Tony Musso continues his stories of Hidden Treasures of the Hudson Valley

Posted 4/17/19

In his fifth presentation for the Town of Lloyd Historical Preservation Society (TOLHPS), Anthony Musso took his audience on another virtual excursion to unheralded but significant sites in …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Tony Musso continues his stories of Hidden Treasures of the Hudson Valley

Posted

In his fifth presentation for the Town of Lloyd Historical Preservation Society (TOLHPS), Anthony Musso took his audience on another virtual excursion to unheralded but significant sites in Westchester, Dutchess, Ulster, and Orange Counties. The journey covered a whole lot of history, a dash of irony, and several heart-tugging glimpses into human nature – sometimes joyful and sometimes sad.

Basing his program on his recently published book, Hidden Treasures of the Hudson Valley, Volume 3, Musso spoke at TOLHPS’ recent public program in Highland. Musso is a free-lance journalist and columnist as well as a book author. In addition to his previous programs on Hidden Treasurers, he has entertained his TOLHPS audience with tales of popular recording artists of the 1950’s and 60’s.

This time Musso’s love of music and history came together in the first site he described: Caramoor in Bedford, Westchester County. Musso’s account of Caramoor featured the love story of its former owners, Walter and Lucie Rosen. Both musicians and patrons of the arts, the couple met when Lucie’s brother introduced them in 1914, and, according to Musso, they fell in love at first sight.

They bought the Caramoor property in 1928, tore down its original arts and crafts house, replaced it with a magnificent Spanish Colonia building that still stands, and broadened the beautiful gardens created by its earlier owner. Musso described the house’s features, including an enormous music room with a 35-foot-high ceiling, and art-covered walls in all the rooms. Many rooms, he said, are designed to reflect just one country in their wall decoration. France, Spain, Italy, England, and others each have their own room at Caramoor. The Rosens held concerts and small music programs for their friends.

In 1944, after learning of the death of their son in the war overseas, the Rosens decided to bequeath Caramoor after their deaths as a center for music and the arts, in their son’s memory. Today it is the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, where visitors can tour the house and gardens and attend concerts and other events.

In his book, Musso provides address and telephone number for Caramoor, as he does for every site he describes.


For the second site on his virtual tour, Musso took his audience to a 180-degree-different kind of house, one he called the Skinny House. It’s only 10 feet wide. But he put it in his book, Musso said, “to show how great the world is when one neighbor helps another.” He began by contrasting it to other narrow houses he has seen or heard of that he calls “spite houses.” These are built by one neighbor to block another neighbor’s beautiful view. But that’s not at all the story of the Skinny House on Grand Street in Mamaroneck, also in Westchester County. The story of this particular Skinny House, begins with the Great Migration, starting in 1916, when many southern black American’s began moving north. Nathan and William Seely, African-American brothers, established the Seely Brothers Construction Company to build quality, affordable homes for people arriving in Westchester from the South.

As business flourished, Nathan Seely built a substantial home on Grand Street for himself and his family, but when the stock market crashed and recession swept the country, he lost both the business and his home. Then came the notable act of neighborliness that drew Musso to this site. Nathan Seely’s neighbor on Grand Street, an Italian immigrant named Panfino Santangelo who had bought his property from Seely, marked off a strip of his land – about 13 feet wide – next to what had been Seely’s own home, and deeded it back to Seely to build another home for his family. Using scrap materials, including an 80-foot long piece of railroad rail for a center joist, Nathan Seely built a 10-foot-wide house. He lived there until his death in 1962, and his family members remained in the house through 1986. Two years later, Seely’s daughter sold it to Santangelo’s daughter, completing the circle of ownership. The Skinny House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

Musso underlined the importance of art to the history in the Hudson Valley in his story of Ever Rest, the final home of Hudson River School painter Jasper Cropsey. Cropsey was a trained architect, but his fame and fortune derived from his landscape paintings. Well, the word fortune applied at least until the Hudson River School style began to go out of fashion in the 1870’s. Until then, Cropsey maintained homes in both New York City and Warwick. But after being forced to sell both his homes and paintings at auction, Cropsey put his earnings into the purchase of a house in Hastings-on-Hudson, enlarging it, and adding a studio. Cropsey painted near-by scenes, and he and his wife lived there until their deaths in 1900 and 1906. Their granddaughter Isabelle lived in the house until she died. Several years later, Cropsey’s great granddaughter started buying up his paintings and eventually turned the house into a gallery operated by a foundation she founded. Musso reported that he took a group there, and it was totally free. “They wouldn’t even accept a donation,” he added. “It’s the best deal you’ll find,” he exclaimed.

Moving from art to industry, imagine if you will Daniel Webster sitting in a rocking chair on a flatcar on a brand-new passenger train, the first such train on the New York & Erie Railroad. The story goes, Musso said, that Webster did it for a better view, but cynics suspected he was courting voters. That was part of Musso’s lead-in to another of his little-known treasures: the 1841 railroad station in Chester NY, the first to be built on the New York and Erie line. Whether Webster’s open-air ride helped him politically is hard to determine, but the new railroad provided a tremendous boost to the local dairy industry. Soon the old station proved inadequate, and in 1915 it was replaced by a new structure, relegating the old one to the lowly status of freight station. But as time continued to move on and highways replaced the trains, even the new station closed. However, it got a second life when, after years of renovation work, the local historical society reopened it as a museum in 1999, housing local and historical exhibits.

From Orange County, in order to reach one of Musso’s sites near Highland, you need to “jump up north” (in Musso’s parlance) to Milton, one of the most important stops on the Underground Railroad. Here the “Fighting Quakers of Milton” lived and are buried. The phrase fighting Quakers sounds like a contradiction in terms, but for two Milton brothers of the Quaker faith, the choice they faced was between two strong beliefs: pacifism and anti-slavery. Anti-slavery won, and they both followed a Kingston cousin into the army. Sadly, both died, one of a shot to the head right after he reportedly retorted to his commander who had warned him to stay low, “A dead man is better than a living coward.” The other died in a hospital, where diseases ran as rampant as injuries. They are buried side by side in the Friends‘ Hinksites Quaker Cemetery in Milton. Nearby is their cousin’s gravestone.

Musso’s presentation featured several other sites – both buildings and gardens - made memorable by their relationship to the famous and near-famous, their role in historic events, or the impact of circumstances on the very structures. When he finished to loud applause, many audience members moved forward to chat with him and purchase autographed copies of his book, hoping to learn more about local history from Musso’s unique point of view.