In 1846 he established a journal: The Horticulturist and in 1850 published one more book that would help shape the American home: The Architecture of Country Houses.ĭowning married into one of America’s grand families. And he imagined large public spaces that would make nature accessible to the swelling urban populations, from all walks of life.īy the time Downing was 30, he had published three major works: A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Architecture, Adapted for North America (1841), Cottage Residences (1842) and (with assistance from brother Charles) Fruit and Fruit Trees of North America (1845).
#Downimg house how to#
He also grasped the business potential associated with teaching the emerging American how to live. Observing the plain, unattractive homes of the young democracy’s emerging middle class, he believed in the morally uplifting quality of natural beauty. His mind rebelled against the ugliness of the developing industrial economy and he took issue with what he considered the stale rigidity of classical, geometrically proportioned architecture. One result was the first significant American contribution to the world of art: the Hudson River School.Ī host of conflicting influences must have converged in the imagination of young Downing, as he followed his brother into the nursery business. The romantic movement – a rebellion against industrialization and the cold rationalism of the eighteenth century thought – was taking hold in Europe, and America’s painters and poets were being drawn to the still-wild scenery of upstate New York. And it was also at the heart of the scenic Hudson Valley. It was a bustling port and commercial center on the busy Hudson River. Downing was a child, and responsibility for the business was assumed by Andrew’s older brother, Charles.ĭowning’s beloved hometown was uniquely situated at the time. His father had been a struggling carriage wheel maker, on Newburgh’s Liberty Street, until he started a second, more successful enterprise – a nursery – on the same location (across from today’s campus for Mount St. The future “tastemaker” began from relatively humble roots and was largely self-taught. Downing’s thoughts can be discerned behind the visible present. From lawns to porches to popular plants and trees from the magnificent parks that enrich American cities to gothic architecture in homes, churches and other public buildings – A.J. Very few buildings or landscapes designed by Downing survive today but traces of his ideas can be found everywhere. Writer, businessman, architect, gardener, visionary dreamer the leading modern biography, by historian David Schuyler, labels Downing an “Apostle of Taste”, whose opinions established many of the styles associated with the Victorian period in America.
The sadly-brief life of Newburgh native Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) defies easy description.
#Downimg house free#
(Olmstead, of course, is widely considered the founder of America’s urban park movement.) The aging landscape architects took on this assignment free of charge, as a tribute to Downing, their long-deceased mentor and friend Its design was a final collaboration of the storied team of Olmsted and Vaux, best-known for the creation of New York’s Central Park. Downing.ĭowning Park first opened to the public in 1897.
The décor features artifacts commemorating the figure who inspired the park: Newburgh native A.J. The setting blends landscape and structure, in keeping with the original vision of the park’s famous designers – Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. A lovely copper beech tree, dating back to the Park’s beginnings, helps frame the scene.
#Downimg house windows#
Older locals still have fond memories of Oscar Decker who ran a souvenir stand and sold snacks inside the building.Ī rounded wall with curved glass windows on the west side of the structure affords patrons a view of ducks and the occasional heron. It sits gracefully at the edge of a lovely pond, known as the “Polly” (for “Pollywog Pond”) and was originally designed as a warm place for winter skaters to change to and from their skates and sip hot chocolate. The single-story, stone-façade Shelter House was built in the 1934, under the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. The brainchild and labor-of-love of restaurateur Stephen Sinnott, it builds on decades of effort by the non-profit Downing Park Preservation Committee to restore the historic park to its former prominence in the life of the city. The Shelter House Café in Newburgh‘s Downing Park, brings together several strands of the city’s long and complex history.
0 kommentar(er)
