Jasper Francis Cropsey Home and Studio

In 1835, William Sunders, an industrialist from the Hudson Valley, commissioned the construction of the carpenter Gothic style home that would be sold to Cropsey in 1885.[1]Soon after his acquisition of the house, Cropsey built a single room studio which he designed himself. Cropsey was originally trained as an architect and would on occasion return to the craft when he was in need of money or was designing for himself.[2]The studio was finished in 1887 and where Cropsey would paint for the rest of his career. The studio boasts a high ceiling topped with a large, glass window encased rectangular cupola—a dome-like structure that is designed to admit light into a room—and a full length window that faces north.[3]This design was to allow for an abundance of natural light. The studio also contains an inglenook fireplace flanked by short benches that come out perpendicular to the wall. In addition to being used as a studio, Cropsey also utilized this space to entertain guests. 

            Ever Rest is situated high up on a hill which falls away to the west and north giving a picturesque lookout to the Hudson River and the Palisades.[4]The interior of the house follows an irregular floor plan which suggests a history of enlargement with either former dependencies being connected together or additional wings being built soon after the initial construction.[5]Either way, the exterior of the house is uniform in style. As the house passed though the Cropsey and Newington family, the home has gone through standard modernization which have not encroached on the innate, historic character of the home. 

            Jasper Cropsey was a significant painter of the Hudson River School—a mid 19th century art movement that was heavily influenced by landscapes and romanticism. Cropsey spent the last fifteen years of his life in Hastings-on-Hudson after financial strains forced him to sell his Aladdin estate in 1884. His studio at Ever Rest was influenced by the design of his former Aladdin studio. Cropsey’s house embodies his architectural career with a house overlooking a scenic Hudson River landscape and a studio of his own design. The house has stayed within the family and is substantially unaltered.

The property is open to the public and operated by the Newington-Cropsey Foundation. There is a separate museum building on the property dedicated to his artistic career.

[1]Adelia Rasines, “Ever Rest, The Cropsey Homestead”, Newington-Cropsey Foundation(Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, 2018), accessed July 28, 2020. http://www.newingtoncropsey.com/EverRest.html.

[2][2]Gray Williams, “Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County” (Elmsford, New York: Westchester County Historical Society, 2003), 235.  

[3]Rasines. 

[4]Barbara Newington, “National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form: Cropsey (Jasper F.) House and Studio”, United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, submitted May 7, 1973, accessed July 28, 2020. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75322995.

[5]Ibid.