We know of two mercantile stores in Woodstock at the turn of the 20th century. ID Rose and Layman’s. There was also an Ice Cream Parlor run by Nellie Jane Mower. They were all ready to welcome the artists. Once Byrdcliffe was built, and the Art Students League opened its summer school down the road a piece on route 212, Nellie and her parents kept their ice cream store open on Saturday nights when the Art Student League held dances. Catherine would serve home made oyster stew. Noah and his son Walter had developed a fruit and vegetable route, traveling thru the Mink Hollow notch to the summer houses in Tannersville and Elk Park. They were awarded the exclusive rights to deliver fresh food to the Byrdcliffe Art and Craft Colony.
As so eloquently put by Hervey White’s observations:
Due to economic hard times, not everyone stayed in Woodstock. The youngest sister of Walter and Nellie Mower moved to Rhinebeck at some point and the 1900 census shows that she is working and living as a waitress in a hotel run by Vernon and Sara Lake. ( She may have represented just one two many mouths to feed for the family – Walter has a growing family ) There, Addie as she is referred to met her future husband Patsy Sullivan who was working as a coachman and living in Rhinebeck with his parents and seven siblings.
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