Kykuit is the house that John D. Rockefeller built for his family in the Hudson Valley. It is a magnificent property with extensive gardens with tons of sculptures throughout.  It sits at the top of Kykuit Hill with majestic views. John D. Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil, now Exxon.

They offer a variety of tours. We chose the Grand Tour which is the one that you get to see the most of the house and gardens.  It is impressive the architecture and the collection of Modern Art in the gallery in the basement.

My favorite part was the gardens and all its sculptures. The sculputres all from the 20th century belonged to Nelson Rockefeller.  He was NY’s Governor and also US’s Vice President under Gerald Ford. He was a lover of the Arts, of well knows artists, such as Picasso, but also unkown NY artists.

We also got to see the Carriage House that now houses a collection on Antique cars and carriages.

The guide was very knowledgeable and really gave us a background on the house and all the families that lived there (4 generations of the Rockefeller family).

The tour lasted 3 hours and went by very fast. I highly recommend it!!

Please see my other blog for the pictures taken there http://listuniverse.wordpress.com/