Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a former estate near Katonah, New York United States, approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City. Today it serves as a live music venue for symphonic, opera, chamber, American roots, and jazz, performances. The estate and its historic home are legacies of their original owners, Walter and Lucie Rosen. The Caramoor Summer Music Festival is held there every summer. It also runs educational programs, and can be rented for events such as: weddings, pre and post-concert receptions, meetings and retreats, corporate and cultivation dinners, and photo and film shoots.

The Rosens built the estate and Tuscan-style villa gradually during the 1930s, importing many architectural and decorative items from Europe. The informal musical performances they hosted evolved into the beginning of Caramoor's current offerings in 1945, and their collection of Renaissance-era and Chinese artworks, some rare, is on display throughout the estate. Lucie Rosen later donated it to the private organization that runs it today. In 2001 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Caramoor is an 81-acre (33 ha) parcel on Girdle Ridge Road just east of the NY 22 state highway east of the hamlet of Katonah in the Town of Bedford. The area is primarily residential, with houses on similarly large lots amidst wooded, gently rolling terrain. The John Jay Homestead State Historic Site, a National Historic Landmark, is a short distance to the northwest along Route 22.

The Caramoor estate became a center for the arts and music following the death of the son of owners Walter and Lucie Rosen during World War 2. The couple donated the property in their son's memory, and it quickly became an established summer festival. There are 12 total contributing resources on the estate—seven buildings, one site, and four structures. An additional building, the Venetian Theater, was built after the estate became the performing arts center.

A curving driveway leads past modest stone entrance posts and through an electric entrance gate at a high deer fence through Caramoor's wooded perimeter into a central cleared area, dominated by the Rosen House on a slight rise to the south. A branch leads to other outbuildings.

The Rosen House is a stucco building rising two stories a poured concrete foundation with a red tiled roof in a variety of asymmetrical gable and hip configurations and irregular fenestration. A high curved wall at the southwest corner connects to the servants' quarters in that direction. A terrace with stone balustrade extends from the dining room on the east; another terrace is located off the master bedroom on the southeast. The caretaker's apartment, its small yard surrounded by a high wooden fence, is located at the southwest corner. A south wing, built after the Rosens' deaths to house rooms from their apartment in New York is non-contributing.

At the center is the Spanish Courtyard, surrounded by a cloister with 12th-century Byzantine columns, reached by a large stone arched entryway in the center of the south wall. The cloister, a one-story colonnaded open walkway, to allow the courtyard's use as the primary entrance to the house. In the center is a large fountain; a clock is on the second story near the main gate. When used for musical performances during the festival, it seats 500.

Rooms are mostly entered from the courtyard or narrow hallways along the exterior walls. Most are finished in the style of the house, with stucco walls and coved ceilings. Much of the furniture and decoration, sometimes comprising entire rooms, was brought by the Rosens from England, France, Italy and Spain. The second floor, less extensively decorated and primarily bedroom space, is also mostly original. The basement, under the kitchen wing, has storage space and a garage.

Among the rooms with notable furnishings and decor are the Burgundian Library. It has a vaulted blue ceiling decorated with 13 Biblical scenes, and 65 other paintings on the doors and walls. The Cabinet Room has lacquered panels originally created for the Palazzo Riccasoli in Turin during the 18th century.

Chinese wallpaper made for the European market in the 18th century decorates the dining room, complemented by one of the only two eight-fold Chinese jade folding screens in the world, a Qing Dynasty work depicting the Taoist Hills of Immortality in 40 panels with a gilded teak frame. Around the table are red lacquered chairs made by an English cabinetmaker for a Spanish castle. More Chinese wallpaper is found in the Reception Room, with furniture from a Venetian dress shop. In the master bedroom is a gilded bed that once belonged to Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII.

Here is a local Business that supports the community

Google Map- https://maps.app.goo.gl/KDBdGTfE7MQrMRQq8

113 Main Street Irvington, NY 10533

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