Author, musician and historian Alex Prizgintas will be returning to the Tuxedo Historical Society on Sunday, Jan. 26th at 2 p.m. for part two of his “Riverside Moguls: Wealth and Power in the Hudson Valley’s Gilded Age” lecture series.
Where part one focused on five industrialists tied to various aspects of the Gilded Age, part two, titled “Rise of Steel Rails,” focuses on the age of nineteenth-century railroading. From the Vanderbilts of Hyde Park to Jay Gould’s purchase of Tarrytown’s Lyndhurst estate and the vast land holdings of E. H. Harriman in Orange County, the Hudson Valley has been home to many of the Gilded Age’s most illustrious, and infamous, titans of industry.
Among the estates discussed will be Cragston, the estate of J.P. Morgan in Highland Falls.
Though their empires were not always centered in New York, the glamorous estates of these nineteenth-century moguls offer glimpses into a rich era of the past that binds the nation with the Hudson Valley. Prizgintas combines rich information with photographs, imbedded videos, and audio quotes from noted biographies to trace together this extravagant and complicated era of the Hudson Valley’s history.
The lecture will be held at the Tuxedo Historical Society’s Historic Bank Building, 241 Rt. 17 in Tuxedo, across from the Train Station. Seating will be limited. Call 845-351-2926 to reserve a seat.