Don’t miss this mesmerizing Beacon exhibition
Beacon’s Main Street, 1982. Photo by Patrick Prosser. Courtesy of Beacon Historical Society.
“The entire place is shrouded in darkness, all the windows are boarded up, so you have to navigate with a flashlight, all focus and adjustment has to be made with this light. I feel like I am playing a part in a science fiction movie, and it is coming to the part where I get it!”
Excerpt from Patrick Prosser’s diary, describing his experience of shooting photography at the derelict Highland Hospital, Beacon. January 1982.
Work in Decay
More than 40 years ago, a young Beacon local named Patrick Prosser captured evocative, sometimes haunting images of his hometown for a college senior thesis entitled “Work in Decay.” This black and white photography exhibit was first shown at the College Art Gallery at SUNY New Paltz and at the Howland Cultural Center in 1982. Prosser’s gritty representation of Beacon offers insight into a time when the city’s storefronts and factories were boarded up and desolate, the Beacon Theater (now Beacon Movie Theater and Wonderbar, 445 Main Street) and hotels were empty, and a renaissance was impossible to imagine. Is a picture worth a thousand words? The answer is yes in the case of Patrick Prosser.
445 Main Street in 1982. Photo by Patrick Prosser. Courtesy of Beacon Historical Society.
Prosser (1958 to 2023) was born and raised in Beacon, and he graduated from Beacon High School in 1976. As a youngster, he was happiest roaming Mount Beacon, taking photographs, and hiking in the woods. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the State University of New Paltz where his focus was photography.
Following the tradition of American landscape photographers
According to the Beacon Historical Society, the young Prosser was inspired by several fine art documentary photographers famous for capturing the gritty American landscape at different periods throughout the 20th century. These photographers included George Tice, Chauncey Hare, Walker Evans, and Danny Lyons.
The exhibition has now returned to the Howland Cultural Center (477 Main Street) and is set against the backdrop of a very different Beacon—one that was just voted Best Neighborhood/City by Hudson Valley Magazine readers in its annual Best of Hudson Valley Awards. Prosser’s images at the Howland are juxtaposed with images from four contemporary local photographers, Michael S. Goldfarb, Pierce Johnston, Tony Cenicola, and William Loeb.
A generous donation
After Patrick Prosser passed away in 2023, his family generously donated his photographs to the Beacon Historical Society where they and the diary he wrote during the project are carefully catalogued and maintained. Prosser had been a member of the Society and had even provided a generous donation towards a central air conditioning unit when the organization desperately needed one.
Much of the decades-long transformation of Beacon, NY has been well-documented, but not all. A thriving factory town and popular resort in the first half of the 20th century, the city fell on hard times with the closure of its factories, Americans’ newfound preference for international travel, and the impact of urban renewal. Its turnaround began as early as the mid-1980s, thanks to a multitude of community efforts which ultimately led to the revival of the vibrant city we know and love today.
But in 1982, with parts of Main Street dangerous and unpredictable and the Highlands Hospital that had served Beacon for generations derelict, Prosser could never have envisaged the Beacon that exists today.
Denise VanBuren, President of the Beacon Historical Society shared, “We were so grateful when Patrick’s family contacted us about this unique and moving collection—it provides extraordinary insight into a chapter from our past that was not well documented.
“While it’s difficult to look at many of the images due to the state of decline, they remind that every era has its challenges. Our sense of community has never dimmed, even when times have been rough. That’s what makes Beacon Beacon!”
Beacon in the 1980s
Prosser’s sketches of his planned photo compositions. Courtesy of Beacon Historical Society.
The Beacon Beacon recently made a visit to the Beacon Historical Society (61 Leonard Street) because Prosser’s diary—written as he planned the Work in Decay photography series—had also been donated by his family along with boxes of his photographs. This fascinating accompaniment to the exhibition reveals some of Prosser’s process, including sketches he’d drawn depicting the final images he hoped to capture. The diary includes pages of Prosser’s handwritten notes and reveals his painstaking process for getting compelling, captivating results.
It’s hard not to get goosebumps looking at photographs of Main Street in the early 1980s, to see the empty Mount Beacon hotel and the storefronts now occupied by Carters Restaurant & Lounge (422 Main Street) and the Beacon mini-apartments; or a ramshackle TV store called Certified T.V. that features a pensive white dog guarding the door, which is where the Maria Lago Studio at 502 Main Street is now. Prosser paints a vivid picture of the time in his diary: “There was a white garbage dog (I say that because I met him while his head was buried in a trash can) and he was perched on a doorstep in front of Certified T.V. So, he posed very nicely, and I snapped a couple of shots. I moved up closer to the door and sign on it said, “beware of the dog” and he was in a very passive position that said he was not dangerous in the least, so I took another shot.”
The more you look at Prosser’s photographs, the more you see. Beacon barflies will get a kick out of a sign behind a bar that shouts, “NO TABS - NO LOANS – DON’T-EVEN-ASK.” According to our sources, the photo features bartender Joe Papo and Red Carmichael playing one handed pinochle.
See the full show at the Howland Cultural Center, which runs until July 21st, 2025.
The exhibition at the Howland Cultural Center runs until July 21st and is a must-see for anyone who lives in and loves Beacon, or is a history buff fascinated by the evolution of the Hudson Valley over the past 100 years. Plus, if your family’s lived in the city for more than 40 forty years, you might just recognize some familiar faces or names in Prosser’s photos.
The photos curated for this exhibition are just a sample of many more shot by Prosser during his project. We’d love to see a greater selection of them and excerpts from his diary published in a book so a broader audience can appreciate Prosser’s work. As our storied Hudson Valley cities, towns, and villages grow and evolve, and their architectural gems are restored or repurposed, capturing their imprint is more important than ever. In the words of planetary scientist, Carl Sagan, “You have to know the past to understand the present.”
For exhibition opening days and hours, see the Howland Cultural Center website and social media. To learn more about Beacon’s history, visit the Beacon Historical Society at 61 Leonard Street on Thursdays, 10 AM to 12 PM and Saturdays, 1 PM to 3 PM.
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Until next time…
The Beacon Beacon🧡