Finding a precious jewel buried in your own backyard is a thrill. That's exactly what happened when my wife, Polly, and I joined the Friends of the Fine Arts Center bus trip last May to Kykuit and Union Church in North Tarrytown, New York. Having grown up in Peekskill, a few miles from Tarrytown, I thought I knew a lot about the Hudson River Valley, but Kykuit and Union Church somehow escaped me.

Our group began the day at Union Church, a simple Gothic-style chapel. The highlight had been advertised as the Matisse Rose window, commissioned in memory of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. The church also features nine windows by Marc Chagall, who painted directly on stained glass. I had always found the work of Matisse appealing but had not thought much of Chagall, whose paintings seemed so childlike to me. Sitting in the church, contemplating his deceptively-detailed and spiritual images, I saw Chagall in a new light.

After lunch, we were off to Philipsburg Manor for the vans to Kykuit (a Dutch word pronounced KYE-cut). The mansion looks out over the Hudson River and is part of the 4,000-acre Rockefeller family preserve. Eighty-seven acres, including the mansion and gardens, have been given to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and are open to the public in carefully-orchestrated tours. Abby Rockefeller began Kykuit's magnificent collection, and her son Nelson expanded it. The mansion, gardens and five galleries (including a former bowling alley), house works by Picasso, Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Constantine Brancusi, Andy Warhol, and many others. A spectacular surprise was the 12 bedspread-size tapestries, replicated from Picasso paintings.

Fine Arts Center staff took care of all trip arrangements, and for Polly and me, this was the perfect way to discover these historic jewels.

Photo: A jewel in the gardens at Kykuit by Polish-born sculptor Eli Nadelman.

Photo credit: Linda Faulkingham