St. Margaret’s
Committee
Paul Fredricks, Chair
Michael Brown
Kathy Douris
Patrick Hildenbrand
Linda Keeling
Rosemary Zengen
Harry Colgan –
Town Board Liaison
Ad hoc advisors include members of the Town Recreation
Commission, the Town Tree Committee, the Town Trails
Committee, the Town Historian, and interested members of
the
Red Hook community
Links
NEW:
Tree Dedication Ceremony Photos
St. Margaret's Brochure
St. Margaret's
Tree Dedication
Ceremony |
A Short History of St.
Margaret’s
The story of St. Margaret’s properly
begins with its founder and benefactress, Margaret
Armstrong Astor. Raised for at least part of her
childhood on the banks of the Hudson River, Margaret
Armstrong was the daughter of Alida Livingston, whose
ancestors had acquired vast tracts of Hudson Valley land
in 1688, and General John Armstrong, who built Rokeby on
a piece of that land. Another piece of that Livingston
land would become the site for St. Margaret’s.
In 1818, Margaret Armstrong married the
fabulously wealthy William Backhouse Astor. Aware of
reform movements in large American cities and in an
effort to do a “good work”, Mrs. Astor persuaded her
husband in 1851 to buy a parcel of land from her brother
and to establish in 1852 and 1853 the “St. Margaret’s
Orphan Asylum”. Offering food and lodging to girls who
either had no home or whose parents could not provide
for them, St. Margaret’s also had on staff teachers who
trained the girls in the “domestic arts”, such as
cooking, sewing, ironing, etc. When the girls reached
the age of sixteen, they were able to take positions in
one of the large homes in the area or to marry.
Mrs. Astor funded St. Margaret’s until
her death, and her descendants continued to support it
for generations. When a combination of factors forced
the institution to close in the 1930’s, the building
became successively a welfare home, a private residence
and finally a transitional living center, until that use
too was terminated in the 1990’s.
St. Margaret’s was built in the “Tuscan Villa” or
Italianate style, with large French windows and first
floor ceilings that rise nearly twelve feet. The fluted
columns are cast iron, and the exterior window and door
trim is brownstone. The walls are fourteen and a half
inches thick. The architect who designed the building
has not yet been identified, although it seems likely
that he was well known at the time and that he had been
commissioned by the Astors or members of their extended
family for previous projects.
An important building both
historically and architecturally, St. Margaret’s was
languishing until 2006 when Martin’s Foods, the parent
company of Hannaford’s Supermarket, generously donated
it together with nearly two acres of land to the Town of
Red Hook. Within two years, the building was listed on
both the State and the National Registers of Historic
Places. |
Updates:
Arbor/Earth Day 4/28
St. Margaret's Home
Member Application
 |
