William Henry Willis built Carnwath Manor Home in 1850 and called it Carnwath Farms, a name derived from a manor home in Scotland. Just after the end of the Civil War, General Barclay purchased the estate from Willis, and in 1870 Francis Robert Rives, who had married General Barclay's daughter, bought Carnwath Farms. Rives added the east wing to the manor house, servant's quarters, and a large rear kitchen, changing its formal Georgian appearance to a less formal look preferred by late nineteenth-century architects. In 1873, the Carriage House was built in a French style to hold Rives' horses, and years later his son Reginald Rives built the county's finest stable of harness and saddle horses. In the early 1900s, when the property was known as Rives Hill, a New York attorney named Untermeyer, known for defending William "Boss" Tweed, purchased it. In 1925 the Order of the Brothers of Hermits bought the property and later built the chapel in 1950 and the dormitory building in 1958, now known as the Frances Reese Cultural Center, which houses the Sports Museum of Dutchess County. Greystone Programs, Inc. bought the property in 1980, and the Town of Wappinger purchased it in 2000 to preserve open space and develop a cultural center. The property includes 99.7 acres overlooking the Hudson River with views of the Catskills, six buildings including the Manor House, Chapel, Dormitory Building, Carriage House, Administration Building, and "The Folly" Gazebo, and a trail network connected to the Greenway Trail.