WOOLWORTH
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Take a tour of four iconic NYC structures that went from derelict to dazzling.
By MATTHEW PHENIX
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NUMBER 475 PRESIDES OVER BEACON'S BUSTLING MAIN STREET SCENE.
BY INHABIT EDITORS
An Unfinished
Masterpiece
of Beacon, New York, there is a singular property — a stately, historic, and infinitely flexible building that represents the ideal confluence of the cosmopolitan and the bucolic. Most who encounter it (and this digital narrative of it) will spend a few moments entertaining wistful dreams of a different life, then collapse into second-guessing previous, disqualifying decisions.
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The building is three stories with a massive basement and access to two active thoroughfares, and is a model of small-town urbanity, a microcosm of the city of Beacon itself. Perched on a hill above the Hudson and mere steps from the famously picturesque Fishkill Creek, it represents both a vibrant past and an infinite future. It is 5,380 square feet of artistic potential, bricked in 1876 with the same clay that helped build New York City.
Of late, the mile-plus of Main Street has become as vibrant as a great Manhattan neighborhood, full of award-winning restaurants and cozy local bars, as well as the galleries and antique shops which lure tourists here for a weekend getaway. The city of Beacon is a historically a mill town, and its abandoned factories are coming to new life as loft apartments, retail boutiques, and cultural centers and museums — most natably the Dia, one of the largest modern art museums in the country (it shows Serra in an abandoned cracker box factory), which led the town’s renaissance with its 2003 opening.
That bit of Yankee can-doism continues to inspire for the whole town, and formerly abandoned buildings have found new life from the banks of the Hudson River to the foothills of Mount Beacon. Stately 475 Main was most recently an art gallery representing a single artist, but the street-level retail frontage could fill whatever need the local scene seems to crave. Beyond the hardwood gallery floors and original glass storefront, though, is where the real potential lies.
A PICTURE-PERFECT TRIBUTARY OF THE HUDSON RIVER, THE FISHKILL CREEK RUNS THROUGH BEACON, NEW YORK.
PRESENTLY A GALLERY SPACE, THE GROUND FLOOR OF 475 MAIN BRIMS WITH POSSIBILITY.
In the artistic enclave
is the logical next step in a life well-lived — the brick embodiment of a world view that values both the beauty of nature and the heroism of human endeavor. If this seems like overselling, we (you and us) can only blame a failure of imagination.
475 main street
This building is not — as we say in the business — move-in ready. It should, at this point, be considered a blank canvas, upon which one might paint any number of masterpieces. It has rooms that are labeled — for the sake of real estate listings — as bedrooms and offices and kitchens and baths, though there is little underneath these high ceilings to prevent a complete reconfiguration. The second-floor stair landing with its newel posts you may wish to preserve, but the rest is yours to completely reimagine. The only immutable attributes are the incredible treetop and Mount Beacon views, which stream in through banks of windows on the Main Street and southeast faces. That view won’t disappear, since the immediate neighbor is the historic Howland Cultural Center, a former library that dates from 1872 and hosts frequent musical performances and readings.
Whatever you create on the inside of 475 Main, the outdoors will be your daily inspiration. Out of the front door, you are two blocks from the Fishkill Creek Greenway and Heritage Trail, a planned bike path. Beyond, the mountains teem with hiking and biking trails, and on the wide Hudson are the Newburgh Beacon ferry, Madam Brett Park, Bannerman's Island, and Long Dock.
If things start to seem too bucolic, a Metro North train will get you to Grand Central in about an 90 minutes on the Hudson line, with six departures each weekday morning. The occasional trip to the city may be necessary for inspiration, but we promise that the trip back to Beacon will be one you most look forward to. In fact, it may be the trip you’ve been looking forward to your whole life.
Brimming with classic style and modern possibility, lovely 475 Main Street,
in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Beacon, is a dream waiting to be realized.
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the Hudson Valley.