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Main Image for Blithewood Garden

Blithewood Garden

Photo by Pete Mauney '93 MFA '00
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Blithewood Garden, a classic example of a walled Italianate garden, was designed circa 1903 by Francis L. V. Hoppin (1867–1941) of the architectural firm Hoppin & Koen. Situated on a steeply sloping bluff approximately 130 feet above the Hudson River, Blithewood is a 45-acre section of the Bard College campus that was once part of a historic estate comprising a manor house, outbuildings, drives, gardens, lawns, and meadows. Located in the heart of the Hudson River National Historic Landmark District, Blithewood Garden today remains as breathtakingly beautiful as ever, including its awe-inspiring backdrop of the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River.

Blithewood Garden is open to the public from sunrise to sunset every day. 

The Blithewood Garden Rehabilitation Project

Bard College and the Garden Conservancy, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to saving and sharing outstanding America gardens, are working together on repairs to the historic garden’s structures and hardscape.

Learn More about becoming a Friend of Blithewood

Download the Press Release

Tours and Guides

For an audio tour of Blithewood, dial 845-752-BLWD (2593) or email: [email protected].

  • Self-Guided Tours
    Blithewood self-guided walking tour brochures are available at Blithewood, Bertelsmann Campus Center information desk, and Montgomery Place Visitor Center, or you may download a printable version before you visit.
    Blithewood Garden Brochure (PDF)
  • Guided Tours
    The Arboretum offers staff-led group tours and welcomes group visits with advance reservations. For more information about group visits, please see the Group Visit Information Sheet. All groups must fill out the Group Tour Request Form below. Also, groups interested in a guided tour should contact the Arboretum office at 845-752-LEAF (5323) or email [email protected] at least two weeks prior to their visit.
    Group Tour Request Form
Video by Melvin Brinson. @ValleyVagrant | @hudson.stills

Praise for Blithewood

“Blithewood is one of the most charming villa residences in the Union.”
—Andrew Jackson Downing, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, 1841
 

Student Perspective

Hunter Explores Blithewood

Hunter is a Bard College student in the Environmental and Urban Studies Program with a focus on environmental science. Hunter took Economics 100 at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College, located on the historic Blithewood Estate.

“When I'm not taking classes I enjoy relaxing around here ... I like to fly my kite here and I love spending time in the Italian garden.”

History
Blithewood Garden today remains breathtakingly beautiful, including its awe-inspiring backdrop of the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River.

History

Designed by Francis L. V. Hoppin (1867–1941), Blithewood Garden is a classic example of a walled Italianate garden. In keeping with the turn-of-the-century trend toward Romanticism, the formal Italian garden acts as an extension of the Georgian-style mansion. Hoppin designed the house in 1900 for Captain Andrew C. Zabriskie (1853–1916) and his wife, Frances Hunter Zabriskie (d. 1951), who owned the Blithewood estate from 1899 to 1951, when their son, Christian Zabriskie, donated it to Bard College.

Layout
Hoppin wanted the walled garden to create a sense of solitude, a haven, for its owners.

Layout

Blithewood Garden is a quintessentially architectural garden. It follows the traditional Italianate design, with a at ground plane, paths on  geometric axes, symmetrical beds, a central water feature, statuary, marble ornaments, and walls that form an enclosure, creating a green “room.” The main axis of the sunken, rectangular garden and its terraces terminates at a pavilion overlooking the Hudson River. During an interview in 1903, Hoppin expressed his thoughts about the relationship between the house and garden, saying that both “are properly parts of a single design . . . rather than afterthoughts.”

Plantings
Blithewood Garden was designed with no singular color scheme.

Plantings

Blithewood’s formal garden, lawn, and woodlands contain remnants of vegetation that once existed around much of the estate. Historically, Frances Hunter Zabriskie would have included clipped evergreens, tree peonies, tulips, irises, hyacinths, gladiola, daffodils, phlox, delphiniums, lavender, forget-me-nots, ivy, buttery bush, rhododendrons, lilacs, wisteria, and rugosa and climbing roses, as well as maintained turf. Potted oleander and orange trees, geraniums, nasturtiums, cosmos, snapdragons, and zinnias also graced the garden each year.

Host Your Event at Blithewood
Photo by Jennifer May

Host Your Event at Blithewood

If you are interested in hosting an event, film or photography session at Blithewood, please contact Susanna E. Armbruster, coordinator of summer programs and community resources at:
[email protected]

Contact
Bard Arboretum
Physical Plant
PO Box 5000
30 Campus Road
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000

E-mail: [email protected] 
Phone: 845-752-LEAF (5323)
 
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Visit Us!
Arboretum Hours: 
The Bard Arboretum is open to the public from sunrise
to sunset every day. 

Office Hours:
Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.