Ward Manor was a 900-acre estate in Red Hook on the Hudson River, named after William Boyd Ward, grandson of the founder of the Ward Baking Company, who purchased it in 1926. He immediately donated it to a charitable organization, the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, "for the establishment and maintenance of a home for the aged, a home for convalescents, and summer outing camps." Summer camps for girls and boys were operated through the 1950s. Bard College purchased the property in 1963.
