THE REAL WOODSTOCK FESTIVALS

by STEVE WINSTON
for Bob Malkin & Barbara Pokras
Owners, The Waterfall House
Woodstock, NY

When we think of the town of Woodstock, in New York’s Catskill Mountains, we generally think of Woodstock, the mother of all rock festivals.

I was one of those hungry, bedraggled, wet, muddy, longhaired “hippie” teenagers sitting in that meadow in August, 1969. The music, of course, was wonderful, even if the conditions were not. But I don’t think many of the half-million unshaven and unshowered people sitting there had the slightest realization that we were not the first to bring music to that beautiful little corner of the Hudson River Valley.

In fact, the picturesque village of Woodstock (actually seventy miles from the site of the concert) had already been the site of great music festivals for nearly seventy years before “My Generation” gathered in that meadow.

In 1902, a wealthy Englishman with the wonderful name of Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead took a walk in the woods here. Entranced by the beauty and the serenity of the Catskills, Whitehead was looking for a spot on which to establish an arts and crafts colony. On a hillside overlooking Woodstock, he found it. He decided to call it the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony. Almost as soon as the first shovel went into the ground, a parade of artists, Bohemians, writers, poets, dancers, dreamers, craftspeople, and musicians began trickling into town. And it hasn’t stopped since.

The Byrdcliffe is actually America’s oldest arts colony. The people who have lived and worked here were not always painters or actors or musicians; they also included furniture-makers, metal-workers, ceramists, and weavers, among others. And the colony, today managed by the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, still offers residency programs for talented performing, visual, and crafts artists (www.woodstockguild.org/byrdcliffemain.htm).

Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead had envisioned a utopian enclave of the arts. However, his somewhat-aristocratic nature didn’t mesh well with that of the free-spirits his efforts attracted to the town. Some of them, in fact, began calling him “The Dictator.”

One of those people was Hervey White, who had actually helped Whitehead found Byrdcliffe. Disillusioned with his partner, White left to found a more laissez-faire arts colony on the other side of town, which he called The Maverick. In 1915, he needed to raise money for a well on the property, so he decided to stage a music-and-drama festival at the Maverick. In so doing, he started a summer music tradition that continues to this day. In fact, The Maverick hosts the oldest continuous chamber music festival in America. And every summer, internationally-known musicians play here, and renowned composers premiere their works here.

Hervey White was a “beatnik” before there were beatniks. He had long, unkempt hair and beard, and tended toward loose-fitting, colorful Russian shirts. He built cabins in which his visiting “creatives” could live…and charged them no rent if they had no money. He was a social radical who had been influenced by the left-wing writers of the day, some of whom came to live at The Maverick.

The annual festival attracted a bohemian stream of free-thinkers to the Catskills. But the activities of some of the festival participants became so “free” that the local police shut the festival down in 1931. However, the proceeds from the festival allowed White to build the outdoor concert hall that still holds Sunday afternoon chamber music concerts during the summer. And most locals believe that Woodstock 1969 would not have been possible without The Maverick summer festivals of forty years before (www.maverickconcerts.org).

Later on, in the early sixties, a record-producer named Albert Grossman moved to Woodstock, and built a recording studio in nearby Bearsville. Grossman was an iconoclast…another wild spirit attracted to the area because of its active arts scene and its magnificent natural beauty.

And he was perhaps the ultimate example of “If you build it, they will come.” After he built his studio, “they” did come…Bob Dylan; The Band; Peter, Paul and Mary; Richie Havens; Gordon Lightfoot; Janis Joplin; Todd Rundgren; and a host of others. Grossman, in fact, became Dylan’s manager.

Grossman died in 1986. In 1989, his widow opened the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock. And the roster of people who have appeared there includes Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, The Band, The Pretenders, Natalie Merchant, Astrud Gilberto (“The Girl from Ipanema”), Jimmy Cliff, Taj Majal, Richie Havens, and Warren Zevon. (www.bearsvilletheater.com). Acts scheduled for the coming weeks include well-known singer/writer/producer Steve Earle, and a range of talented musical acts ranging from country to rock to bluegrass to…karaoke. In addition, the Bearsville Theater serves as one of the sites for the widely-acclaimed Woodstock Film Festival, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary (Sept. 30-Oct. 1, www.woodstockfilmfestival.com).

In fact, the music “vibe” here is probably more active today than ever. At the Alchemy (www.alchemyofwoodstock.com), you can nurse a coffee over a good book (which you can buy there), listen to talented singers and musicians, and enjoy the works of art. The Colony Café (www.colonycafe.com) offers original music in a variety of genres, in an historic old building in the center of town. The New World Home Cooking Café (www.ricorlando.com), run by legendary Catskills restaurateur Ric Orlando, has live music ranging from reggae to blues, and from Celtic to “fiddle jams.” Levon Helm, drummer from The Band, still holds “Midnight Rambles” with his band at his studio, called “The Barn,” as well as other venues in the area.

In Woodstock, the “performing arts” also feature local folks and even visitors. On Sundays, weather permitting, people gather in town for the Woodstock Drum Circle; you’re welcome to express your feelings on drums of all sorts, or to just let yourself move to the rhythms.

This area of the Catskills, with the beautiful Kaaterskill Clove (a mountain ravine with a waterfall higher than Niagara) has been attracting vacationers for a long time. And they stay in a unique collection of colorful inns and vacation rentals. And the village of Woodstock retains the ambience, of a somewhat-offbeat, funky village that still attracts talented people who want to pursue their chosen crafts while surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth.

So, you see, it wasn’t the bedraggled masses of 1969 who brought music to Woodstock. Woodstock started becoming a mecca for the arts long before we were born…in fact, just about the time our grandparents were born.

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The perfect base from which to explore Woodstock’s music and art offerings – as well as the Kaaterskill clove and the surrounding countryside – is a vacation-rental called The Waterfall House (www.waterfallrental.com) . It’s a Victorian country home, at the end of a picturesque road that becomes a canopy of brilliantly-colored leaves during fall-foliage time. It’s charming on the inside, and blessed with strikingly-beautiful views on the outside. The house has been furnished with authentic country antiques and crafts, along with eclectic items from the collection of Bob Malkin, founder of New York’s prestigious ThinkBig! gallery. And there’s a wraparound outdoor deck right over the river, where you can sit for hours while watching Niobe Falls, an arm of the highest waterfall in the state, Kaaterskill Falls. (845) 246-6666; bob@waterfallrental.com.

PHOTO: The view from The Waterfall House in Autumn
Waterfall in Autumn

AUTUMN ON THE HUDSON RIVER TRAIL

by

STEVE WINSTON

(for Bob Malkin and Barbara Pokras, The Waterfall House)

The colors of autumn – burnt-oranges; fire-engine reds; yellows of a dozen hues; even purples – seem to bathe the mountains and forests in an almost painted-on beauty. It’s autumn in the Catskill Mountains, two hours north of New York City. And this season peaks in a blaze of color matched by few places on Earth.  

 In fact, several of America’s most important 19^th-Century painters immortalized autumn in the Catskills. They were particularly entranced by the Kaaterskill Clove, a mountain ravine covered with forest and dotted with waterfalls. And the biggest of those waterfalls – Kaaterskill – is higher even than Niagara. 

 Thomas Cole was the first painter to discover this area, in the early 1820’s, and the founder of what’s today called the Hudson River School of Painting. He was soon followed by well-known artists such as Frederic Church, Jasper Cropsey, Sanford Gifford, and Asher B. Durand. This movement, lasting until 1875, is considered the first genuinely American “school” of painting.

 Today we can follow in the footsteps of these artists, in their favorite time of year. The Hudson River Painters Hiking Trail has been created and maintained by local folks. And, as a result, we can now stand on the spots where the artists first sketched the ideas for their paintings. And we can look out at the same vistas they painted. 

 “This area of the Catskill Mountains was like paradise to Thomas Cole, the first of the so-called Hudson River School of Painters,” says Bob Malkin, a local historian. “In 1825, he completed the first of the three known paintings he did of the Kaaterskill Falls. And he loved this area so much that he built a home here.”

 Malkin and his wife/partner, Barbara Pokras, own a Victorian vacation rental house called the Waterfall House, with an extraordinary view of Niobe Falls, a continuation of towering Kaaterskill Falls (http://www.waterfallrental.com). And they have an interesting history, themselves. On Sept. 11, 2001, Malkin was jogging with a friend near the World Trade Center when the planes hit. They managed to find their way to Battery Park, at the lower tip of Manhattan, covered in dust and debris and gasping for air. Malkin and Pokras decided that day to leave New York City.

 Once here, Malkin threw himself into the history of the area. He began perusing hundreds of old postcards, and haunted local libraries and historical societies for vintage copies of “Harper’s Weekly,” along with numerous books and publications from the 1800’s.

“In 1824, a new resort called The Catskill Mountain House opened,” he says, “and it put this place on the map. It quickly became the world’s most exclusive mountain resort. And its clientele included the cream of American and European society, as well as two U.S. presidents.”

If you stand at a spot on the Hudson River Painters Hiking Trail called Sunset Rock, looking down into the Kaaterskill Clove, you can see the views first sketched by Thomas Cole. If you head up North Mountain, you can see where Cole and Frederic Church, who became Cole’s student at the age of eighteen, sketched the Catskill Mountain House. From a bit higher, you can see one of Cole’s favorite views, a spot from which he could see his house in the town of Catskill – twelve miles away. Nearby is Olana, the whimsical Persian-style home built by Frederic Church, with ornately-carved red doors and arched windows with fluted tops, on the hilltop where he first sketched the Catskills.

Both Olana and Cole’s home, Cedar Grove, are open to visitors. Here, you can see their workspaces…and even some of their work.

There are a variety of hikes you can take. The 24-mile Escarpment Trail, for example, was America’s first hiking trail. The actual Hudson River Painters Trail is a more-modest six miles, starting at Bastion Falls in the Kaaterskill Clove.

You can see the spot where Thomas Cole painted his majestic “Autumn in the Catskills,” (ca. 1836), with a distant figure standing in the midst of mountains and forest. You can stand where Frederic Church stood when he sketched the outline of “Looking West From Olana” (1864), which became a visual feast of forest, mountain, shrouded waters, and setting sun. And you can compare Catskill Creek to Church’s painting, “Scene on Catskill Creek,” with its distant lakes and clouds that seem to beckon you in.

And, from certain vantage points on the Trail, you can see not only the Hudson River, but also into Connecticut and Massachusetts. 

The works of the Hudson River painters now hang in prestigious museums all over the world. But they weren’t the only artistic types to be drawn here. Many of America’s most treasured writers, such as James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain, considered the Kaaterskill Clove one of the most beautiful spots in the world.

“In James Fenimore Cooper’s ‘The Pioneers,’” Bob Malkin says, “Leatherstocking remarked that you could ‘see all of creation’ from the top of the falls.”

Winslow Homer was inspired to paint the Kaaterskill Falls for “Harper’s Weekly.” And the sleepy little hamlet of Palenville became the setting for Washington Irving’s classic, “Rip Van Winkle.”

On these hiking trails, you’ll see more wild turkeys and deer and rabbits than people…and those vistas of “all of creation.” And, if you listen hard enough, you’ll hear the footsteps – or the hoof-steps – of the legendary pioneers and scoundrels and heroes who swept through here, on their way to immortality either in the history books or in the famous fictional novels of another day. 

The area’s now filled with charming B&B’s and historic inns. And it’s buzzing with activity during the fall, particularly in the quaint town of Woodstock. From Sept. 30-Oct. 4 is The Tenth Woodstock Film Festival, which always features international film stars and directors. Ongoing during the month of October, there’s Farm Festival music in the Woodstock Farmer’s Market, Friends of Fiddle & Dance, Mowers Outdoor Flea Market, the Woodstock Farm Festival, and art and photography exhibitions at local galleries.

And, of course, there’s Bob Malkin’s and Barbara Pokras’ Waterfall House” – perhaps the only vacation rental in the continental U.S. known to have a major waterfall in its backyard.  
The Waterfall House is a true Victorian country home. It’s furnished with authentic country antiques and crafts, along with eclectic items from the collection of Malkin, founder of New York’s prestigious ThinkBig! Gallery. On the outside, it’s blessed with strikingly-beautiful views of what’s basically your own private waterfall. And there’s a wraparound outdoor deck right over the river, where guests can watch – and listen to – the falls, and watch the constantly-changing colors of Autumn in the Catskills. (845) 246-6666; bob@waterfallrental.com; http://www.waterfallrental.com.

It’s a wonderful place from which to explore the region, and to see if you agree with those earlier visitors…that this is the most beautiful spot in the world.

Steve Winston (www.stevewinston.com) is author/contributor to thirteen books, and his articles appear in major media all over the world. In pursuit of “The Story,” he’s been shot at in Northern Ireland, been a cowboy in Arizona, jumped into an alligator pit in the Everglades, flown World War II fighter planes in aerial “combat,” climbed 15,000-foot peaks, trekked glaciers in Alaska, explored ice caves in Switzerland, and driven an ATV to the top of an 11,000-foot peak in Colorado…and then back down again, with the wheels hanging over the edge of a cliff with a 3,000-foot drop. Contact Steve Winston at steve@stevewinston.com.  

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOT IN THE WORLD?

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOT IN THE WORLD?

by

STEVE WINSTON

James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain all considered it one of the most beautiful spots in the world.

On the map, it’s only two hours north of Manhattan. But, in reality, it’s a world away. The Kaaterskill Clove is a mountain ravine of picture-postcard beauty, dotted with forests and waterfalls. And the biggest of those waterfalls – Kaaterskill – is higher than Niagara.

This is a place of warm surprises at every bend in the road, with quaint villages and friendly people and hidden swimming holes. It’s a place of country-craft shops and antique stores and fruit stands and old bookshops, with little bells that ring when you walk inside. It’s a place of small towns where everybody still knows one another and where some folks still make things the old-fashioned way…where time, if it hasn’t quite stood still, at least seems to have gone by a lot more slowly. It’s a place filled with colorful folklore and historical significance. And it hasn’t yet been discovered by the crowds.

“This area of the Catskill Mountains attracted Thomas Cole, the first of the so-called Hudson River School of Painters,” says Bob Malkin, a local historian. Malkin and his wife, Barbara Pokras, own a Victorian vacation rental house called the Waterfall House, with an extraordinary view of Niobe Falls, a continuation of Kaaterskill Falls (http://www.waterfallrental.com). “In 1825, Thomas Cole completed one of three known paintings he did of the Kaaterskill Falls.”

Malkin has an interesting history himself. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was jogging with a friend near the World Trade Center when the first plane flew into one of the towers. Running for shelter toward the second tower, they watched in horror as another plane flew into that one. They ended up in Battery Park at the lower tip of Manhattan, covered in dust and gasping for air. He and his wife decided that day to leave New York City.

They began a search for the right country home, a place that they could rent out until they decided to move in permanently. They fell in love with this beautiful old house, and the waterfall on which it sits. Now, they live in nearby Saugerties. And lucky visitors can experience the million-dollar views from this house.

Once here, Malkin began perusing hundreds of old postcards and vintage copies of “Harper’s Weekly,” along with numerous books and publications from the 1800’s.

“When the Catskill Mountain House opened in 1824,” he says, “it put this place on the map. It became the world’s most exclusive mountain resort. And its clientele included the cream of American and European society, as well as two U.S. presidents.”

After arriving by steamboat in nearby Catskill, guests were taken up the mountain by an incline-railroad built by Otis. The Catskill Mountain House became the first stop on the “Grand Tour,” beginning with the views from the hamlet of Palenville to the mountain top and on to Kaaterskill Falls. Word spread of this isolated place filled with natural wonders and a million breathtaking vistas. Yet, these weren’t the first visitors to be enchanted with this area. And this wasn’t the first time that word had spread.

“In James Fenimore Cooper’s ‘The Pioneers,’” Malkin says, “Leatherstocking remarked that you could ‘see all of creation’ from the top of the falls.”

Artists and writers made the pilgrimage here, to try and capture, on canvas or on paper, the magic of this setting. Winslow Homer was inspired to paint the Kaaterskill Falls for “Harper’s Weekly.” And the sleepy little hamlet of Palenville became the setting for Washington Irving’s classic, “Rip Van Winkle.”

The days when the elite of international society flocked here are gone now…along with the golden patina of a non-native wealth that never really felt natural here, anyway. And the locals are just as happy to keep it that way – because what remains, they realize, is even better.

What remains are hiking trails on which you’ll see more wild turkeys and deer and rabbits than people…and vistas of “all of creation.” There are quiet little coves where the only sounds you’ll hear are the breezes running through the trees. In the fall, the area turns into a palette of brilliant colors, almost as if they’re each trying to outdo the others. And, if you listen hard enough, you’ll hear the footsteps – or the hoof-steps – of the legendary settlers and legends who swept through here, on their way to immortality either in the history books or in the famous fictional novels of another day.

The area’s now filled with charming B&B’s and historic inns. And it’s filled, as well, with the type of wonderful woodsy restaurant where you can linger for hours over authentic country-cooking and brass antiques and candlelight. This, truly, is a place for walking and exploration – whether you find yourself on a road, in the woods, or in the middle of a town square. It’s the type of place where you can spend an hour in a single store…and go back home with something you never expected to find (and probably never even thought about before).

And, of course, there’s Bob Malkin’s Waterfall House – perhaps the only vacation rental in the continental U.S. known to have a major waterfall in its backyard.

The Waterfall House is a Victorian country home, at the end of a picturesque, leafy road. It’s charming on the inside and blessed with strikingly-beautiful views on the outside. The house has been furnished with authentic country antiques and crafts, along with eclectic items from the collection of Malkin, founder of New York’s prestigious ThinkBig! gallery. And there’s a wraparound outdoor deck right over the river, where guests can watch – and listen to – the falls. (845) 246-6666; bob@waterfallrental.com; http://www.waterfallrental.com.

It’s a wonderful place from which to explore the region…and to see if you agree with those earlier visitors that this is the most beautiful spot in the world.

THE END
About Steve Winston

Steve Winston is President of Winston Communications (www.winstoncommunications.com), an award-winning public relations/marketing/strategic-planning firm in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He has worked with companies such as Citibank, Alamo Rent A Car, Century21, and The Florida Panthers NHL Hockey Club, as well as numerous arts, educational, and governmental organizations. Winston Communications specializes in integrated approaches that increase market share and brand-recognition, position its clients as the authorities in their fields, enhance organizational reputation, generate media coverage – and increase profit. Contact Steve Winston at steve@winstoncommunications.com.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOT IN THE WORLD?

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOT IN THE WORLD?

by

STEVE WINSTON

James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain all considered it one of the most beautiful spots in the world.

On the map, it’s only two hours north of Manhattan. But, in reality, it’s a world away. The Kaaterskill Clove is a mountain ravine of picture-postcard beauty, dotted with forests and waterfalls. And the biggest of those waterfalls – Kaaterskill – is higher than Niagara.

This is a place of warm surprises at every bend in the road, with quaint villages and friendly people and hidden swimming holes. It’s a place of country-craft shops and antique stores and fruit stands and old bookshops, with little bells that ring when you walk inside. It’s a place of small towns where everybody still knows one another and where some folks still make things the old-fashioned way…where time, if it hasn’t quite stood still, at least seems to have gone by a lot more slowly. It’s a place filled with colorful folklore and historical significance. And it hasn’t yet been discovered by the crowds.

“This area of the Catskill Mountains attracted Thomas Cole, the first of the so-called Hudson River School of Painters,” says Bob Malkin, a local historian. Malkin owns a Victorian vacation rental house called the Waterfall House, with an extraordinary view of Niobe Falls, a continuation of Kaaterskill Falls (http://www.waterfallrental.com). “In 1825, Thomas Cole completed one of three known paintings he did of the Kaaterskill Falls.”

Malkin has an interesting history himself. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was jogging with a friend near the World Trade Center when the first plane flew into one of the towers. Running for shelter toward the second tower, they watched in horror as another plane flew into that one. They ended up in Battery Park at the lower tip of Manhattan, covered in dust and gasping for air. He and his wife decided that day to leave New York City.

They began a search for the right country home, a place that they could rent out until they decided to move in permanently. They fell in love with this beautiful old house, and the waterfall on which it sits. Now, they live in nearby Saugerties. And lucky visitors can experience the million-dollar views from this house.

Once here, Malkin began perusing hundreds of old postcards and vintage copies of “Harper’s Weekly,” along with numerous books and publications from the 1800’s.

“When the Catskill Mountain House opened in 1824,” he says, “it put this place on the map. It became the world’s most exclusive mountain resort. And its clientele included the cream of American and European society, as well as two U.S. presidents.”

After arriving by steamboat in nearby Catskill, guests were taken up the mountain by an incline-railroad built by Otis. The Catskill Mountain House became the first stop on the “Grand Tour,” beginning with the views from the hamlet of Palenville to the mountain top and on to Kaaterskill Falls. Word spread of this isolated place filled with natural wonders and a million breathtaking vistas. Yet, these weren’t the first visitors to be enchanted with this area. And this wasn’t the first time that word had spread.

“In James Fenimore Cooper’s ‘The Pioneers,’” Malkin says, “Leatherstocking remarked that you could ‘see all of creation’ from the top of the falls.”

Artists and writers made the pilgrimage here, to try and capture, on canvas or on paper, the magic of this setting. Winslow Homer was inspired to paint the Kaaterskill Falls for “Harper’s Weekly.” And the sleepy little hamlet of Palenville became the setting for Washington Irving’s classic, “Rip Van Winkle.”

The days when the elite of international society flocked here are gone now…along with the golden patina of a non-native wealth that never really felt natural here, anyway. And the locals are just as happy to keep it that way – because what remains, they realize, is even better.

What remains are hiking trails on which you’ll see more wild turkeys and deer and rabbits than people…and vistas of “all of creation.” There are quiet little coves where the only sounds you’ll hear are the breezes running through the trees. In the fall, the area turns into a palette of brilliant colors, almost as if they’re each trying to outdo the others. And, if you listen hard enough, you’ll hear the footsteps – or the hoof-steps – of the legendary settlers and legends who swept through here, on their way to immortality either in the history books or in the famous fictional novels of another day.

The area’s now filled with charming B&B’s and historic inns. And it’s filled, as well, with the type of wonderful woodsy restaurant where you can linger for hours over authentic country-cooking and brass antiques and candlelight. This, truly, is a place for walking and exploration – whether you find yourself on a road, in the woods, or in the middle of a town square. It’s the type of place where you can spend an hour in a single store…and go back home with something you never expected to find (and probably never even thought about before).

And, of course, there’s Bob Malkin’s Waterfall House – perhaps the only vacation rental in the continental U.S. known to have a major waterfall in its backyard.

The Waterfall House is a Victorian country home, at the end of a picturesque, leafy road. It’s charming on the inside and blessed with strikingly-beautiful views on the outside. The house has been furnished with authentic country antiques and crafts, along with eclectic items from the collection of Malkin, founder of New York’s prestigious ThinkBig! gallery. And there’s a wraparound outdoor deck right over the river, where guests can watch – and listen to – the falls. (845) 246-6666; bob@waterfallrental.com; http://www.waterfallrental.com.

It’s a wonderful place from which to explore the region…and to see if you agree with those earlier visitors that this is the most beautiful spot in the world.

THE END
About Steve Winston

Steve Winston has written or contributed to thirteen books, and has written hundreds of articles for major media all over the world. In pursuit of “The Story,” he’s been shot at in Northern Ireland, been a cowboy in Arizona, jumped into an alligator pit in the Everglades, flown World War II fighter planes, climbed 15,000-foot mountains in North America and Europe, and trekked on glaciers in Alaska. Steve Winston can be reached at steve@winstoncommunications.com
Please visit his Web site at: Winston Communications

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