Staatsburgh: Gilded Splendor on the Hudson
by Pamela Malcolm and Andrea Monteleone, foreword by John Winthrop Aldrich, photography by Pieter Estersohn and Roger Tully , published by Friends of Mills at Staatsburgh
8 1/2ʺ x 11ʺ, trade paperback, 96 pages, 100+ full-color photographs
ISBN: 978-1-883789-96-1, $28.95

Gilded Age architecture and the leisure pursuits of New York City’s turn-of-the-20th-century social elite come to life in STAATSBURGH: Gilded Splendor on the Hudson, a new book about Staatsburgh State Historic Site—also known as Mills Mansion—a Beaux-Arts cultural gem located between Rhinebeck and Hyde Park in New York State’s Hudson River Valley that was the country seat of Ogden and Ruth Livingston Mills.
Complemented by over 100 beautiful photographs, many by renowned photographer Pieter Estersohn, STAATSBURGH: Gilded Splendor on the Hudson reveals the mansion’s stunning interior, includes untold stories of the Mills family and their Hudson Valley estate, and is the first book devoted to the operation, architecture, and furnishings of Staatsburgh and to the influential individuals who called it home.
STAATSBURGh tells the story of one of America’s most notable families in an era of bygone splendor as the authors take the reader inside the lives of Ruth Livingston Mills and Ogden Mills, their family, the servants and estate staff, as well as the many friends and dignitaries who visited over the years. Readers explore Staatsburgh’s treasures at leisure through 100 lush color photographs highlighting the opulence of the 79-room mansion and its original furnishings, art and objects from around the world.
Like their wealthy peers in late-19th- and early-20th-century New York City, the Millses kept an estate for country escapes. Built by Ruth Livingston Mills’s great-grandparents in the 1790s, Staatsburgh was one of the earliest estates in the region. In 1894, Ruth and Ogden Mills commissioned renowned architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White, to enlarge and remodel the mansion, elevating it to the elite status for which it became known. Now a New York State historic site, the mansion retains its original furniture, art and décor, presenting an authentic time capsule of a period home for America’s elite and the dwellings of their domestic staff.
Staatsburgh is more than a beautiful mansion, however. It was a classic country estate of the American Gilded Age. In words and period photographs, Staatsburgh: Gilded Splendor on the Hudson reveals the engine of the estate—its dairy farm, vegetable and flower gardens, greenhouses, electric plant, and ice production on the river in the days before refrigeration. Readers will learn that the estate was very much a part of the local community, employing many nearby residents who kept everything running smoothly.