VIRTUAL TOUR
The 1867 map to the left, taken from Lossing, as reprinted in Schuyler, p. 169, is the starting point for our virtual tour. The map shows Springside as it was developed for Matthew Vassar. The main entrance was at the west end of the property (the arrow, bottom center, points north) on Academy Street. The home and ornamental grounds are depicted on the left and enlarged below; the area to the right was the working farm. Most of the former farm area is now a condominium development, but Springside Landscape Restoration controls the rest of the property and is slowly working to restore different areas to their appearance during Vassar and Downing’s time. 
Numbered locations on the enlarged map to the right include, from northwest to southeast (approximately):
15 Willow Spring
17 Lawn Terrace
20 Evergreen Park
21 Center Circle
22 Grapery and Greenhouse
11 Cottage (Matthew Vassar’s house)
10 Coach House and Stable
3 Deer Park
5 Rock Roost
(Keep reading or click on the various links to see pictures of some of these areas. This virtual tour also includes an overview and the Gatehouse. To see enlargements of any images, PC users can right-click on the image and select View Image.)

Although this map is extremely helpful, it does not convey the topography of the land or how beautifully the landscaping fit into its Hudson Valley setting. For this perspective we are lucky to be able to refer to a number of contemporary paintings.

Overview

In 1852, Vassar commissioned a set of four paintings of his property from the English landscape painter Henry Gritten. These paintings can be taken as fairly accurate representations of what the property looked like at the time of Downing’s death, although some of the features Gritten depicted had not yet been completed.

Gritten must have painted this view from a hill north of the kitchen garden. Facing southwest, with the Hudson River in the background, he placed Matthew Vassar’s house (originally the gardener’s cottage) in the bottom center. Behind the kitchen garden, the building on the left is the dairy/ice house, and adjacent to it is the coach house/stable.

 

All the Gritten paintings are in private collections. The reproduction above comes from the Poughkeepsie Journal
Reproduction from Flad, illus. 12 (photo: Vassar College Library).

Facing south from the Lawn Terrace, this view shows most of the landscaped garden. Evergreen Park, with its young trees, is in the center. Barely visible in a clearing on the side of a hill to the far right is the south entrance gate and Gatehouse.
 

 Reproduction from Flad, illus. 11 (photo: Vassar College Library).

The view from the farm west to Vassar’s cottage (rear center). 
Today, despite overgrown vegetation, the walkways have been cleared, and they are still framed by trees planted by Downing. Although only traces of most of Springside’s architectural structures remain, its curvilinear paths still guide you toward pleasing views, making you feel far away from the modern world. 

Photo: Hannah Borgeson, 1999.

Vassar’s Cottage

From Flad, illus. 13 (photo: Vassar College Library).

The final Gritten painting, above, depicts the back of what was originally built as the gardener's cottage, a structure Vassar liked so much that he adopted it as his home, abandoning plans for a more elaborate house. The coach house/stable building is on the far right, and the Knitting Knoll is in the middle. The circuitous drives and walkways frame the spaces and the views nicely.
 
Below, two sketches signed by Downing (c. 1850), show the house as it was planned, with the back elevation (the one visible in the Gritten painting immediately above) on the left, the front elevation on the right.
From Flad, illus. 7 (left) and 8 (right; photos: Vassar College Library).
Traveling forward in time to 1955, we find the house still standing and in good shape.
From Flad, illus. 23 (photo: Vassar College Library).
Twenty years later, however, the house was uninhabited and suffering from vandalism. In order that a piece of it be preserved, most of the front facade, including the dormer, was moved to state storage facilities in Albany in 1976. By 1999, only the brick archways from the rear ground level, much overgrown, remained at Springside.

Photo: Hannah Borgeson (October 1999).
Since November 2001, the facade has again been visible to the public--as part of a long-term  installation on the fourth floor Terrace Gallery at the New York Stae Museum in Albany.  
 

Photos courtesy Ron Burch, Curator, 
Art and Architecture, New York State Museum.

Willow Spring

The spring from which Springside takes its name is found under the dog statue, above, in this 1867 view from Lossing, reprinted in Flad (photo: Vassar College Library). One visitor to the site in 1852 wrote, “[A]gain I stand by the old spring. I gaze with astonishment. . . . Those sweet waters must be in possession of some magic power.”
Photo: Barbara Lindsey. 

In 1999, the grand sycamore tree still flanked the spring, but the dog (an animal Vassar especially liked) had been replaced by a maiden. 

Coach House and Stable and Ice House and Dairy

 

Photo: Hannah Borgeson, 1999.

The barn complex had its own gated entrance, of which these two stone towers remain. If you look closely as you walk along this pathway, you'll also notice a few of the cobblestones that used to line it.
From Toole, p. 34 (Photo: Vassar College Library).

Downing's Gothic Revival treatment of the barn complex, with his trademark board-and-batten siding, made it seamlessly blend with the rest of the property, every bit as beautiful as the more strictly ornamental aspects of Springside. In the photo above, which dates to the early 1900s, the Coach House and Stable is on the left, and the Dairy and Ice House on the right. (The other side of these structures can be seen in the color reproduction of the Gritten painting, above.)
Photo: Hannah Borgeson, 1999.

In 1969, fire claimed the farm structures, leaving behind only the stone foundations.

Gatehouse

 
Of all the buildings originally built at Springside, only one remains fully standing: the Gatehouse or Porter’s Lodge (below), built adjacent to what was the main entrance to the property at the south end of Academy Street. Ironically, though there are extant plans for the other structures, none are known to exist for this one. Still occupied by a private resident, the house has been restored to its original colors, which complement the towers marking the former entryway. Its wood-shingle roof has been replaced, the front porch has been removed, and there is an addition in the back.
Photo: Hannah Borgeson, 1999.
Photo: Barbara Lindsey, 1999.

Above, a close-up view of the front dormer window, with its unique peaked shutter design (it’s hard to tell here, but each shutter has a tree on it). Chromanalysis determined that these are the paint colors first used on the house.

 
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