Landscape Information
Located in Arbor Hill this four-acre property features a Federal-style mansion (1798) flanked by a level lawn to the west and a steep hill to the east. Developed by Abraham Ten Broeck and his wife, Elizabeth Van Rensselaer in 1798, the site was acquired by Thomas Worth Olcott in 1848. Olcott improved the property, expanding the existing gardens and establishing trees and shrubs throughout.
In 1948 the Albany County Historical Association acquired the property and engaged landscape architect Eugene Barker to prepare a landscape plan. Barker established a formal garden west of the residence, redesigned in 1976 by Ruth Piwanka in the Colonial Revival style to commemorate the nation’s bicentennial. Fourteen years later Doell and Doell, Garden Historians and Landscape Preservation Planners, prepared a Historic Landscape Report and in 2021 Martha Lyon Landscape Architects prepared a Cultural Landscape Report.
Today the mansion is encircled by a circular drive paved with crushed granite which follows a historic alignment and is shaded by a specimen beech tree. The western lawn, planted irregularly with deciduous trees, including silver maple, horse chestnut, and black locust, is navigated by a linear stone pathway. Distinguished by an arbor draped with grape vines, the path is flanked by an allée of hawthorn and cherry trees, two cutting gardens, and the formal garden. The latter is framed by a bower of clematis vines and rows of lilacs, hydrangeas, and roses, and includes geometric beds planted with perennials. East of the residence, the property is interspersed with volunteer deciduous trees that obscure intended historic views of the Hudson River.
The property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and is a contributing feature of the Arbor Hill Historic District–Ten Broeck Triangle, listed in 1979. The property is located within the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, designated in 1996.
