- Inventor Samuel F. B. Morse spent summers at his Locust Grove Estate in New York’s Hudson Valley.
- The 14,000-square-foot Italianate villa, built in 1852, has 45 rooms over six floors.
- It was purchased in 1901 by the Young family and has remained uniquely preserved.
When Samuel F. B. Morse wasn’t creating Morse code, inventing the telegraph, or painting portraits, he was relaxing on the grounds of his Locust Grove Estate in upstate New York.
Located about 80 miles outside New York City in Poughkeepsie, Locust Grove was built in 1852 on a bluff with views of the Hudson River below. The 14,000-square-foot Italianate villa has a total of 45 rooms over six floors.
Morse, his wife Sarah Elizabeth Griswold Morse, and their four children spent every summer there until his death in 1872. (Morse also had three adult children from his first marriage to Lucretia Walker, who died in 1825.)
The home was then rented to a wealthy local couple, William and Martha Young, who purchased it in 1901 and spent about $15,000 renovating the interior and installing modern amenities like electricity and central heat, according to Locust Grove’s official website.
The Youngs’ daughter, Annette, recognized the historical significance of the estate and established a nonprofit that continues to preserve and maintain the property. Locust Grove opened to the public in 1979.
While the grounds are open year-round, tours of the home are available from May through October on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays and cost $20 per person.
“It’s a really unusually preserved house, so people that are interested in art and history and architecture can always find something here,” Ken Snodgrass, director and curator of the Locust Grove Estate, told me on my tour.
Take a look inside Locust Grove.
