ALTAMONT — Every house lives many lives.

 A house that will be one of the the main attractions on this year’s Altamont Victorian Holiday Celebration’s House Tours is no exception. It has changed owners often. But two of its lives — its young life as a newly-built summer home for a wealthy Albany family seeking pleasant times and cooler air in the 1890’s, and its current life as the lasting  legacy of a parish priest who spoke to millions in his novels about a Christ-like figure named Joshua  — give  this house its particularly fascinating life story. And explain much of its beauty.

Joshua House, as it is now called, sits high above Leesome Lane on the Helderberg escarpment, at the end of a long driveway, dramatically revealing itself to visitors at the summit. The commanding frame structure is the master of all its surveys, which happens to be all of Albany and the mountains to its north and east.

You can indeed see forever from there: whether from the deep wrap-around porch with its slender columns, which have been recently restored, or from the generously-sized bedroom windows above, their frames restored also.

The facade is formal: a symmetrical composition topped by a Dutch or gambrel-style roof pierced by dormer windows and tall chimneys, and with a gabled central projection.  Charles Lansing Pruyn — pronounced “prine” — appears not to have been a man to forgo grandeur just because it was summer. Or to give up comfort: A long corridor on the second floor is lined by multiple small bedrooms to either side; in them, a retinue of servants were housed.  

Nor, it seems, was he a man who failed to provide for the unusual: like the occasional cool summer night or a possible winter expedition to Altamont. The two tall chimneys serve a total of seven capacious fireplaces. No family bedroom is without one, nor is the spacious entrance hall, nor is the formal dining room.

Visitors can admire the last two fireplaces at the same time: They are back-t0-back, in the same wall, vented by the same chimney. Dutch love of cozy  warmth is on full display in the home of these descendents of one of the oldest families in the former Dutch colony.  

A family history says of Pruyn that he was “of a genial, courteous, lovable disposition, and not a person in the entire city had a greater number of firm friends in the professional and business community.” He served on innumerable Albany boards and was president of the Fort Orange Club.

Sadly, he did not get to enjoy his Altamont getaway for long. He died of pneumonia in July 1906, at this country estate, only 54 years old.

Renamed Joshua House

His last surviving child, Jane, sold the house in 1961. A succession of owners followed until finally a Roman Catholic priest, Joseph Girzone — sometimes known at “the Joshua priest” — acquired it in 1987 , renovated it, and brought it back to very full life.

In 1981, Girzone self-published a novel,  “Joshua,”  about a gentle man whose acts of kindness and messages of peace inspire and transform people. Girzone  little expected what followed. Readers responded fervently. Eventually, his 10 Joshua novels were translated into a dozen languages and sold 3 million copies.

 A native of  Albany and a Schenectady parish priest until poor health forced his retirement, Girzone made the old Pruyn estate the home of his Joshua Foundation — dedicated to keeping the message of his books alive — as well as making it both his own home and a welcoming place for visitors from around the world, drawn by the Joshua stories. He restored the home and made some changes, including adding a whole new wing that houses offices and meeting rooms.

Today, Gary Riggi, a deacon of the Diocese of Albany , and his wife, Sharon, carry on Girzone’s work and teachings — “theology rooted in Jesus,” says Gary Riggi — as Father Girzone wished. Father Girzone died on Nov. 29, 2015.

Now the house is a many-layered place. An old grandfather clock in the entrance hall may have belonged to the Pruyns. The stained glass windows high on the  walls in the atrium off the kitchen portray Ireland, the Sea of Galilee, and other places dear to Father Girzone, who commissioned them from a man he met at a book-signing, Gary Riggi says.  Their colors match those in the original stained-glass transoms dating from Pruyn times.

Mementoes of Father Girzone are everywhere and include his own paintings. A framed  photograph of him as a Carmelite monk —  he was that before becoming a parish priest — sits on a table in a comfortable living room that is centered by a huge floral arrangement made  by Sharon Riggi.

The Riggis moved from Scotia into Joshua House in June, and they are adding their own personal touches to the long and varied life of this grand and venerable house.

The couple is ready for the hundreds of visitors they will receive on the house tour. Their new home is a perennially welcoming place — for small groups making a weekend retreat and larger groups making a day retreat, for periodic discussion groups, and for counseling sessions.

Tour visitors should be on the lookout for a small version of the house they are touring. Charles Pruyn may have had the model  made― foresighted man that he was — before the actual house was erected.

Sharon Riggi says Father Girzone liked to conduct personal tours of the many-roomed house. “He had a story for each one,” she said.

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The four houses on this year’s tour may  be visited from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 11. A trolley will take tour participants to the Pruyn/Joshua House and to the Old Stone Inn, the other tour house that is located on the escarpment.  Parking is not available at either of those locations. The two tour houses in the village may  be reached on foot or from parking nearby. Tickets for the self-guided tour, with informational handouts provided for each house, are $10 for adults and  free for children.  Tickets may be purchased at the Masonic Hall at 138 Maple Ave. from noon until 3:15 p.m.

A festival of trees, a wreath auction, a living Nativity, and a pet costume contest are among the many other activities planned for this year’s celebration, which is sponsored by Altamont Community Tradition. For more information, visit: www.altamontcommunitytradition.org.