Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park
Photographs of Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion State Historic Park, located in Canandaigua, New York.
Hubby and I toured Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion State Historic Park last week when we were in the Finger Lakes. The 50 acre site features beautiful formal and informal gardens, a historic mansion, the Lord & Burnham greenhouse complex and beautiful views of Canandaigua Lake. Sonnenberg’s magnificent Queen Anne style mansion, the former summer home of Frederick Ferris and Mary Clark Thompson, was built in 1887. The surrounding gardens were developed between 1902 and 1920 and reflect a variety of styles, including Victorian, Italian, Colonial, and Japanese influences. This according to the NYS Parks Website More information can be found at Sonnenberg.org.
Yesterday, I posted about the greenhouses and grounds. Today I would like to share photographs of the mansion. In 1887, the original farmhouse was replaced with a forty-room Queen Anne style mansion designed by Francis Allen, a noted Boston architect. It was remodeled in the early 20th century. The mansion’s facade is graystone with Medina sandstone trim and gables made from timber and stucco. The roof is slate with lead-coated copper. When you go out onto the upstairs balcony, you can see how they scribed the ceiling wood into the sandstone.
This was the approach to the house through the lawn trails I mentioned yesterday.
The front porch.
This is the great hall. I took these photos from upstairs (I found the Downton Abbey cut outs cheesy… I hope they were there for some function). We entered the mansion from the entrance under the port-cochere.
The downstairs flowed into the library, various sitting rooms, the dining room
and the study.
One of the rooms exited to a tile deck, which lead down to this statuary garden.
While there are three floors and 40 rooms to the mansion, not all the rooms are open to the public. The second floor has a number of bedrooms.
There were also a LOT of bathrooms! I don’t know if they were part of the original build or the remodel, but I can’t help thinking that for the time period, it was very forward thinking.
The master bedroom (was not set up as a bedroom) had an attached sitting room, bathroom, wardrobe and somewhere for the maid to do sewing.
This is the view from the master bedroom terrace… can you imagine!?
I don’t recall which bedroom had this view of Canandaigua Lake. Don’t forget back in the day there would not have been a parking lot there.
In 2005 Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park became part of the NYS Park System. Many wedding and party functions are held on the grounds year round.
Both the mansion and grounds are simply stunning. These two posts barely touch on the beauty and splendor of Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park. If you are in the Finger Lakes or Rochester area, or simply passing by, it is well worth the admission fee to tour Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park.
Click here for part one of Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park in which I focus on the greenhouse and grounds.
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