Olana: Home of Frederic Edwin Church

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we visit the studio of an artist of the Hudson River School.

Olana covers native woodlands, lush fields, and more than five miles of carriage roads, with a backdrop of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains. The main house atop a steep ridge has towers that dominate the skyline. Courtesy of Peter Aaron Photographer

Olana, the home of famed American painter Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), overlooks a lush 250-acre landscape along the Hudson River in Greenport, located in upstate New York. Church, an affluent 19th-century artist associated with the Hudson River School of landscape painters, designed the home, which also served as his studio.

The Olana State Historic Site preserves the main house and its content; other buildings on the property, including a small historic cottage; and the surrounding fields and woodlands.