Isabel Charlotte (Downie) Church and her grandmother, Emma Carnes, 1884. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. Olana State Historic Site. OL.1982.1520Kay’s Carriage, the first electric tour vehicle, next to a more recent model. Both are parked outside the former stable at Olana, which was completed in 1870 by a local carpenter named Amos Story.Mark Prezorski pauses an electric vehicle tour along Ridge Road, using the 1886 Plan of Olana to help interpret the landscape
Isabel Charlotte Church Black, aka “Downie,” Botanical Study of False Solomon’s Seal, September 26, 1890 Paper, watercolor, 10 ½ H x 7 W inches New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. Olana State Historic Site. Gift of Maria Burroughs Livingston. OL.1985.303Isabel Charlotte Church Black, aka “Downie,” Botanical Study of Goldenrod, September 25, 1890 Paper, watercolor 11 H x 7 W inches New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. Olana State Historic Site. Gift of Maria Burroughs Livingston. OL.1985.302
The “stiff approach” to a country residence (left) and the “happiest effects” of a redesign following in “a magical manner…the principles of modern Landscape Gardening,” from Downing’s Treatise (1841), pp. 62-63Converging paths in The Ramble, Central Park, December 2016Ridge Road (left) and Bethune Road (right), February 2025Rustic seats in Andrew Jackson Downing’s Treatise (1841), p. 385A rustic bench in The Ramble, Central Park, March 2014Frederic E. Church, sketch of a rustic bench, 1889. Paper, graphite. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. Olana State Historic Site. OL.1980.1579(V)
Rustic bench at the top of Crown HillEven the roadblocks at Olana have an artistic, rustic look.Even the ADA path at the Frederic Church Center has a gentle bend, reminding a visitor of Andrew Jackson Downing’s design philosophy
The “Susie Barstow tree” at the junction of North Road and Ridge Road, February 2025Susie M. Barstow’s drawing of women climbing a tree. Courtesy Ken BarstowSusie M. Barstow, “The Old Camp by the Lakes,” ca. 1870. Photo by Dennis DeHart, permission courtesy Ken BarstowSusie Barstow in her hiking suit. Courtesy Ken BarstowFlorence Peek Abbott sketching by a stream. Photo courtesy of Ms. Abbott’s great-niece Ginny Folsom UmikerThree women at summit. From left: Hazel Peek, [unidentified], Theodora Beckwith. Courtesy of Ginny Folsom Umiker, granddaughter of Ms. Peek
![Three women at summit. From left: Hazel Peek, [unidentified], Theodora Beckwith. Courtesy of Ginny Folsom Umiker, granddaughter of Ms. Peek](https://olanabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Ginny-Folsom-Umiker-1024x798.jpg)
