But one shouldn’t ignore the town’s other celebrated flower, the chrysanthemum, which is the focus of the annual Mum Festival (October 3 this year). The event follows the crowning of the Mum Queen and her court after the high school’s Mum Bowl football game, and promises live music, family entertainment, and horticultural talks and turns historic Seamon Park into a color-bursting floral panorama. And for the best of the local harvest, across from Cahill Elementary School on Main Street there’s the Saugerties Farmers Market, from late May through October 16.
Accent on Art
“I kind of fell upon the place by accident,” says English-born Adrian Frost, a long-time local resident, internationally shown artist, and curator of the cutting-edge 11 Cross Street Gallery. “I’d been living in Mount Marion and got to know the rest of the town from there. The arts scene is wonderful, there’s a lot of great artists working here. But what drew me in originally was the geographical beauty. I can step out my studio door and walk to the Esopus Creek Beach in five minutes, or take a short drive and go hiking up on Overlook Mountain. The down-to-earth feel of the town just really suits me.” Frost is a regular participant in August’s annual Saugerties Artists Studio Tour, which also features other galleries like Half Moon Studio, P. Fox Gallery, the Image Factory, and that of expatriate Belgian sculptor Ze’ev Willy Neumann, as well as displaying local art in restaurants and businesses.
The patron saint of Saugerties art, however, is the late sculptor Harvey Fite, who created the magnificent outdoor environmental sculpture Opus 40. Located in the hamlet of West Saugerties, the sprawling stone work was begun by the quarryman/artist in 1938, and he worked on it until his death in 1976. The site also comprises a museum (another stop on the Saugerties Artists Studio Tour), hosts public outdoor concerts and private events, and has been called “one of the largest and most beguiling works of art on the entire continent” by Architectural Digest.
In addition to the visual arts the town has long been a haven for music, a tradition that stretches back at least to the 1960s, when the Band recorded its landmark album Music from Big Pink and, with Bob Dylan, The Basement Tapes in West Saugerties. In 1994 the town made headlines when it staged the three-day Woodstock ’94 festival. Today, live music happens regularly at Inquiring Mind Bookstore and Cafe, New World Home Cooking, and the Dutch Ale House, while the long-running John Street Jam (second and fifth Saturdays), an intimate evening of acoustic singer-songwriters in the round, is always packed.
The many renowned musicians who currently call Saugerties home include jazz bassist Dave Holland, singer and producer Genya Ravan, and bassist, producer, and synthesizer pioneer Malcolm Cecil.
From Old Comes New
After the mills shut down and other industries moved out in the late 1950s and ’60s, Saugerties hit a deep slump and for years remained mired in bleak economic depression, the majority of its shop windows boarded up. What brought the town back to life in the mid 1970s, however, was the sizeable influx of antique dealers who make it the prime antiquing destination it remains today.
“[The village] was really depressed,” recalls Saugerties-raised Harold Swart, manager of the Central Hotel Antiques Center. “It was just empty store after empty store, a lot of burnt-out buildings. But because of that, rents were cheap, and antique dealers started moving in. Because of the world economy over the last few years, the antiques business has taken a dip, but it seems to be on the upturn now. It’s an interesting and fun business to be in—and browsers are always welcome.” Among the village’s numerous other similar vendors are Green, the multi-dealer Saugerties Antique Center, and Saugerties Antiques Gallery.
Yet vintage objects aren’t the only treasures waiting to be discovered in Saugerties. Also lining its streets are some fine apparel merchants, such as Montano’s Shoe Store (in business since 1906), Ya Ya’s Emporium (for funky accessories and vinyl LPs), vintage clothing spot Pistol Whip, and hip designer boutique Dig, as well some truly top-shelf bookstores: the antiquarian OUR Bookshop (the acronym is for Old, Used, and Rare) and Inquiring Mind Bookstore and Cafe.
