Page:Historic towns of the middle states (IA historictownsofm02powe).pdf/66

 park and was decorated with a taste and luxury startling to the period. In 1843 the building was enlarged and enriched by the elder Upjohn. Once a stately mansion, the scene of

VAN RENSSELAER MANOR-HOUSE, 1765.

splendid hospitalities, it has shared the American fate of obstructive antiquities in thriving towns. The railroad and the "lumber district" crowded and finally strangled it. For several years it stood empty and dismantled, and obviously had outlived both its beauty and its use. In 1893 the stone and timbers were transported to the Campus of Williams Col-