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Cold Spring by Candlelight Highlights Charms of the Village
Fundraiser event for PARC very successful
by Kevin Foley
 | | A crowd gathers to listen to holiday carols, sung by members of Hand to Mouth Players. |
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As a full autumn moon stood watch, Cold Spring held a celebration last weekend that combined compassion with commerce and had as its centerpiece some old-fashioned village hospitality. The fourth annual Cold Spring by Candlelight, held on Saturday, November 24, 2007, attracted a steady stream of visitors to shop on Main Street, listen to a variety of entertainment and to purchase tickets for a house tour of four special homes as well as historic sites that represent the best of the Village's spirit and eclectic style.
The special occasion was a fundraiser for PARC, an organization that provides advocacy and programming for children and adults with developmental disabilities, principally in Putnam County. "It was a wonderful, successful event today; it grows each year by attendance and activities," said Rand Otten, PARC's director of development. Otten said the event was one of the biggest fundraisers of the year for her organization, estimating it had raised $18,000 with visitors calling places like California, Massachusetts and Canada home.
Opportunities to shop and eat began early in the day, including a first-time market for holiday gifts held at the Cold Spring Fire House. By afternoon the pace picked up with the appearance of caroling groups on street corners, storytellers in front of inn fireplaces and a Revolutionary War reenactment at the Foundry museum. Down by the river visitors could relax and hear some Village history during a horse-drawn carriage ride.
2pm was when a select group of village residents first opened their front doors to people who paid to satisfy their curiosity about what might be inside.
However, it took the shadows of evening to fall to reveal the real charm of walking the village streets, both commercial and residential, amidst the anticipation and camaraderie of visitors wrapped against the chill and illuminated by lights electric or with wax aflame.
Participants in the house tour were provided ballots on which to vote for their favorite home, with a prize going to the winner. The results were not available at deadline but the homes, each in their own way, clearly won people over with their uniqueness.
A waiting line formed outside the Mountain Avenue home of Eileen Charbonneau and Ed Gullo due to their offering engaging presentations on the history and details of their 1923 Sears Roebuck kit house. The couple obviously takes pride in their painstaking restoration of the house that first arrived at its location in 32,000 pieces. "This was the time when the middle class was growing in the country and there was emphasis on bigger, better, faster," said Gullo. "It's an anti-Victorian style, plain, straightforward, lots of light in the windows, added Gullo who spoke with an old Underwood typewriter behind him on a desk with a personal computer as contrast.
As to having hundreds of people come through your rooms for five hours Charbonneau said, "it's so much fun, it's really festive. I get to see the house through new eyes."
Cathryn Fadde's 1882 Queen Ann Victorian on High Street has history in its foundation having been built on land owned by Samuel Laurence Gouverneur, son-in-law and private secretary of President Monroe. Fadde, who understands greeting guests from her ownership of the Tuscan Grill on Main Street, answered visitor queries with practiced delight, explaining she had preserved as much of the original wood and window forms as she could while trying to accent the rooms with selected antiques.
And yes, that is imported Italian marble tile on the kitchen floor matched so nicely in the next room by special Home Depot tile. "In house restoration you can't spend the big money on everything," explained Fadde, her smile underlined by a nearby display of scented candles.
A former two-family house built in 1867 on Garden Street offered more possibility than charm to Matt and Claudine Beachak when they first moved in nine years ago. "It was in bad shape, we did the renovation work ourselves, it's an expression of our vision, we're proud of it," said Matt who acknowledged the event was "a chance to show off our work."
With four boys in residence the house is kid-friendly and fun-loving with a large restored open kitchen and dining area. A wall of framed photos celebrates the growth of a family through the years while a framed collection of large insects in the bathroom reminded one of nature's constant intrusion. Downstairs continued to display the family's mischievous side as Santa Claus made a call in a real phone booth and genuine pinball machines flanked a wide-screen television.
The Ordway residence on Fair Street is suffused with history as the former home of Major General Gouverneur Kemble Warren of Civil War fame and his sister Emily Roebling who participated as an engineer in the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.
But for Wendy Ordway, who spent the first 18 years of her life in the house, the history is more intimate. Her great grandfather purchased the 1840 house from the Warrens and her mother, Hazel Ordway, spent her entire 91-year life in residence.
With a quiet wistfulness as she stood by the front door greeting guests Wendy acknowledged the house was for sale in the wake of her mother's passing. "She lived here her entire life and was able to die here, now its time to let it go," she said. With its dramatic high ceilings, gas-lit lamps and other original accouterments the house most authentically captures an earlier time in Village life.
Aside from the opened homes, much of the Village history was on display in places like St. Mary's Episcopal Church where singers from St. Christopher's Inn entertained and a new exhibit of historical documents was on display in the church hall.
The most effective candlelight presentation of the evening was the candelabrum that dominates the center of The Chapel of Our Lady Restoration, which sits on a hill overlooking the Hudson. All of its many candles were afire as organ music was played from the choir loft. Originally built in 1834 for the Catholic workers of West Point Foundry the chapel with its spare elegance is now home to a number of cultural events throughout the year.
As the evening wound down, the taverns, all of whom sponsored some part of the day's events, filled with travelers seeking respite and nourishment. At the Hudson House The Renovators, an aptly named band for the day's central event, played a set of folk/rock music, including an original tune entitled Main Street in Cold Spring, written by The Veltz Family of Cold Spring, which celebrated the quiet magic and discovery of new friends.
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