October
24, 2004 -- Fans of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant ("The Remains of the Day"
etc) and Hudson Valley enthusiasts
know the filmmakers often talk about their Hudson River estate. One
always assumed it was a grand old mansion, but photographs of it never
appear in articles mentioning it (at least not that we've seen), which
has made us curious for years.
We've now solved the mystery with the help of a new book, "Historic
Houses of the Hudson Valley" (Rizzoli, see Shelf Life), and an interview
with Ivory in "Our Town", the Claverack, NY community quarterly. Ivory
wrote the book's intro, without mentioning his house; "Our Town" is
more revealing. Though there's no photo, the piece mentions the place
was built by Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer. A quick cross-reference with
the book and voila - a Federal/Greek Revival beauty built c. 1805 is
easily picked out.
Ivory bought the place and nine acres in 1976 for $80,000 and has
acquired more land with outbuildings since then. Today it must be worth
10 - 20 times as much, or more, and it's definitely one of the coolest
historic Hudson Valley estates still in private hands.
Unfortunately, though Ivory has owned the house for years, he still has
a tenant in the basement left over from the days when it was a rooming
house -- a State Trooper with a "sizable arsenal of guns", according to
"Our Town". That must put a bit of a damper on the fun upstairs.
