I often walk the trails around Olana, Frederic Church’s estate above the Hudson River. From the outside, the house rises like a castle — intricate and colorful. I’ve taken my students there many times for our fall Landscape Studies course at Bard College, and on those tours, I learned something that has stayed with me: Church designed the windows to frame the view like paintings. Each one was carefully positioned — a deliberate act of seeing.
Though the house is only accessible through guided tours, the surrounding landscape is open year-round. The paths wind through fields and woods, and from certain points, you can glimpse the Hudson or catch the mountains in the distance. The house stands watch above it all, its windows quietly observing.
It made me think about the idea of framing — how we choose what to look at, what to notice, what to hold still for a moment. Church didn’t just live in the landscape; he lived with it, through it. The windows weren’t just functional; they were invitations, compositions, quiet reverences.
As I write this, I’m looking out the window by my desk into the trees. Do you have a favorite window — a view you return to again and again?
❧
Thank you for walking with me.
See you next Friday,
xx
Jana
📕Out now: Walk Her Way New York City. A Walking Guide to Women’s History. (Hardie Grant, 2025) | the book on amazon