All Tours: 7
The Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Community
The Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony was one of the premier Arts and Crafts communities in America. Dating from 1902, when it was founded by Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead, Hervey White, and Bolton Brown, noted artists intellectuals, and craftspeople…
The Timbucto Agricultural Colony
In the fall of 1846, Upstate New York abolitionist Gerrit Smith announced a settlement plan to give away forty-acre plots of land to three thousand free African American men living in the state of New York. Scattered across several counties in the…
The Music of Communal Groups
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the soul lives, thinks and invents.”
- Ludwing van Beethoven, 1810
Music and the community have long been interconnected. The…
Movers and Shakers at Mount Lebanon
In 1774, Ann Lee and a coterie of followers emigrated from England to North America in pursuit of religious freedom. The prophetess Lee, prompted by a vision she received from Christ, brought with her eight believers, all of whom adhered to the…
Mormon Sites of Palmyra
If most Americans had to pick a state to associate with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), more commonly called the Mormon church, they would inevitably pick Utah, not New York. Nevertheless, upstate New York served as the…
The Public Square of Watertown, New York
The square, downtown, the mall, the green, and the commons. In America, these words refer to a city's main hub. They are names for public spaces that often serve as the cultural, historic, governmental, and commercial centers of their…
Trask Family Art Colonies
The Yaddo art colony in Saratoga Springs, New York arose out of great personal tragedy, an immense amount of wealth, and the patronage of high art during America’s Gilded Age. Tycoon Spencer Trask and writer Katrina Trask purchased the Yaddo estate…