Montgomery Place Gardens

Montgomery Place is a 380-acre estate adjacent to the main Bard College campus, overlooking the Hudson River. Montgomery Place is a designated National Historic Landmark set amid rolling lawns, woodlands, and gardens, against the spectacular backdrop of the Catskill Mountains. Renowned architects, landscape designers, and horticulturists worked to create an elegant and inspiring country estate consisting of a mansion, farm, orchards, farmhouse, and other smaller buildings. The Montgomery Place estate was owned by members of the Livingston family from 1802 until the 1980s. In 1986, Livingston heir John Dennis Delafield transferred the estate to Historic Hudson Valley in whose hands it remained until 2016, when Bard College acquired the property.

Student Perspective

Michelle Explores Montgomery Place Campus

Michelle studied Studio Arts at Bard. One of her favorite spots on campus is Montgomery Place, where she had the opportunity to take a class and help reimagine the Montgomery Place visitor's guide.

"I love exploring the grounds with its historic buildings, lush landscapes, and beautiful waterfalls."

Tours and Guides

Contact 845-752-LEAF (5323) or [email protected]

Self-Guided Tour

Montgomery Place self-guided walking tour brochures are available the Bertelsmann Campus Center information desk and Montgomery Place Visitor Center, or you may download a printable version before you visit.
Montgomery Place Guide (PDF)
Guided Tours

The Arboretum offers staff led group tours and welcome group visits with advance reservations. All groups must fill out the Group Tour Request Form. Also, groups interested in a guided tour should contact the Arboretum office at least two weeks prior to their visit.
Group Tour Request Form

Hours

Current Hours of Operation
The Montgomery Place grounds are open daily from sunrise to sunset. Mansion tours are currently suspended. For more information, please visit the Montgomery Place website.

Gardens throughout History

Edward Livingston and his wife, Louise, second-generation heirs to Montgomery Place, laid out several walking trails while their daughter, Cora Livingston-Barton, designed many of the formal and rough gardens with the help of one of America’s best-known landscape designers, Andrew Jackson Downing. A third-generation Livingston, Violetta White Delafield, added the current formal and rough gardens in the 20th century.

Montgomery Place’s orchards and agricultural land are another vital component of the site’s heritage and appeal.

The Grounds

The property’s basic layout and contours have remained constant throughout most of the estate’s existence. Apart from formal gardens and manicured lawns, 45 acres of farmland and 235 acres of woodlands stretch from the Hudson River to the front of the property on River Road. Much of the property’s original 19th-century design remains, as well as gardens, water features, and trails from the early 20th century. Exceptional vistas include the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, the Sawkill’s lower falls, and the 80-acre South Woods forest.

Today, the greenhouse supports the work of Bard College’s horticulture department, Bard Farm, and Bard Prison Initiative programs.

The Greenhouse

Since its construction in 1929 by Hitchings and Company, this building has continually operated as a working greenhouse. The building’s prominent placement in the formal gardens shows that it served a serious connoisseur of plants. Unlike the original ornate conservatory that was a showplace for the second generation of Livingstons, this structure was first and foremost a workspace. It was in this building that the last generation and their gardeners cultivated plants for the gardens and house.

Host Your Event at Montgomery Place

If you are interested in hosting an event, film or photography session at Montgomery Place, please contact Susanna E. Armbruster, coordinator of summer programs and community resources at:
[email protected]