Historic Environments

Matthew Vassar, the founder of Vassar College, was born in 1792 in England. He moved to New York when he was four and eventually began working with his dad’s brewing company when he was a young man. As his business grew, he became involved with various charitable projects and town leadership positions. He founded Vassar College, one of the first colleges for women in the United States, in 1861. He died seven years later.

We visited two sites of significance to Matthew, his former estate and his burial place. Many of the wealthy families in Poughkeepsie built their mansions along the King’s Highway, what is now Route 9. Estates such as Locust Grove, Maple Grove, and Springside belonged to these families and featured large family homes as well as smaller houses for the folks who managed the wide farm fields that opened out onto the Highway and the Hudson River.

Unlike the other families, who established summer homes in Poughkeepsie as a getaway from their New York City lives, Matthew and his family were immigrants who only began to establish their wealth once they set up business in Poughkeepsie. Matthew’s home at Springside has fallen into disrepair over the past century. What once was a large, very landscaped estate, is now a series of walking trails completely dominated by invasive plant species and surrounded by a condominium complex built in the 1970s. Only the gatehouse remains standing, and there are two foundations left in shambles on the property. The facade of the original house is on display at the New York State Museum. Matthew and his wife Catherine never had children, and so Matthew’s nieces and nephews were the primary heirs to his wealth and legacy. Without anyone to set up a foundation or preserve at the site, like at Locust Grove, Springside manor has almost completely fallen to the wayside.

Similarly, Matthew’s grave site is not a site of high public historic interest. The grave is not advertised outside the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, and is tucked into the middle of the winding paths. The headstones themselves are decently ornate, featuring three acorn carvings and two live oak trees shading the site. Matthew is buried with his parents and his wife, Catherine, about whom extraordinarily little is known. There is no reference to the founding of Vassar College or to his brewing business. It is possible that Matthew did not foresee that the College would become his lasting legacy.

While Matthew’s home might not remain, and his grave site is fairly understated, his legacy remains very much alive in Poughkeepsie, primarily through Vassar College which keeps his name alive. Matching statues of Matthew are one of the only visual connections between his estate at Springside and Vassar College. Below the statue of the petit man at Springside, the inscription reads (1 of 2), making reference to Matthew’s lasting impact through the College he established shortly before his death.