A Day In Manitoga

Writing & photography by Justin Negard

Russel Wright wouldn’t let people in his house. At least not right away. Instead, visitors had to walk through the skinny forest trail just off the gravel driveway. They passed through a pergola draped in dense Dutchman’s pipe vines and headed towards the sound of rushing water.

Depending on the time of day, Wright asked visitors to take slightly different paths, each one curated for the light at that moment. He had carefully and intentionally positioned every tree and stone, cleared bushes and grown canopies of pine to execute his vision. Visitors had to go clockwise around the property. Always clockwise. Nothing was accidental.

Past the pergola, visitors approached a small waterfall on their left, featuring water gushing down the mountainside and cutting through their path. To their right was an expansive pond with tall walls of rock tracing its diameter several yards wide. In front of them, Wright constructed a bridge that could only be crossed by one person at a time. No talking at this moment. Guests should listen to the sound of water on either side of them as they walked.

The path led them into a small forest featuring a floor of soft green moss. Next, they passed “Leonard’s Room” (Wright named it after his business partner), which was an expanded bed of moss where they could sit for a minute, should they want to relax.

Then, across the large quarry pond, they could finally see Wright’s house, a modern glass structure built into the rock’s facade. The expansive windows provided a clear look directly into the living room and the home’s open, multi-level floor plan with stone staircases, tree trunks and space-age modern furniture.

But they weren’t there yet. Guests were encouraged to take one final challenge on the path to Wright’s home: carefully crossing the pond using a series of stepping stones. Once their journey was complete, visitors returned to where they began, back at the gravel driveway and the entrance to Wright’s home. They had come full circle. Then, and only then, could they enter.

Russel Wright’s Dragon Rock studio.

Easier living

Russel and Mary Wright were not only husband and wife; they were design partners. The couple met in 1927 at a music festival in Woodstock (no, not that one) and were married later that year. From the start, they worked together designing home decor, furniture and dinnerware, earning placement in a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and industrial companies such as Wurlitzer commissioned them to design kitchenware.

In 1939, they designed and produced their most successful work in American modern dinnerware.

This collection would go on to be one of the highest-selling dinnerware collections in history.

In 1942, Russel and Mary purchased a 75-acre abandoned quarry in Garrison, NY, with ambitious dreams to build a home there. This piece of land would be the future site of Manitoga, although its construction wasn’t complete for nearly twenty years, and Mary passed away from breast cancer in 1952, never seeing the home’s completion.

The couple wrote a book in 1950, “Guide to Easier Living,” which focused on the reinvention of the modern home.  In the introduction, they challenged the reader by asking, “Do our homes really express the ideals of democracy and individualism we all profess? Do they provide a place where we can relax together, where a spirit of family living can thrive?”

This mindset also served as a blueprint for Manitoga, emphasizing individuality, practicality and style. A few sentences later, they seem to answer their own question, writing: “All too often, comfort, ease, and spontaneity are all sacrificed to an unrealistic dream that makes home life formal and unsatisfying.”

This was the driving force of Manitoga. A place built as a complete reinvention of what a modern home could be.

The family room on the upper level of the home.

Natural living

“The House is a study both of blending and of contrasting… By blending, I mean that the rocks, boulders, and even the trees are brought into the house.”

–Russel Wright

Dragon Rock House is the main home and studio on the Manitoga property. The Wrights’ daughter, Ann, named the home after the quarry’s rock formations, which she believed looked like a dragon drinking from the pond.

Nothing is typical in this home. The doorknobs are custom-built from quarry stones and chains that were discovered under the soil during construction. Some of the walls are built from cedar, while others are made of plaster with hemlock needles pressed onto them. Doors feature facades of birch bark, while natural rock flows into the home and blends in with the stone flooring. Even the main support beam of the house is encased in a tree trunk that Russel discovered during construction.

“The house is basically designed so that you’re never really separate from the outside,” says Manitoga Operations Manager Lori Merhige. “You’ll see things blend seamlessly as you enter. The whole house can open up, and you’re essentially inside and outside at the same time.”

Manitoga features an open floor plan, which was uncommon at the time. The family room, living room and dining space flow into one another, separated only by small stone staircases that create a series of levels rather than proper floors. These levels mimic the cascading rocks the home is built on, and they also engender a larger sense of space in an otherwise modest-sized home. Walking from the family room down to the dining room feels more like a stroll down the side of a rocky hill than the staircase of a suburban house.

Half of Manitoga is glass, providing ample light and emphasizing Russel’s connection to nature. The panoramic views of the quarry pond further blend the home into the landscape around it. As the sun rises and sets each day, the living and dining spaces mirror those natural changes in light.

Modern design

Dragon Rock exterior, looking out at the quarry pool.

“Of course we want our living room to be attractive as well as comfortable. A room that is well planned, and properly equipped, to serve its purposes will meet both these requirements—and also keep its good looks while being used.”

–Russel and Mary Wright, “Guide to Easier Living”

As rustic and natural as Manitoga is, Russel also wanted it to be every bit as modern. He believed that a house must be clean, simple and functional. Much of the furniture was custom designed by Russel and Mary, with each piece emphasizing convenience and style.

In the family room, for example, Russel’s spring-loaded coffee table raises and lowers depending on a person’s position and comfort. The blonde wood chairs (Mary’s custom design) feature extendable armrests for a teenager’s homework, and the lamps could be raised, lowered or moved side to side. Every space is customizable.

“Look for furnishings that are practical as well as appealing,” Russel writes in “Guide to Easier Living.” “You think of the floor not just as a base for the handsomest rug you can afford, but possibly as a space to clear for dancing.”

In this house, unnecessary items are obfuscated from view, such as a hidden wall for the washer and dryer and a retractable shelf for dirty dishes that rises above the kitchen sink and out of sight (to be cleaned after dinner guests went home).

Decor is simple yet alluring. Russel utilized many of the popular materials of the day, which were affordable and futuristic all at once. Formica and linoleum can be seen throughout the house. Backlit wall and ceiling panels add a soft glow to many spaces.

Other parts of the house include Styrofoam ceiling panels, burlap-covered lighting, plexiglass walls (colored and backlit) and modular plastic decor panels that can be removed and flipped around for different colors depending on the season (red panels in the winter, blue panels in the summer). Likewise, paintings, light fixtures and other decor elements were also swapped according to the season. Goodbye, wild turkey painting in the living room. Hello, black crow.

A new perspective

“A home carefully planned around the requirements of your own family will provide much richer satisfactions. Imitation of other people’s ways holds pale pleasure at best beside that of creating one’s own.”

–Russel and Mary Wright, “Guide to Easier Living”

Beyond aesthetics, Manitoga was about function. Russel and Mary wanted to redefine what a home could be. They designed the space to cater to people, providing convenience and accessibility for all members of the household.

Dining, for example, was an open experience with no walls separating the dining table from the kitchen. It was designed to encourage group discussion and participation. And Russel’s two-way cabinets open from the front and back of the kitchen counter so guests and family could set and clean the table together.

For his office (a separate guest house only a few steps from the main home), Russel literally dug deep so the windows were ground level. He wanted to work and live close to the earth.

“While much of the house provides a bird’s-eye view of the property, Russel wanted this room to have a worm’s-eye view,” says Merhige. “His idea was that he’d be close to nature while sitting at his desk. He loved the sound of leaves and was even found putting them on the floor of his studio so that he could hear the sound of them beneath his feet.”

Dragon Rock exterior.

Manitoga today

In 2001, daughter Ann Wright transferred her life estate interest to Manitoga, Inc., a nonprofit organization that runs and maintains the property. Five years later, Manitoga was declared a National Historic Landmark.

Over the last two decades, the property has transformed into a local cultural institution, placing a large focus on the outdoors and the arts. Their Art + Design Residency program, launched in 2014, promotes local artists and exhibitions throughout the property. In 2021, the Russel & Mary Wright Design Gallery at Manitoga opened to the public, showcasing Russel and Mary’s individual work.

“The gallery was a deliberate effort to write Mary back into the story,” says Merhige. “She was such an important partner, but it says Russell on all of the dishes. He’s credited for many of the things she came up with. There are now Mary Wright designs too, including a Country Garden line. Her work is rising in value and is also collectible.”

House tours at Manitoga are seasonal, typically shutting down for renovations and maintenance from November to May, but the trails throughout the property are open year-round. There are several paths to choose, each providing different views for different seasons. Clockwise is, of course, preferred.

MANITOGA / The Russel Wright Design Center

584 Route 9D, Garrison, NY

(845) 424-3812

This article was published in the March/April 2025 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.