Olana

Olana, the Persian/Moorish-inspired home of Frederic Edwin Church.

Standing on a hill with wide views of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains is Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, NY. Olana was the home, studio, and estate of Frederic Edwin Church, one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape painters in the 19th Century. Church first sketched on what was then a working farm in 1845 and purchased the property in 1860. Over the next 30 years, he continuously improved the 250-acre property, adding scenic carriage roads, gardens, orchards, a man-made lake, and more than 30,000 trees. The mansion itself is done in a Persian and Moorish style which Church designed based on his travels to the Middle East. Most of the furnishings are original and were collected by Church from his travels.