House Museum Kevin Durst House Museum Kevin Durst

Antiques and Horticulture - Winterthur Museum

I have to start off by saying I did not expect what I saw at Winterthur. I had initially thought it would be a nice gilded age house museum, where you tour and admire different rooms filled with paintings and antiques. Instead, what I experienced in the former home of Henry Francis du Pont, was an extensive collection of American decorative arts in 175 rooms with over 90,000 individual objects on an estate with 1,000 natural garden acres of rolling hills, streams, meadows and forests.

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House Museum Kevin Durst House Museum Kevin Durst

You Can Fight Town Hall - The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion

Norwalk native LeGrand Lockwood, New York financier, railroad magnate, and Treasurer of the New York Stock Exchange purchased 35 acres in Norwalk, Connecticut to build his country estate. French-trained architect Detlef Lienau was commissioned to design a technologically advanced 62-room mansion with indoor plumbing, running hot and cold water, burglar alarm system and heat and ventilation controls.

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House Museum Kevin Durst House Museum Kevin Durst

A Berkshire Gilded Age Museum - Ventfort Hall

Sara Spencer Morgan, sister of J.P. Morgan and husband George Hill Morgan commissioned Rotch & Tilden to build Ventfort Hall, and it was built between 1891 and 1893. They were 7th cousins so they both carried the Morgan name. The Morgan family summered together at their Lenox home until Sarah died in 1896, and then her husband in 1911. Ventfort Hall was left to their three children, Junius Spencer, George Dennison and Caroline Lucy, who sold the house and all the contents, so there are no original furnishings in the house today.

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City Walks Kevin Durst City Walks Kevin Durst

Beantown - A Boston Photowalk

Boston, and neighboring Cambridge are among the most loved cities, loved for their art, culture and history. Boston Tea Party, Boston Public Garden and the Freedom Trail is a unique collection of museums, meeting houses, churches, parks and burying grounds that tell the American Revolution story.

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Cute Downtowns Kevin Durst Cute Downtowns Kevin Durst

A Hudson Valley Downtown With The Right Mix - Saugerties

The town of Saugerties is popular now because they have the right mix of high-quality shops and restaurants, cool art and architecture and the outdoors with hiking trails. There is something for everyone in this town nestled between the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River. Saugerties, like many Hudson Valley towns, lost many manufacturing jobs, but have been on the upswing with popularity.

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Inspired By Versaille’s Garden Retreat - Marble House, Newport, RI

William K. Vanderbilt chose architect Richard Morris Hunt to design the 39th birthday present he wanted to give to his wife, Alva. It would be call Marble House and was to be built on Newport’s fashionable Bellevue Avenue. Richard Morris Hunt was the first American educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

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The Largest Private Ballroom in Newport - Rosecliff

Rosecliff was commissioned by Nevada silver heiress Theresa “Tessie” Fair Oelrichs and her husband, Hermann, and was built between 1898 and 1902. Flamboyant architect, Sanford White of McKim, Mead & White, designed the house modeled after the Grand Trianon, the garden retreat at Versailles. The mansion is clad in white terracotta adorned with flowers and musical instruments. Jules Allard and Sons of Paris were commissioned to do the interior decoration.

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House Museum Kevin Durst House Museum Kevin Durst

Belmont’s Belcourt - Newport, RI

Belcourt was a bachelor pad built for horse enthusiast Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, with French and Gothic influences, designed by renowned Beaux Arts architect Richard Morris Hunt. The 44,000 square foot house was built with one bedroom and one bathroom and extensive stables and carriage area incorporated into the house’s ground level design.

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