Olana, Greenport, NY

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)