07-09 Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion

Friday July 24th we drove about an hour north to Canandaigua (can.a.day.gua), NY to tour the Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion. This was the favorite summer home of Fredrick and Mary Thompson. They had five houses, the main being on Madison Avenue in NYC. Fredrick was one of the founders of a NY bank that ultimately became Citibank. Mary’s father was a former Governor of NY.

Construction on the mansion began in 1885 and finished in 1887. It is a Queen Anne style with numerous balconies, large verandas,

turrets, towers, gables and bays.

The Thompson’s had no children and the house was given to a nephew when Mary died. He kept if a few years but then sold it to the US Government in 1931. A VA hospital was built on the grounds, and for many years the mansion was used as housing for the nurses. Later more buildings including nurses housing was added the VA complex. The the house was closed and essentially abandoned. After 20 or so years a local group purchased the house and surrounded land and began restoration of the mansion and gardens. Today the property is a state park, but is primarily operated by volunteers. While there are some lovely aspects to the garden and the interior of the house, they is an obvious need for much repair and restoration. A sad thing we learned is that a former director of the foundation embezzled about $1/2 million. He is in jail but the money was never recovered.

There are several green houses where I enjoyed photographing various types of hydrangeas. Here are a few:

There is a nice Japanese garden:

I always like water lilies:

Two ladies gave us an excellent tour of the house.

There was beautiful woodwork:

This music box was called a “dinner player”. It could be wound to play 30 minutes of music, long enough for a dinner meal. We heard a recording, and it was quite lovely. It reminded us of some of the mechanical instruments and music boxes we saw last year at House on the Rock in Wisconsin.

There are a number of Tiffany lamps and the large window in the background is Tiffany stained glass:

This is the master bedroom. We liked how bright and open it was:

It has a lovely balcony that looks out upon the Italian Garden.

Another view from the bedroom balcony and porch looks out across the lawn to Lake Canandaigua, another of the Finger Lakes:

We arrived in mid-afternoon and did not realize they closed a 5:30 so we did not get to tour all the gardens. I would love to have a chance to do so some day. This is a place well worth a visit, but it is sad to see so many areas in need of repair. I hope they are able to do so in the future. Otherwise I am not sure the house will survive.