Catskill Village

by Richard Philp

Overview

Catskill Village has deep roots in the long human history of the Hudson River Valley, from its native population who greeted Henry Hudson on his voyage upriver in 1609 to its early settlers. Today's village is located on the commercially advantageous landing on the Hudson River. In 1802, the Susquehanna Turnpike opened the village to the expanding western frontier, and Catskill Village became one of the most prominent commercial ports on the Hudson River. Local trades such as shipbuilding, tanning, farming, brickmaking, fishing, and tourism flourished. By the mid-20th century, the long era of prosperity had faded, only to rise phoenixlike in the past decade with an infusion of young professionals, artists, craftsmen, merchants, and those determined to save and restore the village's exceptionally rich architectural heritage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738557946
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/18/2009
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,020,896
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Journalist, columnist, historian, and author of seven books, Richard Philp is editor-in-chief emeritus of Dance Magazine in New York City. He has had a home in Catskill for about 40 years, where he is both the village historian and the town historian. Here he has gathered photographs spanning the years 1860 to the present from his own collection, as well as the collections of other local historians.

Editorial Reviews

Title: 'Catskill Village' hits shelves this spring
Author: Colin DeVries
Publisher: The Register Star Online
Date: 12/29/08

The much anticipated follow-up to the popular bicentennial chronicle, "Village: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Village of Catskill," will be hitting bookstore shelves everywhere this spring.

"Catskill Village," a profound pictorial history of a critical Hudson River community, provides readers with a visual of a rustic Catskill community decades before the turn of the 20th century.

The 127-plus-page pictorial account is part of The Images of America series by Arcadia Publishing and will join other locally relevant books in the series, such as "Around Greene County and the Catskills," co-authored by the late Greene County Historian Raymond Beecher, and "Catskill Hotels" by Irwin Richman.

"Catskill Village" is the product of Richard Philp, town and village historian of Catskill, and was done in response to the wild popularity of the 2006 account, "Village: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Village of Catskill (1806-2006)."

According to Philp, $10,000 of "Village" books were sold in just three days during the summer of 2006 from a card table set up outside of the Heart of Catskill Association office on Main Street.

After that kind of success the market for Catskill history was evident. And Philp got a contract.

About a year ago, Philp says, he got the contract to put together "Catskill Village," and now the final product is ready for publication — well, almost ready. Once Philp finishes putting red pen to paper on the galley proofs the book will be ready for production. It will be released just in time for the 400th anniversary celebration of Henry Hudson's voyage up the river that bears his name.

To put together the pictorial chronicle, Philp said he scanned about 800 historic photographs of the village of Catskill from private collections of current Catskill residents. Among those collections: the Patrick Walsh collection, the Art Hamm collection, the Robert Carl collection, Philp's own personal collection, and others.

A total of 204 photos have been used for the book, accompanied by 20,000 of Philp's words.

The book is categorized by neighborhoods, celebrations, working shots, accommodations, disastrous mishaps, and others.

The oldest photo included in the book is the well-known 1846 portrait of Thomas Cole. Most of the photos, Philp says, are from 1890 and 1920, all in their original black and white brilliance.

"It's an enormous relief to having this thing finally finished," said Philp. "A book like this has not been done since ... 'Dear Old Greene County' ... This is a big deal, this book."

"Dear Old Greene County," by F. A. Gallt, was published in 1915 and is one of the most thorough accounts of Greene County municipalities to date.

"Catskill Village" will be available at Barnes and Noble, Borders, Brentano's Books, and online at www.arcadiapublishing.com in the spring. It will also be available at various shops in Catskill.

Philp says a book like this provides a golden opportunity for Catskill to show others around the country, and the world, just how wonderfully rich the riverfront community of Catskill really is.

Philp's next goal is find financial backing to bring back the successful publication, "Village: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Village of Catskill."

From the Publisher