Kykuit

Kykuit is a historic house built for John D. Rockefeller in 1913 by the architects Chester Holmes Aldrich and William Adams Delano. The Classical Revival mansion took six years to complete. Four generations of Rockefellers called it home before it became a National Trust historic site.

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Starting in 1906, Kykuit's grounds was designed by landscape architect William Welles Bosworth, who designed the surrounding terraces and gardens with fountains, pavilions and classical sculpture. This garden is considered Bosworth's best work in the United States, looking out over very fine views of the Hudson River. His original gardens still exist, with plantings carefully replaced over time, although his entrance forecourt was extended in 1913. The gardens are terraced, with formal axes, and include a brook garden, a Temple of Aphrodite, loggia, tea-house, and a semicircular rose garden. In the 1960s and 1970s more than 70 works of modern sculpture were added to the grounds, including works by Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Jean Arp, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Gaston Lachaise, Aristide Maillol, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, and David Smith.

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The mansion features interiors designed by Ogden Codman, Jr., collections of Chinese and European ceramics, fine furnishings and 20th-century art.

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Kykuit is located one hour's drive north of New York City. All tours are conducted via shuttle van from the Visitor Center, located at Philipsburg Manor on Rt. 9 in Sleepy Hollow, New York. An admission fee is charged.

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Historic house: A historic house can be a stately home, the birthplace of a famous person, or a house with an interesting history. Houses were first thought of as historic rather than just old or interesting, during the early nineteenth century. Government protection was first given during the late nineteenth cen...

John D. Rockefeller: John Davison Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American capitalist most known for his role in the early petroleum industry and the founding of Standard Oil (ExxonMobil is the largest of its descendants). Through a number of widely-criticized business tactics, Rockefeller built S...

1913: 1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. (click on link for calendar)...