ELVERHOJ: THE ARTS AND CRAFTS COLONY AT MILTON-ON-HUDSON

Co-authors William B. Rhoads and Leslie Melvin present their new publication Elverhoj: the Arts and Crafts Colony at Milton-on-Hudson. 

Books will be available for purchase at this event.

Elverhoj (Danish for “hill of the fairies,” pronounced “El-ver-hoy”) was an Arts and Crafts colony established in Milton on the picturesque west shore of the Hudson River in 1912 by Danish American artists and craftsmen, led by Anders Andersen. Little known today, the colony achieved a national reputation before World War I, earning a gold medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. That same year a favorable write-up in Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman magazine with photos of the rustic studios added to the colony’s growing fame. Elverhoj was especially regarded for its jewelry and metalwork, but the works of painter-craftsman James Scott and etcher Ralph Pearson added to its renown, as did a fruitful connection with Vassar College, strengthened by the efforts of colony members Bessie and Henrietta Scott, sisters talented in textile arts.

As part of the William Morris–inspired Arts and Crafts movement, Elverhoj experienced a decline in the 1920s, partially offset by the opening of a theatre with links to Broadway and the addition of a Moorish-style dining terrace. Still, the Depression dealt a fatal blow, despite Andersen’s enlisting the help of Eleanor Roosevelt. The property was acquired in 1935, by followers of the charismatic Black leader Father Divine, becoming one of his most popular “heavens.” Andersen, always the colony’s central figure, died in obscurity in 1944. Many of the items related to Elverhoj in the UCHS exhibition stem from an archive kept by Andersen.

UCHS Members are free to attend, non-members $15

Printed items made by Elverhoj artists