Ask a Curator: How many acres was George Eastman’s Estate?
The short answer is, according to Eastman himself, his urban farm was ten acres. However, with many changes to the property over the years — during and after Eastman’s lifetime — the answer is a little more complicated. Here, Legacy Curator Kathy Connor provides the background:
Early in 1902, a 48-year-old George Eastman began looking for property to build his dream house. He had looked at property on Lake Avenue, which would have been closer to the Kodak corporate office on State Street and his manufacturing plant at Kodak Park; however, these properties were not large enough for the urban farm Eastman hoped to create. When asked by a friend why he needed to move he replied “I had to have more room for my cows.”
In June 1902, Eastman purchased the eight-and- a-half acre parcel known as the Culver property for $100,000. He called it “the last farm within city limits.”
Eastman hired architect J. Foster Warner and landscape architect Alling DeForest. The existing Marvin Culver home was demolished, though Eastman saved some of the foundation bricks to be used in other buildings on his property. DeForest retained as many trees as he could on the property, but also had giant elm trees brought from Buffalo by barge on the Erie Canal. American elms already lined all of East Avenue at the time, creating a beautiful shady canopy over the street.
In addition to the fifty-room Colonial Revival residence, Warner and DeForest designed an estate that included a cow barn, a chicken coop, a horse stable, a vegetable garden, an orchard, greenhouses, flower gardens, and a long grassy vista that ran from East Avenue to University Avenue.
To the west sat the large home owned by Lewis Ross, a local shoe manufacturer. When Ross died in 1916, Eastman bought the property and demolished the house, adding another 1.29 acres to his estate. He hired Claude Bragdon to design a sunken garden on this newly acquired land. From his bedroom, Eastman could look out onto this garden and see the seasonal changes.
After Eastman’s death, his property was used as the residence for the University of Rochester presidents and eventually when the site became a museum more land was added for visitor parking, mechanical equipment, storage for garden and grounds equipment.
Today, the museum campus totals 10.5 acres.
