Renowned Hudson River School painter Frederic Church built what many consider to be his last and greatest work of art, his Persian-style home, Olana, in the breathtaking countryside of New York State's Hudson River Valley.

Church commissioned architect and landscape designer Calvert Vaux (co-designer of New York's Central Park) to help create his dream home in 1870. Olana is situated on several painstakingly planned acres: Thousands of trees were planted and swampland was turned into a lake to create the very landscapes Church would paint from his studio. The home is now a stunningly preserved capsule of Church's life and work, filled with exotic objects from his many travels and decorated with his oil sketches and paintings.

Today, Olana is a New York State Historic Site, a National Historic Landmark, and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Hudson Valley and upstate New York. The home offers magnificent sweeping vistas of the Catskill Mountains, the Hudson River and the Taconic Hills, while the grounds at Olana support a plethora of birds and wildlife and offer opportunities for strolls and picnics.

Resources
For more information, visit olana.org. South Facade of Olana, Hudson, New York, 2007, Image: Carri Manchester.