The Byrdcliffe theatre was established in 1902
(Dmadeo)The creative community on the mountain slopes above town drew artists, craftsmen, sculptors and writers
to live and work in the cabins and studios the Whiteheads had built. They created Arts & Crafts furniture
and décor along with pottery, textiles, and jewellery to be sold in New York City. In Whitehead’s free-
thinking organisation, women artists were able avoid some of the confines of society, and it attracted
visitors such as feminist and suffragette Charlotte Perkins Gilman, writer Owen Lister, and naturalist John
Burroughs. The concentration of artists and the beautiful scenery spurred the Art Students League of New
York City to open a summer school, and the town soon filled with painters carrying easels on the high street
and galleries that drew tourists. While Whitehead’s vision was never fully realised, Byrdcliffe is today a non-
profit arts centre that provides exhibitions, performances, and residencies to various artists.
One of Whitehead’s early partners, Hervey White, broke away from Byrdcliffe to start the Maverick Arts
Colony on the other side of town, attracting a like-minded set of artists and musicians. In 1916, White began
the Maverick Concerts series, which is still running today in his hand-built concert hall, the oldest
continuous chamber series in the country. The Maverick Festival was an open-air, annual event held every
year from 1916 to 1931, whose participants’ commitment to fun and freedom (and the local cider) were a
precursor to the famous festival in 1969.
In the Sixties came rock musicians such as Bob Dylan and The Band, and the hippies and the weekenders
soon followed. Today, Woodstock’s year-round population is 6,000 but swells to 12,000 when second-home
owners are included. The mountains, the streams, and the nonconformist spirit also attracted musician
David Bowie, writers such as Neil Gaiman and movie stars like Uma Thurman. The Catskills region is so
spread out and Woodstock’s population so immune to celebrity that privacy is pretty much guaranteed.
Living in the woods up a winding mountain road helps too.
The woods are indeed “lovely, dark and deep” ... and quiet. For city dwellers the lack of all noise at night is
startling and driving on pitch black country roads takes some getting used to. Singer/songwriter Amanda
Palmer bought a house in Woodstock in 2013 in what she calls “a little bit of an accident” with her husband,
author Neil Gaiman.