Once home to epic nights filled with music, partying and performances by famous musicians like Gregg Allman, Joey Ramone and Dave Matthews, the building at 59 Tinker St. in Woodstock that used to house the Tinker Street Cafe has undergone a dramatic transformation.
Bearsville Center owner Lizzie Vann has purchased the building from the Center for Photography at Woodstock for nearly $1 million. And Woodstock artist Mike DuBois has relocated his shop and gallery, Happylife Productions, into the space. The two are now preserving the spirit of Woodstock even as the town, like much of the Hudson Valley, undergoes change.
The Tinker Street building previously housed the Center for Photography at Woodstock, which was the Tinker Street Cafe’s landlord. Prior to the photography center, it was home to the Café Espresso and Bob Dylan, who lived upstairs.
According to the website for the now-Kingston-based Center for Photography at Woodstock, Dylan for a while in 1964 lived on the second floor of the Café Espresso and wrote the songs “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” there.
Preserving history, but don’t call it a throwback
Mike DuBois, left, and Jerry Mitnick of Saugerties with the original sign for the old Tinker Street Cafe in Woodstock.
John W. BarryNow, inside the new location of Happylife Productions, which opened March 1, you can find artwork by a range of artists, including DuBois, and merchandise emblazoned with his artwork. DuBois over decades has created art for official merchandise sold by the Grateful Dead, Santana, the Allman Brothers Band, Levon Helm and other notable names.
Renovations on the building continue on the first floor in advance of a new café coming in April that will be run by Judy Steele and Cody Riston of Rock Da Casbah in Saugerties. Work also continues upstairs, although what will unfold there has yet to be decided. And plans by DuBois to host live music on the front deck will involve Jerry Mitnick, who used to run the old Tinker Street Cafe.
The site will also offer Vann’s Bearsville Center — home to the Bearsville Theater, Bear Cantina and soon The Bear in the former Little Bear Chinese restaurant — increased exposure in downtown Woodstock, with merchandise and concert tickets for sale.
With this latest incarnation of 59 Tinker Street, Vann and DuBois are summoning the spirit of the Tinker Street Cafe and Café Espresso and, in the face of ongoing change accelerated by the pandemic, the spirit of Woodstock.
“That was the whole idea,” said DuBois, who grew up in Syracuse and graduated from SUNY New Paltz. “My part is, what I can do with this space, to evoke the friendly, welcoming, open spirit of what has been and what can be. I don’t want to be a throwback to anything. I want to be a continuation of the unbridled creative spirit and positive vibrations of Woodstock.”
Woodstock since the onset of the global health crisis, like much of the region, has seen an influx of New York City residents, an increase in home sales and a surge in real estate prices, said Town of Woodstock Supervisor Bill McKenna.
McKenna noted that Woodstock saw a population increase of nearly 10 percent from 2010 to 2020, as recorded by the census. And after the pandemic tightened its grip two years ago, folks who owned second homes were staying in town on a more regular basis. McKenna said the number of people in Woodstock on a weekend can double with second homeowners in town, a stark change, he said, from when he moved to Woodstock in the late 1980s, and fewer people had vacation homes there.
Vann on the second floor of the building, standing in the spot where Bob Dylan lived in the 1960s when it was the Café Espresso.
John W. BarryHe gives the late Levon Helm a lot of credit for keeping live music going in town with the launch of his Midnight Ramble house concerts nearly two decades ago. Levon Helm Studios, the Colony Woodstock, Pearl Moon and Bearsville Theater continue to keep live music going these days.
Asked about the potential for Happylife Productions and its new location to channel the community’s roots in music and art, McKenna said, “Absolutely. It's bringing back a piece of history.”
Tim Sutton of Highland, a musician who grew up in Woodstock, knows plenty about the creativity that unfolded at 59 Tinker St.
Sutton’s grandfather, artist Anton Refregier, originally came to town to live at the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, and he later welcomed Dylan and Joan Baez to his Woodstock home for visits. Sutton said his mother once sold Dylan a horse. And as a kid, Sutton would accompany his mother to the Tinker Street Cafe to see live music. Later, he played there himself, and saw acts like Living Colour and a member of Ozzy Osbourne’s band perform.
“There was something about the Tinker Street that felt special,” he said. “It had something that made it feel incredible.”
“I don’t want to be a throwback to anything,” said Happylife's Mike DuBois. “I want to be a continuation of the unbridled creative spirit and positive vibrations of Woodstock.”
John W. BarryThe Tinker Street Cafe, Sutton said, “made Woodstock feel like a town. Even as young kids, if you couldn’t get in, you could hang out on the sidewalk and just vibe out, listen to the bands. There were always people on the porch, hanging out. That was when everything was flowing —when Woodstock worked.”
These days, Sutton said, “Woodstock has to claim some of its vibe back.”
Vann bought the Bearsville Theater complex, sight unseen, for $2.5 million in August 2019, spent millions on an overhaul and renamed the destination Bearsville Center. She enlisted DuBois to paint portraits of musicians, with ties to the complex, inside the theater. And the two forged a working relationship that became stronger when 59 Tinker St. came up for sale, she bought it and DuBois moved his business there.
The fact that Dylan lived in the building was a big selling point for Vann. “I wanted to preserve this amazing part of Woodstock,” she said of the Tinker Street Cafe building, while standing on the second floor, where the room that Dylan lodged in once was. “I wanted to preserve it, and celebrate it. I don’t want history to be lost.”
Hudson Valley Art, Music and Culture
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