Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site

Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Site
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Statues on exhibit
Location	Cornish, New Hampshire
Coordinates
Area	370 acres (150 ha) 175 acres (71 ha) federal
Built	1817 (main house)
Architect	Unknown
Visitation	26,943 (2005)
NRHP Reference #	66000120 (original) 13000802 (increase)
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Boundary increase	October 2, 2013
Designated NHS	August 31, 1964
Designated NHL	June 13, 1962

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Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire, USA, preserves the home, gardens, and studios of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), one of America's foremost sculptors. This was his summer residence from 1885 to 1897, his permanent home from 1900 until his death in 1907, and the center of the Cornish Art Colony. There are two hiking trails that explore the park's natural areas. Original sculptures are on exhibit. It is located on Saint-Gaudens Road in Cornish, 0.5 miles (0.80 km) off New Hampshire Route 12A.

History

Saint-Gaudens purchased the property he called "Aspet" in 1885 at the urging of Charles Cotesworth Beaman, Jr., a friend and New York City lawyer, who had purchased the nearby Blow-Me-Down Farm (now also part of the historic site) and established it as a summer residence. Saint-Gaudens established a studio, and produced work here every summer, and lived here year-round from 1900 until his death in 1907. Beaman's summer estate was a center of activity of the Cornish Art Colony. After the death of Saint-Gaudens' wife, Aspet was transferred to a non-profit organization, and was later acquired by the National Park Service (NPS).

The estate was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1962 and administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. The National Historic Site was authorized by Congress on August 31, 1964, and established on May 30, 1977. Besides a portion of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, this is the only NPS site in New Hampshire. The NPS later acquired two adjacent properties associated with Saint-Gaudens and the Cornish Art Colony, which were formally incorporated in the National Historic Site in 2000.

Description

The centerpieces of Aspet are its main house, built 1816-17 with Federal styling, which underwent a series of alterations by Saint-Gaudens, with design work by George Fletcher Babb, and the Little Studio, also designed by Babb and built in 1903-04 to replace earlier studios. The grounds are landscaped with hedges and terraced gardens, in which reproductions of works by Saint-Gaudens are displayed. The gardens were designed by Saint-Gaudens and landscape architect Ellen Shipman. The grounds also include an outdoor room, the Pan Grove, a collaborative design of Babb and Saint-Gaudens, featuring an 8-foot by 4-foot green marble pool set in a birch grove with a statue of the Greek god Pan.

Artists-in-residence

American sculptor Lawrence Nowlan was an artist-in-residence at Saint-Gaudens for five summers from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2001 to 2002. He received his first major commission to design the Wildland Firefighters National Monument while working and studying at Saint-Gaudens.

See also

• List of National Historic Landmarks in New Hampshire
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Sullivan County, New Hampshire

References

• The National Parks: Index 2001–2003. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.

External links

• Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site
• Trustees of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial
• Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site: Home of a Gilded Age Icon, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
• Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Master Sculptor, exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art