NEW YORK, NY - August 4, 2008 -Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) urged Congress recently to expand the boundaries of Lindenwald, the historic farm and home of former president Martin Van Buren in the Columbia County village of Kinderhook. In the early 2000s, OSI conserved 174 acres at Lindenwald; that acreage would be donated to the National Park Service for the proposed enlarged preserve.
Currently, only 20 acres of the site where the 8th president was born and later retired are publicly accessible. Clinton’s proposal, which has now been introduced in the House and Senate both, would increase the overall size of the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site to 261 acres. It would include the land where Van Buren’s original farm stood as well as a mansion built in the 1790s and then renovated in the 19th century. A significant number of the new acres would be open to the public through the development of a trail system.
The Martin Van Buren National Historic site has attracted more than 25,000 visitors in recent years, with even more expected this year. The sixth annual Harvest Day at Lindenwald, an event celebrating the community’s agricultural past and present, will be held on Saturday, September 20.
In all, OSI has protected more than 800 acres — much of it farmland — in the Kinderhook Creek corridor, which the Van Buren site falls within.