Boscobel to host strolls with stops
Get your pedometer ready. It’s time to take 2,000 steps.
On June 18, in partnership with the Putnam History Museum, the Boscobel House and Gardens in Garrison will host walks of about a mile on strolling loops through its property on Route 9D. The event is part of an annual, statewide Path Through History event being held over the weekend.
In addition to providing always-spectacular views, each loop will have stops that focus on topics such as horticulture, history, birds or matters culinary.
The Putnam History Museum will provide facts and stories related to the American Revolution in the Highlands. For younger attendees, it will provide a spy game, lessons in constructing a tri-corner hat, and colonial marbles.
Other participants will include the Putnam Highlands Audubon Society, the Philipstown Garden Club and the Cold Spring Farmers Market, which will offer a cookbook exchange. Birding opportunities will be within earshot of likely vocalizers perched in trees that provide habitat on the property.
Lisa DiMarzo, the museum educator at Boscobel, will run games and crafts on the Great Lawn related to Boscobel’s history, such as jumping hoops and a Jacob’s ladder. Storyteller Jonathan Kruk will also be spinning Hudson Valley yarns later in the day.
The garden club will be pointing out plants and shrubs native to Boscobel’s location and time period, along with others cultivated specifically for a new herbal and pollinator garden. Members will share garden plans for that always tricky succession of blooms and will give away native plant seeds.
Visitors will be able to see Boscobel’s new, 5,000-square-foot, glass-paneled pavilion, recently constructed as part of a master strategic plan as the site shifts away from being the longtime summer home of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival to an emphasis on weddings and cultural events, such as a chamber music festival scheduled for Sept. 3 to 11.
Also on the horizon: a 45-minute rock musical for children inspired by the papers of the Dyckman family, who built the mansion and lived in it for many years in Montrose (the home was relocated in the 1950s to Garrison for preservation). Boscobel received a grant for the project, which is designed to fit in with the state-mandated curriculum for fourth and fifth graders.
The Boscobel House and Gardens are located at 1601 Route 9 in Garrison. See boscobel.org/visit. Admission is $14 ($12 seniors, $7 children and teens, free under 5). For other local Path Through History events, see The Week Ahead.
