Sponsored: Discovering Downing in Newburgh
“Plant spacious parks in your cities and unloose their gates as wide as the gates of morning to the whole people.”
Discovering Downing in Newburgh, a project by Joan Porr, investigates and documents the features of the birthplace, villa and landscape of Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852), often described as the father of American Landscape Architecture.
Downing was an American horticulturist, pomologist, landscape gardener, writer and amateur architect who popularized and adapted the English, Natural or Modern Style of landscape gardening to the United States of America. He was the first native-born American landscape gardener of importance, who adapted many principles of landscape design from English advocates of landscape gardening to the United States. Downing became America’s preeminent figure in the cultivation of rural arts and country living, and was the major link between the Modern Style and Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), who dominated the field of American landscape design during the second half of the nineteenth-century. At the time of his accidental drowning at age 36, Downing was working on landscape design commissions in the Hudson River Valley; Newport, RI; Utica, NY; and on the grounds of the US Capital, Washington, DC. He is buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery Newburgh.
The survey and reports show the various features of Downing's former estate with its house, botanic garden and landscape nursery. There are several examples of buildings by Downing and other important American architects associated and influenced by him within walking distance of this site. An historic marker and a walking tourist map will be created to better understand the impact that Downing had on the Hudson Valley and the nation.
Study the Survey!
Click here to download and study the survey of Downing’s estate.
Explore the Brochure!
On Saturday April 29, 2022 at 1pm in Downing Park, fans of Downing gathered to commemorate the unveiling of the plaque and explore the legacy of Downing in Newburgh. Click here to download the brochure.
Thank you! This project is made possible with the generous support of the Hudson River Valley Greenway. The Fullerton is a fiscal sponsor for this public-private effort. With help from The Fullerton , Newburgh, NY, in obtaining a matching grant awarded by the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, Hudson River Valley Greenway. Also, help from the Orange County Historian, Johanna Yaun and assistant Nicole Nazarro as well as student researcher Steven Baltsas in obtaining a Pomeroy Grant for the marker. Thank you to the following people who enthusiastically lent their expertise or support:
Patti Bloom- Bloom and Bloom Associates, Surveyors, Highland, NY
Tom Elmore- ASL.A LEED AP, Landscape Architect, research, CT
Cynthia Behan- Behan Associates Landscape Architecture- Syracuse, NY
Brian Wolfe- Photographer, research, Newburgh, NY
Dr. Peter Del Tredici-Senior Research Scientist, Harvard University
Kerry Pelella,-Downing property owner and research
Peter Patel- Arborist, Orange County, NY
Jimmy Presutti- Horticulturist
Christina Amato-Downing property homeowner
Peter Witkowsky- Associate Professor of English and Chair and,
Dr. James Cotter Emeritus, Mount St Mary College, Newburgh, NY
Kristine Young -President –SUNY Orange County Community College, Middletown & Newburgh, NY
Joe Donat-previous Newburgh City Manager
Brittany Starke, Operations and Events Coordinator, Mount Gulian Historic Site, Beacon, NY.
Eric Ruscher & Yvonne Marse, Orange County Clerks, NY
Read more! References & Bibliography
Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening Adapted to North America, by AJ Downing, Wiley and Putnum, NY 1841
Cottage Residences, by AJ Downing, Wiley and Putnum, NY 1842
The Architecture of Country Houses, by AJ Downing, New York, D. Appleton & CO., 1850
Fruits and Fruit Trees of America by AJ Downing
Rural Essays by AJ Downing, posthumously, edited with a Memoir of the Author by George William Curtis, 1856
Prophet With Honor, The Career of Andrew Jackson Downing 1815-1852, Edited by George B. Tatum and Elisabeth Blair MacDougall, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C., 1989
Apostle of Taste, By David Schuyler, The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1996
Andrew Jackson Downing, Essential Texts, Edited by Robert Twombly, W.W. Norton Company, New York-London, 2012
Death Passage On the Hudson, The Wreck of the Henry Clay, by Kris Hansen, Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmanns, New York, 2004
Urban Forests, by Jill Jonnes, Viking, New York 2016
Freedom’s Gardener, by Myra B. Young Armstead, New York University Press, New York and London, 2012
The Complete House and Grounds, by Caren Yglesias, AIA, the Center for American Places at Columbia College Chicago, 2011
A Description of New York Central Park, Clarence C. Cook, 1889
American Architecture, A History, Leland M. Roth, Routledge, 2003
The Architecture of Frederick Clark Withers and the Progress of Gothic Revival in America after 1850, Francis R. Kowsky, Wesleyan University, 1980
Articles:
The Ginkgo in America, Peter Del Tredici, Arnoldia, Harvard University, 1981.
Wake Up And Smell The Ginkgos, Peter Del Tredici, Arnoldia, 66/2.
Closing The Book on Sargent’s Weeping Hemlock, by Peter Del Tredici, November 2020, Arnoldia, 78/2.
A Visit to the House and Garden of the Late A.J. Downing, Horticulturist, n.s., Published by James J. Vick Jr. Rochester, (Jan. 1853)
Downing and the American House, by Arthur Channing Downs, published by the Downing & Vaux Society, PA. 1988.
The Architecture and Life of the Hon. Thornton Macness Niven, by Arthur Channing Downs, Jr., published by The Orange County Community of Museums and Galleries, Goshen, NY 1972.
Downing’s Newburgh Villa, by Arthur Channing Downs, Jr., Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology, 1972, Vol. 4, No. ¾.
19th Century Women of Newburgh Bay by Michael Green, http://newyorkhistoryblog.org, Feburary 27, 2020.
Newburgh’s Downing Park, A Short History by Michael Aaron Green, http://newyorkhistoryblog.org, December 20. 2018.
Andrew Jackson Downing and the Cucumber Magnolia, by Richard Cabo, The Daily Plant, Volumn XXV, Number 5269, October 14, 2010.
The Diary of James Brown, Transcribed 1829-1860, Property of Mt. Gulian Historic Site, Beacon, NY.