Stereoview

"629.-View on Lawn, Glen Iris, Portage, N.Y."

"Views on the Line of Erie Railway"

L.E. Walker, Publisher, Warsaw, N.Y.

1860's

This view was taken from in front of the Glen Iris look in a southwesterly direction. To the right you can see the Glen Iris, including the balcony outside the present day Cherry Suite. We originally thought that beyond the Glen Iris was one of the early swiss cottages and that this was eventually moved to the Council Grounds where it became the caretakers cottage. However our good friend, Ted Barlett, has provided the following information regarding this photograph:

"The corner of the building that is visible (in the background) is the "garden house" that is shown on Webster's 1861 landscape plan. We searched hard to discover this as part of the landscape research that we did back in 1998 or so. The Swiss Cottage was located on the flat land below near the river; they were not built until the 1870s. The image that you have is one of the earlier ones showing Glen Iris before he greatly improved it in the 1870s and 1880s. In later views of the west lawn can be seen his barns and outbuildings. Also note that in this photo the large garden hedge is till hardly visible and that numerous fruit trees from the old orchards are still there...."

See a larger version of the image below.

For more information about the Cottages, see Image 83.

Thanks, as always, to Ted Barlett for his valuable help and support!