Composing Olana

Annik LaFarge is a writer, editor, photographer, and lecturer who has been writing about American parks and landscapes since 2008. Author of On the High Line (FUP, 2024), and Chasing Chopin, a New York Times Book Review "Editors’ Choice," her work has appeared numerous publications including the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Huff Post, and the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. She is a Trustee of the Waterfront Museum in Brooklyn.

"Composing Olana is both a meditation and a companion – a way of seeing Frederic Church’s home and landscape with eyes newly opened. Drawing on years of historic research and traversing its winding paths and studying its panoramic views, LaFarge reveals how Church created his enduring masterpiece, which, to this reader, becomes as daring a design as its predecessor, Central Park." - Sara Cedar Miller, author of Before Central Park br>"A highly readable, informative guidebook to the landscape and views around Frederick Edwin Church’s unique hilltop house...it gives us the compelling and dramatic history not only of Church's original remaking of the landscape to conform to his vision, but also of more contemporary efforts to save the viewshed and keep that vision intact. All of this unfolds naturally and beautifully, in an engaging style." - Benjamin Swett, author of The Picture Not Taken, Route 22, and The Hudson Valley: A Cultural Guide "Here is another story about a quintessential American landscape, this one created by an artist in the heart of the Hudson Valley. As she did with On the High Line, LaFarge takes us on a rich, fascinating walking tour, uncovering countless stories, characters, relics of the industrial past, Ice Age geology, art, and insights into the cultural history and preservation of this beautiful, singular place." - Robert Hammond, co-founder, Friends of the High Line and co-author of High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s Park in the Sky "In a fully realized labor of love, Hudson Valley–based writer LaFarge (On the High Line) builds this book around the seven main roads Church constructed at Olana, skillfully creating a well-organized narrative by weaving together tales about Church’s professional ascent, his notable contemporaries, his family, Olana’s history, the Hudson River School of painting Church helped create, the property’s development, and the epic battles to preserve the property after Church’s death."– VERDICT "A remarkable achievement and an inspiring story. This book will be a welcome addition to any collection that values art, environmentalism, community history, or any combination of the three." – Library Journal

• Author’s Note ixCompanion Website xiA Rambler’s Map of Olana xiiIntroduction 1Section 1: South Road, 1865 15David Huntington, the Man Who Saved Olana, 18 • The Indispensable Partnership, 22 • TheFrederic Church Center for Art and Landscape, 27 • Catskill Mountain House and the Roots ofLandscape Tourism, 30 • The Name "Olana", 34 • The "Land" in Landscape, 34Section 2: North Road, 1869 39"Donkey Fever", 40 • Downie Church, 42 • Andrew Jackson Downing, 43 • Foremothers, 45 •Columbia-Greene Community College, 48 • En Plein Air Painters, 49Section 3: Ridge Road, 1884 53Composing a View, 53 • Becraft Mountain, 54 • Mount Merino, 56 • The City of Hudson, 58 •Hudson Hall, 62 • Niagara Falls, 63 • The Erratics, 66Section 4: New Approach Road, 1887–1888 69A Real-World Panorama, 69 • Church’s Studios, 75 • The Bend in the River, 76 • The OlanaHouse, 80 • Fallen Hemlock, 86 • The Mingled Garden, 88Section 5: Lake Road, 1884–1885 91Olana Lake, 92 • The Business of Ice, 93 • Cosy Cottage, 94 • The Preservation of Olana, 96 •Farm Road, 98 • When the Future Came to the Olana Farm, 99 • Dogs of Olana, 100Section 6: Crown Hill Road, 1884–1885 103The Plan of Olana, 1886, 104 • Buckthorn Fence, 106 • Landscape Furniture, 108 • Wildlife, 110 •The Park, 110Section 7: Bethune Road, 1864–1865 115Dead Trees, 116 • Guerilla Art, 118 • The Olana Eye SkyCam, 119 • The Soundscape, 121Section 8: The Hudson River Skywalk and Art Trail, 2019 127The Rip Van Winkle Bridge, 129 • Thomas Cole Site, 130 • Emily Cole, 132 • The Hudson River, 134 •Rogers Island, 135 • Hudson River Boat Traffic, 137 • Icebergs, 139Acknowledgments 145Notes 149Bibliography 171Index 175