On the day Bolton Brown emerged from the thicket of Overlook Mountain near the Mead's Mountain House and first viewed the expanse below him, the future of the Town of Woodstock was forever altered. Hired by Ralph Whitehead to seek out a physical location that would provide the reality Whitehead sought to fulfill his vision of an art colony, Brown, upon beholding the vista before him wrote of that moment, "Exactly here the story of modern Woodstock really begins, for it was just at this moment and from this place that I, like Balboa from his 'peak in Darien,' first saw my South Sea. South indeed it was and almost as blue as the sea, that extraordinarily beautiful view, amazing in extent, the silver Hudson losing itself in remote haze" As he walked, he encountered Mr. Mead himself, laboring in an apple orchard. "Pointing down to what seemed an earthly paradise, stretched at our feet, I asked: 'What is the name of that place down there?' He replied: 'That is Woodstock Village.' It looked good to me then; it has not ceased to do so."
Summoned by Brown to Woodstock, Whitehead, after viewing Brown's "discovery," agreed that 1500 acres along the base of the mountain would be an ideal location for his proposed art colony. With that, Whitehead instructed Brown to secure the lands from the local farmers and, once purchased, to oversee the construction of the buildings that would be Byrdcliffe - a name that was derived from combining Mrs. Whitehead's name "Byrd" and Mr. Whitehead's middle name "Radcliffe."
And so the artists came. Among the early residents were Zuma Steel (painting, furniture and decoration), Bertha Thompson (silversmith), Ned Thatcher (metal work), Bolton Brown (lithography and painting), Hervey White (writer), Carl Lindin (painting), and many more. The goal of the colony, inspired by the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris, was to become self-sufficient by creating beautiful and useful objects which could be sold to support the community. And, in the first few years, creativity flourished as the Byrdcliffe artists excelled at works in weaving, furniture making, painting, pottery and photography. Artists being artists, of course, there was also "socializing." At least three nights a week, according to the recollections of Lucy Brown, was thrown open for "dancing and playing around." Aided by the interests of the Whiteheads in English dances, the residents of Byrdcliffe often danced into the evening matching "quaint gyrations" to pre-jazz music.
Within a few years of its founding, however, pressures began to build on, and within, the Byrdcliffe colony. Furniture crafted at Byrdcliffe, for example, proved too costly for commercial sale and, from within, the authoritative nature of Ralph Whitehead led to increasing conflicts between himself and members of the colony. As the artists began to abandon Byrdcliffe, however, they did not abandon Woodstock. Many set up studios within the town and flourished amidst the Woodstock countryside. Hervey White would go on to establish the Maverick colony and The Art Students League would set up operations in Woodstock in 1906. Ralph Whitehead's vision had brought the artists to Woodstock and here, for the next one hundred years, they have continued to share in his dream of a colony of artists.
Richard Heppner Woodstock Town Historian
