Not to Be Missed

Photo: Ralph Gardner, Jr.

In his weekly commentary, broadcast earlier today on WAMC, Ralph Gardner, Jr., talks about the opening reception for Design Hudson, which took place last weekend at the Dr. Oliver Bronson House, and pays tribute to Timothy Dunleavy, who will forever be linked with the house in our memories: "A Rural Resident." One of the rooms at the Bronson House was decorated for the occasion by Steve Blutall, the current proprietor of Rural Residence, the shop created by Dunleavy in 1999, and featured a small portrait of Dunleavy in a gilded frame.

Early on in his commentary, Gardner explains the Bronson House is "the earliest extant example of the style known as Hudson River 'Bracketed'" and then confesses that he doesn't know what bracketed architecture is. I won't flatter myself to assume that Gardner ever reads The Gossips of Rivertown, but, should he, I will attempt a definition. What is called "Hudson River bracketed" is a picturesque style of architecture that originated with Alexander Jackson Davis, the architect famously associated with the Bronson House, and is characterized by projecting eaves with decorative brackets beneath. The photo below shows one of the brackets, embellished with an acorn drop, which were added when the eaves of the second floor roof were extended as part of Davis's "refitting" of the house in 1839.

Photo: Wikiwand

To learn more about A. J. Davis and the Bronson House, explore Peter Watson's Dr. Oliver Bronson House Day Book.
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