Grounds of Lindenwald, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

In addition to touring Martin Van Buren’s house at his Lindenwald estate, visitors can walk the grounds on a .75-mile loop trail lined with wayside exhibits about Van Buren and his farm. The terrain is completely flat, but the route is out in the open, so wear a hat and apply sunscreen if avoiding the sun is important to you.

In addition to the wayside exhibits, there is an audio tour available that is accessed via a cell phone. At each stop along the trail, visitors are encouraged to dial the tour phone number and listen to a short narration about Van Buren and his Lindenwald estate. Messages are typically one or two minutes in length.

Wayside exhibit with audio tour directions found on the grounds of Lindenwald, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

The first stop on the Lindenwald Grounds Tour is at the parking lot, and from there the route follows along a segment of the original Old Post Road (aka Albany Post Road) towards Van Buren’s house. There is a trail map and brochure available in the Visitor Center, but if you set out without it, just walk from one wayside exhibit to the next. Some are a little hard to spot at first glance, so be sure to look carefully. In total, there are eleven stops.

Martin Van Buren’s house at Lindenwald in Kinderhook, New York, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

The Old Post Road was the main road from Manhattan to Albany from 1669 through the mid-1800s when horse and buggy traffic was largely replaced by railroad travel. Because it was such an important and popular road, prominent New Yorkers were always stopping by Lindenwald to see Van Buren. Some sections of the road are still used for vehicle traffic today, though most of it has been replaced by U. S. Route 9 (not to be confused with NY 9H that runs in front of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site).

A segment of the original Old Post Road runs through the grounds of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

In addition to the house, there is one other historical building still standing from Van Buren’s time, the South Gatehouse. There was a gatehouse at the northern entrance to Lindenwald as well, but it was torn down in the 1950s. The location of its foundation is marked with stones and seen at Stop 2 on the Grounds Tour. Both houses were built between 1846 and 1847 and were used as housing by employees at Lindenwald. There were many other buildings on the farm, but all were torn down over the years by subsequent owners, some as late as the 1960s.

South Gatehouse on the Lindenwald estate, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

Stones mark the foundation of the North Gatehouse that once stood on the Lindenwald estate, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

The last part of the Lindenwald Grounds Tour route follows along a part of Van Buren’s land that is still farmed today by Roxbury Farm, a Community Supported Agriculture organization. It also passes by an apple orchard planted in 2024 by the National Park Service. Van Buren himself had several orchards when he lived at Lindenwald.

Farmland once owned by Martin Van Buren is now farmed by the Roxbury Farm, a partner with the National Park Service at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

New apple trees planted in 2024 on the grounds of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

The Lindenwald Grounds Tour is a nice way to expand a visit to Martin Van Buren National Historic Site beyond a Lindenwald House Tour. The walk took me right around an hour, and that included reading all of the wayside exhibits and listening to the audio tour.

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