Editing Cornish Estate Ruins (section)

== Concern Over Development ==

By the early 1960s, the Cornish Estate had been abandoned and deteriorating for several years.  The mansion had been mostly destroyed by fire in 1956 and lay completely abandoned afterwards.  The dairy farm and outbuildings such as the greenhouse and pool house would have been abandoned as well, though these secondary structures could have been abandoned much earlier than the mansion (perhaps as early as the late 1930's).  Young forests were slowly springing up where there were once well-manicured lawns and open pastures.  In 1963, the original heirs elected to sell the decaying property to Central Hudson Gas and Electric, which promptly began contemplating the construction of a powerplant on the old estate grounds.  Similar plans were announced by another power company to develop Storm King Mountain (visible across the Hudson River from [[Breakneck Ridge]]).  Incidentally, the environmental movement had just began building momentum and there was public outcry over both of the proposed projects.  The plans to develop powerplants in the area were ultimately abandoned.

By the later half of the 1960s, the Cornish Estate was incorporated into the vast, 6,000-acre Hudson Highlands State Park.  Of course, by that time, it had been roughly three decades since Cornish's offer to donate the estate had been declined.  All of the structures on the sprawling estate had decayed so thoroughly that there appears to have been no interest in restoration.

<gallery>
File:Cornish-estate-6.jpg|Dairy Farm Ruins
File:Cornish-estate-5.jpg|Past and Present
File:Cornish-estate-4.jpg|Wall at Dairy Farm
</gallery>