Henry Draper Observatory | |
![]() Front view of building in 2007 | |
Location | 407 Broadway, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY |
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Coordinates | 40°59′28.6″N73°52′47.1″W / 40.991278°N 73.879750°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | c. 1860 |
NRHP reference No. | 75001237 |
NYSRHP No. | 11955.000237 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | May 15, 1975 [1] |
Designated NHL | May 15, 1975 [2] |
Designated NYSRHP | June 23, 1980 |
The Henry Draper Observatory, also known as Draper Cottage and incorrectly as the John William Draper House, is a historic house and local history museum in Draper Park off US 9 in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, United States. Its core is an astronomical observatory built about 1860 for Henry Draper (1837-1882). [3] It was here that he made astrophotography history, taking some of the earliest photographs of the Moon to include identifiable features through a telescope in 1863.
The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975, [2] [4] on the mistaken belief the building was a residence of Henry Draper's father, John William Draper (1811-1882). The elder Draper was in his time a noted scientist, active in a variety of disciplines, who was best remembered for improvements he made to the daguerrotype process of photography. He was influential in his lifetime, and was one of the last generation of general natural scientists before specialization within fields became common. [4]
The observatory was enlarged under Henry Draper's use with a second dome, and passed to his sister Antonia Draper Dixon after his death. The second dome was destroyed by fire in 1905, but was rebuilt by Dixon. The building was reconfigured in 1912 by Dixon for use as her residence, and it remained her home until her death in 1923. The building and the surrounding park, after protracted decision-making and legal issues, passed to the village of Hastings-on-Hudson, with the stipulation that the building be used as a museum. It is now home to the local historical society. [5]
Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the town of Greenburgh in the state of New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line. To the north of Hastings-on-Hudson is the village of Dobbs Ferry, to the south, the city of Yonkers, and to the east unincorporated parts of Greenburgh. As of the 2020 US Census, it had a population of 8,590. The town lies on U.S. Route 9, "Broadway", along with the Saw Mill River Parkway and I-287.
Henry Draper was an American doctor and amateur astronomer. He is best known today as a pioneer of astrophotography.
John William Draper was an English-born American scientist, philosopher, physician, chemist, historian and photographer. He is credited with pioneering portrait photography (1839–40) and producing the first detailed photograph of the moon in 1840. He was also the first president of the American Chemical Society (1876–77) and a founder of the New York University School of Medicine.
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Van Cortlandt Manor is a 17th-century house and property built by the van Cortland family located near the confluence of the Croton and Hudson Rivers in the village of Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County, New York, United States. The colonial era stone and brick manor house is now a museum and is a National Historic Landmark.
The Detroit Observatory is located on the corner of Observatory and Ann streets in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was built in 1854, and was the first scientific research facility at the University of Michigan and one of the oldest observatories of its type in the nation. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1958 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Riverby was the estate of the American naturalist John Burroughs (1837–1921), who wrote and created a genre of naturalist essays. It is located above the west bank of the Hudson River, in the town of West Park, in Ulster County, New York. Burroughs built the main house and a separate study, where he did much of his most influential writing. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968. It is private property, still partially held by the Burroughs family, and is not open to the public.
The Armour–Stiner House is an octagon-shaped and domed Victorian-style house located at 45 West Clinton Avenue in Irvington, in Westchester County, New York. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. It is the only known fully domed octagonal residence. The house was modeled after Donato Bramante’s 1502 Tempietto in Rome, which in turn was based on a Tholos, a type of ancient classical temple.
The Hale Solar Laboratory is a historic astronomical observatory in Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, United States. Built in 1923, it was the laboratory of astronomer George Ellery Hale (1868-1938), a pioneering figure in the development of the discipline of astrophysics in the United States. The building, a distinctive blend of Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival styles, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
Top Cottage, also known as Hill-Top Cottage, in Hyde Park, New York, was a private retreat designed by and for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Built in 1938 to 1939, during Roosevelt's second term as President of the United States, it was designed to accommodate his need for wheelchair accessibility. It was one of the earliest such buildings in the country, and the first significant building designed by a person with a disability.
Locust Grove is a National Historic Landmark estate located on US 9 in the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York. The 200-acre park-like estate includes homes, a carriage house, ice house, trails, a flower garden, and vegetable garden, and it overlooks the Hudson River from a bluff. The property includes a home designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis for Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. An Italianate style mansion, it was completed in 1851.
There are numerous nationally and locally designated historic sites and attractions in Westchester County. These include architecturally significant manors and estates, churches, cemeteries, farmhouses, African-American heritage sites, and underground railroad depots and waystations. There are sites from pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary times, as well as battlegrounds. Westchester County also played an important role in the development of the modern suburb, and there are many associated heritage sites and museums.
The Newington-Cropsey Foundation (NCF) is a nonprofit private organization based in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The foundation's aim is to maintain and preserve the works of Jasper Cropsey and the art movement he was a part of, the Hudson River School. The foundation also promotes representational painting and sculpture.