Matthew Vassar, the wealthy Poughkeepsie brewer who founded Vassar College, established an estate at Springside in 1850. In collaboration with Andrew Jackson Downing, the most celebrated landscape architect of the period, Vassar created an ornamental farm – part pleasure ground and part working farm. Then as now, the public was welcome to stroll the grounds and share his enjoyment of its scenic features.
Despite Downing’s enormous influence on 19th century American taste, Springside is the only one of his landscapes to survive essentially intact. In 1969, Springside was declared a National Historic Landmark in recognition of this special importance.
After Vassar’s death in 1868, Springside was purchased by the owners of neighboring estates, which have now themselves disappeared. Springside remains, but has been subjected to continuous development pressure, as well as arson, vandalism, and neglect which destroyed all but one of the original twelve buildings. Finally, in 1984 preservationists and developers reached a settlement allowing the estate’s historic “pleasure grounds” to be preserved, with development confined to adjoining agricultural land.
Today, Springside is owned and managed by Springside Landscape Restoration, a non-profit group of volunteers working to restore Springside to its original grandeur. See the SLR website for more information about Springside and the SLR organization. This cache was placed with the permission of the SLR Board of Directors.
There is a marked gravel parking area at a small pulloff near the former porter’s lodge (which is now a private home, so please don’t park there or obstruct its entrance). A short distance to the southeast is the trailhead, where you will find a small kiosk containing copies of a very informative walking tour guide, from which the information in this listing was excerpted.
The cache is placed so as to lead you through a substantial cross-section of the property and give you a chance to see many of its scenic features. The property is compact, so you can return by different paths and pass through most of the rest of it.