Steepletop

Spanning both sides of East Hill Road on more than 200 acres of rolling terrain in the Taconic Ridge is the former estate of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and her husband Eugen Boissevain. The couple purchased 435 acres of farmland in 1925, eventually acquiring more than 600 acres. They farmed the land; renovated a preexisting Victorian home (1892) and guest cottage (1830); and added structures, including Millay’s writing cabin and a prefabricated Sears & Roebuck barn (1930). Collaborating with Boissevain’s nephew, Frederick Boissevain, they incorporated the stone ruins of a barn’s foundation to create seven outdoor “rooms.” On axis with the main residence, these rooms include rose and iris gardens, pergola, outdoor flagstone bar, spring-fed swimming pool, and a badminton court (“dingle”).

Following Millay’s death in 1950, the property was eventually acquired by two non-profit organizations: the Millay Colony for the Arts (now Millay Arts) and The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society. In 2006 the state purchased approximately 600 acres of the property from them, incorporating it into two state forests. Five years later Pressley Associates prepared a Cultural Landscape Report, which has guided rehabilitation. In partnership with non-profit organization Scenic Hudson, in 2025 the Millay Society secured a matching grant from the state to protect approximately 190 acres in perpetuity.

Today, accessed by a crushed stone drive, the main house is situated on a hillock overlooking East Hill Road. Sloping lawns extend to the northeast, leading to a white pine grove shading the writing cabin. Beyond are fields and meadows, affording borrowed views of the Lebanon Valley, and forests of evergreen and deciduous trees (including pine and birch). On the property’s northern edge, a woodland walk leads to a grove of pine trees and mountain laurel shrubs where Millay and Boissevain are buried.

Steepletop was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.