The New York Public Library recently held a gala to honor historical preservation and a famed 19th-century American artist who left behind a magnificent home upstate. NY1's George Whipple filed the following report.

The Olana Partnership recently held its 2012 Frederick E. Church Awards Gala at the New York Public Library.

The partnership is named after Olana, a house designed and built by Church, which is one of the extraordinary homes within two hours of New York City.

Sara Griffen, the president of the Olana Partnership, was proud to share the story of Church and his home.

"Olana is the 250-acre home of Frederick Edwin Church, the famous landscape painter of the 19th century and the master of America's first school of painting, the Hudson River School," said Griffen. "This Hudson River School was the first time that Americans really looked at their own landscape and decided that it was beautiful. They did not have to copy English painting anymore. Their own wild landscape was something to be treasured and that established that generation.

"Places like Olana have all the elements of a Frederick Church painting, between the 250-acre landscape, the views, the water, the meadows, the forest," continued Griffen. "This incredible house, it's as if you are in a 19th-century, three-dimensional painting."

Martha Stewart was among the honorees.

"It's all about preservation. It's all about saving the past for future generations, and I care a lot about that, as does everybody in this room tonight," said Stewart.

Church was the Andy Warhol of his time and New Yorkers can easily go see his spectacular house. Take the train up to Hudson, N.Y., take a cab over to Olana and check out one of the most fantastic buildings in America. I personally recommend it.