After purchasing his Hudson Valley farm in 1860, Frederic Church painted there for several years before building a studio on this site about 1864-65. He erected a plain but ample 24-foot-square, wood-framed, hip-roofed structure with a large north window and a porch on the west, and there he sketched and painted many of his major works. The view of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains remained a constant inspiration, though in 1867 Church modestly contrasted the magnificent scenery around him with the painted oilcloth on his easel. In this studio he also created hundreds of sketches for his new house on the hill. After he added a studio wing to his house in the late 1880s, he dismantled this earlier studio. The panoramic view from here became one of the most celebrated in American art and landscape history, and preserving the surrounding lands will help future generations enjoy the same scenery.