Beautiful Holiday Display at 53rd Annual Greens Show

Written by Elyse Beaudoin

Historical Hart-Cluett House transformed for the Holidays.

Troy, NY- Yet again, the Rensselaer County Historical Society and Rensselaer County Gardening Club joined forces to hold their 53^rd Annual Greens Show at the Hart-Cluett House from December 3rd to December 6th. This year’s decorative theme revolved around the Hudson River due to the 400^th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration.

The house, which is located on Second Street in Troy, was built in 1827 for its original owners, the Hart family. Later the house was sold to the Cluett family. Jane Cluett Hansen, an alumna of Russell Sage, from the class of 1954. Her grandparents owned the house and eventually donated it to the Rensselaer County Historical Society in 1952. Some of Jane Cluett Hansen’s childhood clothing and toys from Holland were on display in the toy room located in the basement of the house.

When entering from the back of the house, one would first enter a room full of striking black and white photographs and then a room full of antique art and artifacts. One example of this antique art was an ivory color “Sugar Castle” circa 1880. It is a castle, about a foot and a half tall, intricately carved out of a sugar block. There was also a wreath room, a tribute to Uncle Sam, and a gift shop in this portion of the house.

The tour continued through a breezeway to the other section of the house. The glass windows surrounding the breezeway allowed one to see a small enclosed courtyard decorated with faux ice blocks and fish to give it a “Hudson River feeling.”

The tour moved into the lavish Victorian style home filled with chandeliers, antique furniture, and fine rugs. Lighted Christmas trees were placed around the house, some large and bright and some small and covered with Christmas bells. The fresco-covered walls and stairwell banisters were lined with pine branches, pinecones, balsam roping, holly, and dried hydrangea blossoms. Everything followed an earthy “Christmas-color” scheme.

In the front hall of the house, there were paintings by Harry Orlyk, Robert Moyland, and Tom Clement on loan from the Hudson River School of Painting. Toward the basement, there were displays of photographs of life on the Hudson circa 1900. These photographs showed Mount Ida, the boat canals, and Third Street.

Further into the basement, there was a small laundry room and a kitchen originally designed for the servants of house. The kitchen smelled of apple cider and there was a display of cranberries, walnuts, squash, assorted vegetables, and turkey. Large ceramic jars lined the shelves of the pantry.

The tour exited the kitchen, led through the toy room, and then upstairs to the elegant dining room. The table was covered with a white tablecloth and graced with delicate gold trimmed china and red roses.

“We start planning for the Greens Show in February,” said Dot Howey of the Rensselaer County Gardening Club. There is great amount of time and effort put into this show.

Make sure to see next year’s Greens Show, especially since Sage College students have free admission! To keep a look out for future Greens Shows visit http://www.rchsonline.org/.