After nearly a year and a half of emergency repairs, Boscobel House and Gardens will reopen its historic house museum to the public on August 30 with a new offering: “Preservation in Progress” tours that highlight the painstaking work of restoration.
The reopening follows a 17-month closure that began in April 2024, when the library ceiling suddenly collapsed, revealing widespread structural vulnerabilities throughout the Federal-style mansion. What began as a single-room repair evolved into a full-scale emergency restoration to stabilize the building and protect its nationally significant collection.
“This is an extraordinary turning point for Boscobel,” says Jennifer Carlquist, the museum’s executive director and curator. “After months of heartbreak and hard work, we’re overjoyed to reopen our doors, but our restoration journey is far from over. By reopening now, we can welcome back and reconnect with neighbors and guests eager to return, while offering them something truly new and rare: a front-row seat to the art, science, and craft of preservation.”
The Preservation in Progress tours will offer visitors a rare chance to see the house in transition, with rooms in varying states of repair and craftspeople at work. Far from the pristine interiors many associate with Boscobel, the tours provide what the museum describes as “a once-in-a-generation perspective: a historic house mid-restoration.”
A Historic Hudson Valley Landmark
Built between 1804 and 1808, Boscobel is considered one of the finest surviving examples of Federal architecture. The mansion was originally constructed in the Westchester hamlet of Montrose by States Dyckman, a Loyalist who returned from England after the Revolutionary War and amassed wealth through his ties to British officials. Dyckman died before the house was completed, but his widow and descendants lived there for more than a century.
By the mid-20th century, the house faced demolition. In the 1950s, preservationists rallied to save it, dismantling the structure and relocating it to its current site in Garrison overlooking the Hudson River. Reopened to the public in 1961, Boscobel has since become a cultural landmark, known for its meticulously restored interiors, its important collection of early New York furniture and decorative arts, and its 68 acres of gardens and grounds.
Preservation as a Public Effort
Carlquist notes that unlike many long-planned restorations, Boscobel’s work was triggered by emergency. “In most preservation projects, you invest years of planning and fundraising before picking up a hammer,” she says. “Gravity didn’t give us that luxury. The collapse set off a chain reaction that had to be addressed immediately to save the building and artifacts inside. With insurance coverage partial at best, restoration has placed a tremendous strain on our nonprofit budget and we can’t move forward without an influx of donations.”
Morrison Heckscher, former chair of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and an advisor on the project, underscores the stakes: “The essence of Boscobel is the house, a unique and altogether wonderful architectural treasure from our Nation’s early days. To forego the opportunity afforded by the recent ceiling collapse to bring this building and its surroundings into the 21st century would be a tragic loss to the cultural fabric of the Hudson Valley.”
Tour Information
For Boscobel, the reopening is both a milestone and a call to action. As Carlquist puts it: “Landmarks like Boscobel feel permanent, but their survival is never guaranteed—that’s why community support right now is so critical.”
Preservation in Progress tours are offered Friday through Monday with timed entries at 1 am, 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm. Tickets are $24 for adults. Reservations can be made at Boscobel.org.
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Boscobel House and Gardens
This article appears in Fall 2025/Winter 2026.
