An American Treasure
Montgomery Place, a 380-acre estate adjacent to the main Bard College campus and overlooking the Hudson River, is a designated National Historic Landmark set amid rolling lawns, woodlands, and gardens, against the spectacular backdrop of the Catskill Mountains. Renowned architects, landscape designers, and horticulturists worked to create an elegant and inspiring country estate consisting of a mansion, farm, orchards, farmhouse, and other smaller buildings. Bard College purchased Montgomery Place in 2016. In addition to keeping the grounds open to the public, Bard hosts trail walks, performances, athletic events, symposiums, and other special events on the property. Classes in food sustainability, art history, playwriting, microbiology, and more have been held on site, taking full advantage of this historic and ecological treasure at the southern edge of campus.Hours of Operation
The Montgomery Place grounds are open daily from sunrise to sunset. The mansion is closed and mansion tours suspended due to ongoing preservation work at the site.
Student Sculpture Exhibition
Professor Arthur Gibbons’s sculpture class moves outdoors at Montgomery Place! Nine artists have created site-specific works installed throughout the grounds, responding to the landscape and activating the surrounding environs and their features.
Digital Collections
Digital Exhibitions
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This digital presentation was produced by students in a Bard College course entitled The Window at Montgomery Place, taught by Professor Myra Young Armstead. As a combined History and Experimental Humanities course, the class provided students with the opportunity to think creatively and artistically of ways to use visual electronic media technologies to present historical narratives. Using Alexander Gilson's life as a reference, the images address the themes of slavery, gardening at Montgomery Place, business and property ownership, and family/community connections. -
Violetta White Delafield lived at Montgomery Place with her husband, John Ross Delafield, and their children from 1922 until her death in 1949. As a young woman, Violetta took an interest in botany and began to collect various fungi specimens in the rural Northeast, publishing scholarly works on the mushroom specimens she collected. As with most women in the sciences, her studies were viewed as "amateur." In spite of this, Violetta continued to collect and document specimens. This student-curated exhibition showcases some of Delafield's research.
Podcast: The Montgomery Place Story
Listen to Professor Myra Young Armstead, Montgomery Place Director Amy Husten, Arboretum Director Amy Parrella '99, and College Archivist Helene Tieger '85 talk about the history of Montgomery Place and how it's become part of the Bard story.
Audio Transcript PDF