[citation needed] The Anchorage is built in the Victorian Italianate villa (also known as Tuscan Villa Revival) style of designer Andrew Jackson Downing,[9] an American landscape designer, horticulturist and writer of American architecture, who lived just down the Hudson River in Newburgh, New York.

Andrew Jackson Downing's grand country designs with their highly decorated interiors were popular among wealthy American socialites of the Victorian Age.

Significant exterior design features include a Belvedere tower with elongated windows on three sides with views of Poughkeepsie, NY across the Hudson River.

The large paneled doors are painted with wood grain, a common feature of ornate homes of the period, and are surrounded by 10-inch-wide (250 mm) moldings.

A massive four-tier brass Italian gasolier (chandelier) in the living room is decorated with grape clusters that turned on the gas and women that hold up the glass globes.

The chandelier is similar to one at Victoria Mansion (aka the Morse Libby House), in Portland, Maine.

The Thompson family enjoyed riding horses along bridle paths on the property that led to a bluff overlooking the Hudson.

The Grange Notes of the town of Lloyd touted the farming skills of Maud Adams, a resident in the early 1900s, citing "the great variety of vegetables, finest pumpkins and squashes, and a field of corn stalks 12 feet (3.7 m) high.

[14] Multiple springs, managed by French drains throughout the property, feed into a 40-foot (12 m) circular stone in-ground pool that continues to provide refreshment on hot summer days.

[15] Electa's father and mother, Lydia Ferris (1775–1870), were natives of Highland and are buried on the Ferris Ground, Ulster County[16] John met Electa at a camp meeting at Thompson Grove on Maple Avenue, at that time owned by her father Solomon.

In 1872 Electa gave the funds necessary to build Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Lower Grand Street, Highland, NY.

[18] Before living on Maple Avenue John and Electa bought a farm north of Highland at what is known now as West Park, NY.

Frederick was known on the Vassar College campus as "Uncle Fred" where he gave the funds to build The Thompson Library.

[22] In 1892 Frederick F. Thompson built his own summer home, the much larger Sonnenberg in Canandaigua, NY.

Frederick Adams married Maud Witherbee of Massachusetts[23] who were also listed in the New York Social Register and summered in the John Thompson House.