Edward J. Cornish Estate
COLD SPRING, N.Y.

View of west facade of mansion. January 2010.

One of the great collections of ruins in the Hudson Valley lies on publicly-accessible land in Putnam County. Although the layout of property is well-known to hikers, the early history of the estate is nearly unknown to historians. In 1917, Edward Joel Cornish and his wife Selina Bliss Carter Cornish acquired 650 acres in Cold Spring from Sigmund Stern of Chicago, who built the estate. What is known is that the mansion, garage, swimming pool, gardens and other outbuildings existed at the time of purchase by Cornish. The original appearance of these structures is uncertain as local historians are not aware of any known images of the estate before it fell into ruin.

Edward Cornish (1861-1938) was President of the National Lead Company from 1916 to 1933 and lived in New York to be near the company offices. Cornish and his wife Selina, formerly of Omaha, NB, died within two weeks of each other in May of 1938, and the estate seems to have lain abandoned more or less since then. Edward Cornish, perhaps wishing to protect the estate in perpetuity against the nearby rock blasting on Mt. Taurus,  wished to donate his Cold Spring property to New York State upon his death. State parks commissioners rejected his offer, claiming the mountainous terrain was not suitable for a public park, and that it was already protected by restrictions against quarrying..

A few decades later, the estate became a focal point of conservation efforts yet again, when the Cornish heirs sold the estate in 1963 to Central Hudson Gas and Electric. The regional utility giant briefly contemplated building a power plant on Breakneck Ridge, a fact largely forgotten by historians as this effort was overshadowed by Con Ed's prolonged and publicly-waged effort to build a similar plant across the Hudson River at Storm King. By the end of the 1960s however, the ruins of Cornish estate became part of the newly formed Hudson Highlands State Park and the plans for the power plant was dropped by Central Hudson G & E..

All that remains of the structures on the estate are their stone walls. The building interiors are completely gutted and windows have been destroyed. According to a local newspaper article, Cold Spring Fire Department records show that there was a fire in the fall of 1956, which damaged part or all of the mansion. One can only guess at what these buildings originally looked like. Architecturally, it is possible that the mansion at least was either Shingle-style or Tudor-style. The fieldstone exterior lends itself well to either.

Besides the mansion, other surviving structures include the swimming pool, the greenhouse, and the pump house below to two picturesque waterfalls. At the north end of the 650-acre estate stands a large stone cattle barn. Another large building, possibly a garage, and another greenhouse stand in ruins there as well. Even an old wagon rusts away between the barn and the reservoir. Cornish raised prized Jersey cows here and. newspaper articles of the 1920s chronicled the record-setting milk producing efforts of Cornish's Jersey cows, including one named "Fon Owlet." 

Further past the reservoir is Lake Surprise, site of an old but still active summer camp. Also, the Catskill Aqueduct slices through the Cornish property, separating the farm parcel from the residential section, and an early 20th-century pump-house can be seen along that trail. 

LINKS:
Marta Dawes's website has information about, and photographs of gravestones of, the Cornish family in Omaha.

East courtyard entrance to Cornish mansion.

Mansion interior panorama, looking west. January 2010.





Southwest corner of the mansion.





Mansion courtyard, looking northwest. January 2010.





Mansion porte cochere. January 2010.





Winter solstice sun rising over Cornish mansion..





Swimming pool. Located just southwest of the mansion, 
fine views of Storm King could once be had from here.