" We can't wait to begin our tour, but the first question is why was this house called Olana?"

" It was named after a Persian treasure house/fortress. On the exterior, it looks like a fortress,"

" Okay."

" but when you come inside, it looks like a treasure house. Come on in."

" So they collected treasure, and it's all here."

" From around the world."

" How spectacular. So there's central accesses all the way across the house."

" A corridor that Church planned that extends the line of vision all the way to that framed painting of the Hudson River at the end."

" He wasn't an architect, but he did design this house."

" He designed every aspect of this house."

" And yet, he was an extremely famous painter. What is a luminous painter?"

" Let me show. Come in to the other room."

" This would be a little reception parlor. "

" This is a reception parlor. Here you have a painting by Church called "The After Glow", painted after a visit to Jamaica in 1865. He saw this sunset amidst the clouds [unk] thunderstorm igniting the sky, and painted it."

" And you can really see where the term comes from because it's so illuminated."

" Church painted the atmosphere into the light."

" Yeah, fantastic."

" Okay, where should we begin?"

" Why don't we go down the corridor?"

" This is the court hall."

" The court hall?"

" It was planned by Church to resemble a Persian courtyard."

" It's roughly 30 feet square and then there's this incredible stair hall over here."

" The stair has a very easy rise. He wanted to make sure his wife was comfortable as she ascended the stairs."

" Indeed."

" Filled with exotic objects."

" And the detailing everywhere. The detailing in the woodwork, etc., is just incredible. The thing that grips you right away is that you feel like the Churches might be in the next room the way the furnishings are still arrayed, and things kind of just dropped on tables."

" Nothing changed in this house. The Churches died in 1900. The house was inherited by their youngest son completely intact."

" Tell me about the decoration, though. I know that a painter designed his house but then he also does all this painting that I'm looking at. What's the story?"

" Church was inspired by Middle Eastern design in this room. You'll recognize Islamic arches, the stenciled decoration in Persian style inspired by the tile work."

" Uh-hmm."

" Church, on his return, decided to decorate the house himself. These are the colors of his paintings. He designed them, stenciled them. His colors then take you out into various rooms. This is the artistic center of the house, and it goes everywhere."

" So what you're saying really is it's almost like it's the key to the palette of all the other rooms."

" Absolutely."

" We'll find the salmon pinks and the yellows and the mauves and all these colors throughout the house."

" And these are colors that most people don't associate with the Victorian period, but they're very aesthetic 1870s and 1880s colors."

" There's rooms everywhere. It looks like there's what? A least a dozen large rooms downstairs?"

" Yes, easily."

" And what's through here?"

" Church's studio. It's one of the few studios remaining from a 19th-century artist."

" This is not what I expected for a studio."

" Studios in 19th century of successful artists are very luxurious."

" It certainly is luxurious. It also seems like a place for the collector. Were they in Mexico a lot?"

" Oh, every winter. Church went to Mexico to escape these uncomfortable upstate New York winters."

" So hats and baskets sent over here. They look to be pre-Columbian pottery"

" Yes."

" Jars and things."

" He was mad about Mexico."

" Ah-huh. So this was original to the house? The studio?"

" No. It was added on between 1888 and 1891. Church had lost his audience as a painter. He was crippled with arthritis. He had nothing to do and so, adding a studio gave him a pleasurable daily occupation and reaffirmed the fact that he was an artist."

" And he was a wealthy man."

" A very wealthy man. He just inherited from his father half a million dollars just before beginning this wing."

" Indeed."

" A lot of north light."

" Yeah."

" And then a wooden grill. In fact, Susan Hale who was Mrs. Church's companion commented in a rather acerbic letter to her sister, "Mr. Church is spending his newfound money with both fists.""

" There you go. What's out at the south side?"

" Come on out. Let me show you."

" Well, it's that view again, isn't it? Yeah. Ah, what a spectacular view from the veranda."

" Actually a 19th-century piazza."

" Oh, the term would be piazza. Big porch actually and of course, we've got lots of decoration. What do you call the columns there, the capitals that are kind of Egyptian-looking?"

" Iranian in their inspiration."

" Ah-huh."

" They're the same color that you see inside the house in the court hall and the spindles that we were talking about earlier."

" Okay."

" But here, Mr. Church's 23-carat gold leaf."

" Wow! And the ceiling itself is very dark blue, isn't it?"

" An unusual 19th century color. You'll think you're in another room inside the house, but just outside."

" Ah-huh. It all works. It all works very well and again, we see a little bit of the orange that we saw at the entrance to the house."

" Yes, they are [unk] Mexican tiles over the cement. Then, you'll see the same color repeated in the paintwork."