By Shannon Butler
We have previously discussed that, over time, buildings are lost for various reasons and sometimes all we have left to remind us of their existence are photographs. Recently, while preparing for a new historic walking tour of Springside Historic Landscape, I was digging in the Poughkeepsie Journal archives for images of the buildings that once dotted the site. In the process, I came across photos of a beautiful and rather large mansion, on fire! Looking at these photos, the architectural nerd in me immediately believed that the house was the work of local architect Percival Lloyd. A little bit of research proved that I was correct (mostly). But I wanted to know more about the family and the house. I also wanted to find a picture of it in its prime (AKA - not on fire!) and as these things generally transpire, I went down the historical rabbit hole.
Springside is famous for two reasons. First, it was the summer home of Matthew Vassar, local brewer, philanthropist, and creator of the college that bears his name. Secondly, it is one of the few remaining projects of landscape architect and tastemaker of mid-19th century America, Andrew Jackson Downing (you can learn more about that on our guided tours of Springside - this summer). However, Vassar was not the only person to have used the site as a summer home. Indeed, there was one family who lived here and enjoyed the grounds for a much longer span of time.
The Nelson family came here from Ireland in the early 19th century, with William Nelson Sr. being the first to make the family fortune in shipping. His son, William Nelson Jr., continued in that line of work, but by the 1870s, he had enough money to enjoy both a home in Manhattan and a summer place in the country (which he filled with fine artwork!). William Nelson Jr. was born in 1829 and, sadly, there is very little written about him and his life. He was a quiet man who stayed out of politics and the newspapers. His first wife, Mary Matilda Beebee, gave him three sons, William, Horatio, and Harvey, but she died in 1866.
By 1879, he came to Poughkeepsie where he purchased a portion of land just south of Matthew Vassar’s old estate, Springside, at an auction on June 26, along with a mansion that had been built sometime around the mid-19th century. He named the estate Hudson Knolls. He expanded the property even more in 1901 when he attended the foreclosure auction of Eugene Howell’s estate and managed to win all of Vassar’s Springside for $6,900. This deal included the grounds, cottages, and barns.
In 1891, William Nelson married a woman half his age, Marie Christiana Rasmussen. Together, they had three children, Gerald, Geraldine, and Gertrude. These children would go on to call Springside their home for many years, even beyond their father’s death, on April 3, 1905. William’s will was altered not long before his death, leaving Marie the entire estate and changing the amount allowed to his first three sons. “Finding my sons, William, Horatio, and Harvey, are not equal to keeping money,” he left them trust funds instead of the bulk of the estate. He also left a few of his fine paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (a portion of one is seen in the family photo in the upper right). The bulk of the family’s treasures stayed in their grand art gallery until 1908, when a fire ripped through the old home causing over $30,000 in losses, though local firemen did rescue much of the artwork from the upstairs gallery.
An article in the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle in June of 1910 said that Mrs. Nelson had hired local architect Percival Lloyd to design a new home on the location with, “broad piazzas and terraces (that) will face the west to overlook the Hudson. The exterior walls will be stuccoed and the roofs will be covered in red Spanish tile.” The house would also have a brand-new art gallery to hold the Nelson’s precious collection. However, something went wrong at some point, perhaps a disagreement between architect and client? Whatever it was, Lloyd was dismissed by Mrs. Nelson in June of 1911. Her three children, who had come to love Springside as their home, begged their mother to continue rebuilding the mansion. They each sent her a letter, pledging some of their own inheritance to assist in the costs of construction:
“Dear Mamma, I would like you to rebuild the house which burned down on Springside. And use money which you have saved up to do so. And I also promise to pay five thousand or more towards rebuilding the house when I become of age.
With Love Geraldine”
A new architect by the name of Charles Volz was brought in from New York City. However, based on the way the house turned out, he doesn’t appear to have made any substantial changes to Lloyd’s original design. The house turned out very similar in design to Lloyd’s other fabulous creation, the Kenyon Mansion, which still stands on Boardman Road. The house came complete with a new art gallery, and the family filled the walls with their collections and began enjoying the house and grounds once again. After the death of Mrs. Nelson in 1932, and as the years went by, the “big house” as the family called it, was used less and less, while other parts of the property were utilized. Gertrude and her husband, John Fitzpatrick, moved into Vassar’s cottage, and a new Tudor-style home was built on the north end of the property by Geraldine and her husband, Ernest Acker, in 1929. The big house sat mostly unoccupied and became a target for thieves whenever the Nelson children weren’t around. In 1950, there was talk of turning the site into the new Poughkeepsie High School, but those plans fell through.
Which brings us to the photos that I discovered of the house on fire! On Saturday, January 20, 1973, a fire ripped through the home, gutting the interior. However, since the building was constructed to be mostly fireproof, the core of the structure still stood. It was finally torn down sometime in the mid-1980s to make way for condos that were planned on that site. Only some of those condos were completed, just to the east of where the Nelson home once stood. If you walk deep into the woods, past a stone bridge marked “1901,” you will find pieces of red Spanish tile and a small bit of brick foundation. This, and some family photos, are all that remain of the Nelson family mansion at Springside.
References:
Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle - 25 March 1901, 5 April 1905, 5 May 1905, 21 May 1908, 25 June 1910
Poughkeepsie Journal - 14 Dec 1950, 28 July 1958, 17 Oct 1960,
Vassar Special Collections - Series VII. Nelson Family Papers, 1870-2024 - Letters from the Nelson children to their mother.
Private Nelson Family Papers - Legal papers concerning the construction of the new house. Special Thanks to Miles Nelson for his assistance and sharing these sources.
Images:
NelsonFamily - Photo of the Nelson family in their original art gallery, William Nelson, his wife Marie, and their children, Geraldine, Gertrude, and Gerald. The painting in the upper right corner is now in the collection of the Met. Photo is courtesy of Miles Nelson, a descendant of the family. Thanks again Miles!
Nelsonmansion1912 - This photo was taken in April of 1912 showing the mansion in the process of being completed. Photo is courtesy of Miles Nelson.
Nelson Mansion - The new mansion with Gertrude Nelson, her husband John Fitzpatrick, and their dog “Mee-chow.” Photo is courtesy of Miles Nelson.
Nelsonbridge-1913 - Photo of the bridge that connected the Nelson property with Springside, the bridge is marked “1901” as that is the year that William Nelson combined the properties. The Nelson mansion can be seen up the hill through the trees. From the Special Collections at Vassar College.
Nelsonbridge - A modern view of the “1901” bridge.
Nelsonfire - Photo showing firefighters at the Nelson mansion fire in 1973. PoJo Archives Photo.
Nelsonfire2- Photo showing firefighters at the Nelson mansion fire in 1973. PoJo Archives Photo.