 and is an example of a Second Renaissance Revival style municipal building. The same website has a lot of information about the public bath movement in America.
More information: Website
Location: Google Maps (40.935369, -73.889152)
This school was most recently known as the Arthur S. May Elementary School. Previously it was simply the Arlington Elementary School, and it was originally the first high school for the Arlington Central School District. The building was built in 1924. The school is located on Raymond Avenue in Poughkeepsie, NY. The school district stopped using this location in June 2014 and moved the name of the school (Arthur S. May) to a nearby building. The property is now for sale, as of 2017.
I particularly liked photographing the “Boys” and “Girls” entrance signs, and also the various staircases throughout the building. It was kind of sad to read the final goodbye notes on the white boards, especially the principal’s (“pack my office”).
Location: Google Maps (25 Raymond Avenue)
The circa 1714 Gomez Mill House is the oldest standing Jewish dwelling in North America and the oldest house in Orange County, NY. It was originally built as a trade post. The site is owned by the Gomez Foundation for Mill House, which operates the site and conducts tours and other events.
More information: Gomez Foundation for Mill House
Location: GoogleMaps
A few years ago (~2013) Swift Hall on the campus of Vassar College was being renovated. I was given the opportunity to photograph the building while parts of its walls were removed.
Location: Google Maps
