Famous Works of Art Live in the Hyde House

Louis and Charlotte Hyde built their house with a specific intention: to display art

Story and photos by Andrew Beam

Imagine walking into your grandmother's house and seeing a Rembrandt hanging on the wall. The furniture and bedding is nothing spectacular, but the walls are filled with works of art painted by some of the world's most famous artists.

The Hyde House is exactly that, a house. There is an extravagant foyer where a tall window extends from the ground towering over a security guard placed in the middle. This room has been kept in its original form to preserve the natural feeling of a home.

This is the purpose of the Hyde House, to make you feel like the owner still resides in the house. "It feels like the person living there will come out and welcome you," explains Alice Gretche, director of tourism for the city of Glens Falls and former marketing director for the House. "When you stand in the bedroom, you can feel that's how the family lived. They would wake up in the morning and look at these paintings."

In the early 1900's, Louis and Charlotte Hyde began collecting art, beginning to transform their home into a historical museum. Works like Rembrandt's Portrait of Christ, Renoir's Estelle in a Red Hat and Sandro Botticelli's Annunciation live on the walls of the Hyde House along with other sculptures, textiles, and ceramics. In the bedrooms, the original furniture is still in place, but are roped off from public use. The oriental rugs cover the floor, preserving the feeling of a home.

Mr. and Mrs. Hyde began collecting these pieces when they moved back to Glens Falls after traveling to Paris. "It was a movement in the country known as the Renaissance Revival," says Cecilia Esposito, director of the art gallery at SUNY Plattsburgh and former director of the Hyde Collection. Charlotte Hyde's father, Samuel Pruyn, was the owner of Finch-Pruyn paper mill. Louis Hyde, Charlotte's husband, soon took an administrative position at the paper mill, giving the couple the money they needed to acquire the 2,800 works of art stored in the house.

Erin Cohe, Hyde House Chief Curator and Deputy Director, has been an employee at the House for 10 years, and carries a wealth of knowledge regarding the home and the history of the collection. "They (Mr. and Mrs. Hyde) built the house with the intention of leaving it for the public," Cohe informs. "They collected largely Western European art." The house was built in an Italian Renaissance style by Henry Forbes Bigelow, an emulation of a popular style in 1912. The house was built with very few windows, allowing pictures to hang anywhere on the walls. "It's designed like a gallery," Cohe says. "There is a skylight set in a European style."

"If history is not preserved then we tend to forget about it."

"A house being built like this in the twentieth century makes it much far removed from a Metropolitan Museum," Cohe says. "There are other examples in places like Boston, but in Glens Falls it is the gem of the North Country."

The house has been restored several times, adding an education wing in 1989 with an auditorium, an art studio, and a Kidz Zone that has a set of building blocks. "It was meant to offset our tours with hands on programs for youth groups," says Sara Hallberg, director of education for the house. "They are able to do art projects at different levels of learning."

Mrs. Hyde did not ask for much in her will; employees are allowed to switch pictures around in order to keep a "fresh" feeling. The only thing that Mrs. Hyde made sure of was that the furniture was kept intact. "The setting gives a rare experience," Cohe explains. "You see the art through her eyes.

When Mr. and Mrs. Hyde began looking for works of art they could add to their collection they enlisted the help of art experts such as William Valentiner, who became their chief advisor in collecting. "He found the Hydes the Rembrandt," Cohe says. Mrs. Hyde also met with people who were running the same operation in their homes. She discussed her ideas with Isabella Stewart Gardner, who ran a similar museum in Boston. "She met with her and was very inspired by her model," Cohe says.

Mrs. Hyde first opened the house for tours in 1937 and hired her first curator. She continued acquiring works of art, but she didn't take every one that came across her eye. "She knew what she could spend," Cohe says of the Hydes. "Their budget and wealth was scaled down from those of monarchs, so many of the pictures they had to turn down." There is what Cohe refers to as "small masterpieces" that are placed in the Hyde House. "They are the Hallmark of the Hyde House," Cohe explains. "Everything is meant to capture the intimate settings.

Building up a respectable art collection is not easy, Cohen says. "It takes a matter of wealth, having a good eye, and cultivating your eyes," she explains. "The Hyde's traveled to museums. They enjoyed that adventure."

"When you stand in the bedroom, you can feel that's how the family lived. They would wake up in the morning and look at these paintings."

The Hydes were known by many as a very generous family, constantly giving back to the community of Glens Falls. "They felt the area needed a cultural institution," Esposito explains. "They felt very strongly that their wealth came from the community and they wanted to give back to that community." The Hyde House has done just that. It is considered a major economic factor in the city, raking in millions of dollars. "The Hyde is the city's most important cultural anchors," Gretcher says. "It adds a lot of weight to the city. People from all over the world come to see it."

Mrs. Hyde also provided art classes in 1941, hoping to encourage a love of creativity in her students. "She was a very kind and warm person," explains Cohe. "She was also reserved and kind of private." Though it is called the Hyde house, Mrs. Hyde didn't actually live in the house while it was a museum. She just made people think she did. "There's a sense of duality in Mrs. Hyde," Cohe says. "She kept an apartment in New York City, so she wasn't always in the house."

Even after Charlotte Hyde passed away in 1963, at age of 96, her house and legacy have still lived on for many in the North Country and all over the world to enjoy. "If history is not preserved," Cohe explains, "then we tend to forget about it."

What do you think of turning your house into a museum for the public?