A prominent property, the former Woodstock Automotive garage at 39 Mill Hill Road just sold for more than $1 million while a handful of others including what was once the iconic Café Espresso, are on the market or pending sale in this wild real estate market amid changing town demographics.
The Woodstock Automotive property sold July 26 for $1,050,000. Many still refer to this prime piece of real estate as the Mobil station because the sign remains, though the gas pumps were removed around 15 years ago. Ever since mechanics Anthony Tampone and Michael Anello decided to retire and sell the place, townsfolk have speculated on what it will become in its new iteration. Rumors range from a motorcycle shop to an Asian restaurant. The owner is not publicly known yet, so only time will tell.
Across the street at the corner of Deming Street and Mill Hill Road, the large building that houses Mountain Gate Indian restaurant, Not Fade Away tie dye, the former Fletcher Gallery and others, is on the market for $2.5 million. Included in the sale is 10 Deming Street, which is behind the corner building. The two-building package is for sale as rental units with existing tenants.
Photography Center building up for grabs
The once Café Espresso building at 59 Tinker Street, currently owned by the Center for Photography at Woodstock, is up for sale. The asking price is $950,000. A purchase is pending, but the property is still being shown.
Built in the 1800s, the building’s rise to fame started around 1921 as the Nook, an ice cream and sandwich place. Owners Jim Hamilton and Franklin Drake had transformed the Nook into the Espresso Cafe by 1959 before selling it to Bernard and Mary Lou Paturel, who changed the name to Café Espresso, as detailed in the Barney Hoskyns book on Woodstock, Small Town Talk.
By the 1960s, Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk, Jack Elliott and Joan Baez and Happy Traum among others had played there and by 1963, Bob Dylan had pretty much taken up residence at what locals had mockingly called the Depresso. At one point, Dylan was hounded so much by obsessive fans, but he could find refuge in the Espresso, where he could hang out and not be bothered. Eventually Dylan spent so much time at the Espresso, the Paturels asked him if he wanted to stay in the room above the cafe. “It was supposed to be secret, but of course everyone knew it,” said banjo player Billy Faier in Small Town Talk.
Dylan would even spend the night and Mary Lou Paturel would hear him at the typewriter at 3 a.m.
“I started drinking there at age 14,” said real estate agent Peter Cantine, whose many listings in town include 59 Tinker Street. Its last iteration as a drinking and music establishment, Tinker Street Cafe, lasted through the end of the 1990s.
Cantine, who describes himself as a hospitality industry refugee, said the property’s valuable history is as an iconic sidewalk cafe. It has been utilized as a gallery and headquarters for the Center for Photography at Woodstock for more than two decades now, but memories of the legendary music space persist.
“Woodstock misses that use of the space,” Cantine said.
Formerly Lasher’s
Just past the Woodstock Public Library sits the former Lasher Funeral Home, now listed for $2.5 million. A recent purchase deal by Woodstock Way Hotel owners Ryan Giuliani and Jesse Halliburton fell through amid concerns it would take too long and a development moratorium would hamper plans to convert the property into a hotel. The partners initially wanted to build homes in the back field portion of the 4.81-acre site, but had agreed to sell most of it back to concerned neighbors who wanted to preserve as much of the field as possible.
Janet Peterson, the sole remaining owner, had wanted it to remain a funeral home but could not find a suitable buyer amid declining business. It had a number of directors before finally closing.
The front part of the parcel with the home, carriage house and funeral parlor is in the Hamlet Commercial district while the field is in the Hamlet Residential district.
On the other side of town in Bearsville is another one of Cantine’s listings at 1 Wittenberg Road, next to the Bearsville Theater property where he spent decades as Bear Cafe co-owner and a stint as partner of the complex.
Priced at $750,000, the buildings at the corner of Wittenberg Road and Route 212 once served as headquarters for Albert Grossman’s enterprises. Grossman had a massive telephone switchboard installed in the 1873 main building and had large cables run under the Sawkill Creek and Route 212 to connect his buildings on the theater property, up Striebel Road and to the Bearsville Studios on Speare Road, Cantine said. He could take a call from 20 of his buildings, Cantine noted. As long as you were important enough. “It was literally a switchboard for decades,” Cantine said.
The main building has been converted to residential space with hardwood floors, exposed beams, a state-of-the-art kitchen and even a cedar sauna.
A detached guest bungalow features a studio space and full bath.
The 3.78-acre property also has a two-car carport, in-ground swimming pool, raised-bed gardens, an orchard and wooded area.
A Dunkin’?
While not in Woodstock, a proposed Dunkin’ (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts) is at the foot of the main thoroughfare into Woodstock. The drive-thru is proposed for the corner of Routes 28 and 375 (Levon Helm Blvd.) now occupied by a building housing Robert Sinnott’s Allstate insurance agency and Booked By Barthel travel agency.
Concerns raised at an August 2 Hurley Planning Board meeting were mainly about the site’s ability to handle customers queuing up around the drive-thru without spilling out onto Route 375 or Route 28. Many said the West Hurley intersection already backs up with cars waiting to turn from Route 375 onto Route 28 and doesn’t need anything complicating matters.
Hurley planners want to ensure asbestos is properly handled when the existing building is demolished. The board also wants to ensure a bond is posted in case the economy tanks and the project goes belly-up. The town doesn’t want to be left with a half-built structure.
The Hurley Planning Board is leaving the comment period open until its next meeting on August 30.
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