Locusts on Hudson

File:Locusts on Hudson Farm Building.JPG

American Revolutionary War officer and Associate Justice Henry Brockholst Livingston bought the "Wittemount" estate from a man by the name of De Witt in 1782.{{cite news|last=S. Van Vliet|first=George|title=A Guest Editorial: Brockholst Livingston|url=http://fultonhistory.com/newspapers%20Disk3/Poughkeepsie%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle/Poughkeepsie%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle%201940.pdf/Poughkeepsie%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle%201940%20-%200281.pdf|access-date=October 16, 2013|newspaper=The Poughkeepsie Eagle News|date=2 March 1940}}

Brockholst Livingston developed the land on the estate more than had been done before. In 1797, he gave the property the new title “The Locusts” (not to be confused with Locust Grove) for its black locust trees.{{cite book|last=Abraham|first=Henry J.|title=Justices and presidents : a political history of appointments to the Supreme Court|url=https://archive.org/details/justicespresiden0000abra|url-access=registration|year=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0-19-506557-3|edition=3rd}} Livingston removed a log cabin from, and added a red brick mansion to, the property.{{cite web|last=Smith|first=E.M.|title=Documentary History of Rhinebeck|url=https://archive.org/details/documentaryhisto00smi|work=Internet Archive|date=1881 |publisher=Rhinebeck, N.Y.|access-date=October 16, 2013}}

Livingston resided on the estate for some years before selling it to Major George William Augustus Provost.

George William Prevost inherited a large portion of this property and conveyed it in April 1811 to James Duane Livingston, son of Robert Cambridge Livingston. On October 19, 1835, James Livingston sold it to William C. Emmet of New York, who occupied it as a country seat until 1854, when it was purchased by William Brown Dinsmore (1810–1888), president of the Adams Express Company. The mansion was built by Dinsmore in 1873. The grounds surrounding the house formed a lawn of from fifty to sixty acres, beautified by extensive floral display and a profusion of bedding plants. Dinsmore had a particular interest in horticulture and especially floriculture.[http://genealogytrails.com/ny/dutchess/history/chapter13.html Historical and Genealogical Record Dutchess and Putnam Counties New York, Press of the A. V. Haight Co., Poughkeepsie, New York, 1912]{{PD-notice}}

Dinsmore added extensive gardens, farmland, and greenhouses to the estate.{{cite web|last=Meserve|first=Helen|title=Dinsmore Estate in Staatsburg: The Locusts Was Magnificent |url=http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Millbrook%20NY%20Round%20Table/Millbrook%20NY%20Round%20Table%20Sept%201%201982%20-Sep%201%201983.pdf/Millbrook%20NY%20Round%20Table%20Sept%201%201982%20-Sep%201%201983%20-%200614.pdf|work=Fulton History|publisher=New York Historical Newspaper|access-date=October 14, 2013}} In the 19th century, the property was the subject of at least one American School painting.{{cite web|title=American School, 19th Century Dinsmore Place Staatsburg-on-Hudson New York|url=http://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2349/lots/321|work=Skinner|publisher=Skinner Inc.|access-date=October 16, 2013}} Helen Dinsmore Huntington, daughter William B. Dinsmore Jr. (1844–1906),[https://books.google.com/books?id=F8M4AQAAMAAJ&dq=William+Brown+Dinsmore&pg=PA8 "William Brown Dinsmore", The Historical Register, E.C. Hill, 1923 p. 10 et seq.] inherited the property which was called "Staatsburg on Hudson".{{cite book|last=Reynolds|first=Cuyler|title=Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation, Volume 3|year=1914|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|location=Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J)|page=1258|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iNIUAAAAYAAJ&q=helen+dinsmore+staatsburg&pg=PA1256}} Huntington had the mansion demolished and replaced it with the current home in 1941. As part of the interior decoration, she had Albert Bierstadt's 1869 landscape painting Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains removed from its frame and glued to an interior wall in the new house.{{Cite book|last=Kurin|first=Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ac4nDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA249|title=The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects|date=October 25, 2016|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-312815-1|pages=249|language=en}} After divorcing her husband{{cite web|title=VINCENT ASTOR WEDS HELEN HUNTINGTON|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/05/01/100311735.pdf|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 16, 2013}} of 26 years, Vincent Astor, she married Lytle Hull. During that time, many famous musicians, such as Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein, and Elsa Maxwell, visited the estate for galas held to support her philanthropic projects. Bob Guccione, founder and publisher of Penthouse Magazine, owned the property, utilizing it as a weekend country house. At the time, the property was referred to as “The Willows”.{{cite web|last=Associated Press|date=October 20, 2010|title=Bob Guccione, Penthouse magazine founder and former Dutchess weekender, dies at age 79|url=http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/10/20/life/doc4cbf9b380ed97252641978.txt|publisher=The Daily Freeman}}

In 2004, the estate was foreclosed before being bought by Uma Thurman and André Balazs.{{cite web|last=Schiffman|first=Betty|title=Miss Jackson Sells|url=https://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml|work=Forbes|access-date=October 14, 2013}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150925085440/http://www.locustsonhudson.com/ Official Homepage]

{{coord|41.863790|-73.927395|type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY|display=title}}

Category:1782 establishments in New York (state)

Category:Hyde Park, New York

Category:Farms in New York (state)