Kykuit

Kykuit (the Dutch word for look-out) is set in a magnificent setting high above the Hudson River with dramatic, striking views of the river and Palisades.  It has been home to four generations of the Rockefeller family.   The four-story Beaux-Arts villa completed in 1913, was designed by architects William A. Delano (1874-1960) and Chester H. Aldrich (1871-1960) and landscape architect William Welles Bosworth (1869-1966).  It is constructed of locally quarried rough-cut fieldstone and Indiana limestone.

Ogden Codman's (1863-1951) neo-classical interiors include English furnishings and collections of Chinese and European ceramics, family portraits, and portraits of Washington, Franklin and Lincoln.   In the early 1960s Nelson Rockefeller added galleries of 20th century art, including works by Calder, Warhol, Motherwell and a collection of Picasso tapestries.  Welles Bosworth designed the dramatic hilltop terraces and formal gardens with pavilions, grottos, fountains and classical sculpture.  The Oceanus Fountain commands the forecourt.  Commissioned in 1913,  it is a replica of Giambologna's fountain of 1576 for the Boboli Gardens of Florence.  Throughout the gardens works by George Gray Barnard, Karl Bitter, and Janet Scudder were added as part of the original garden design.   More than 70 works of modern sculpture—by Moore, Maillol, Nevelson and Picasso —were brought to Pocantico and sited by Nelson Rockefeller while he lived at Kykuit.

Kykuit, a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is maintained and administered by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.  Historic Hudson Valley offers public tours of the house and gardens.

Tour Information

Open May through October, tours depart from Philipsburg Manor. Reservations can be made in advance online through Historic Hudson Valley, or by calling (914) 631-9491.