Out Windham Way

A Photographic Tour of Windham, Ashland, Prattsville, Maplecrest & Hensonville, 1890–1945

by Larry J. Tompkins

foreword by Lori Anander, Editor, Windham Journal

trade paper, 8 ½″ x 11″, 256 pages, 400 photographs, maps, drawings & ephemera

$29.95, isbn 9781883789756

Over 400 illustrations culled from the author's remarkable collection of historic Catskill Mountain photographs, maps, and ephemera document the visual record of the Greene County villages of Windham, Prattsville, Ashland, Big Hollow (Maplecrest), Hensonville, and their outlying settlements such as East Windham, Union Society, Red Falls, Brook Lynne, and North Settlement from the 1890s through the 1940s.

            Settled shortly after the Revolution, these Catskill mountaintop communities began as a scattering of subsistence farms and mill towns harvesting forest resources. In the early 1800s turnpikes brought commerce and travelers, and the seeds were sown for what would become one of the premier summer vacation venues in Upstate New York. That hospitality tradition continues today as the region has become a year-round vacation destination with one of New York’s largest and finest ski areas.

            Join Larry Tompkins in this photographic tour Out Windham Way and see this “Gem of the Catskills” as it was from the 1880s through the 1940s.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nearly forty years ago, Larry Tompkins, a seventh-generation resident of Greene County’s Catskill mountaintop community, began collecting antique photographs, postcards and ephemera—business cards, invoices, bills of sale, advertisements—of the northern Catskill Mountains. Over the years that collection grew to become one of the most remarkable records of community life to be found anywhere in the Catskill Mountain region. The 400 photographs, maps, and ephemera in this book are just a sample.

REVIEWS

“Tompkins’s collection of photos and postcards is truly amazing. Yet, it is the information he supplies with each one that makes it so much more than just a moment in time caught on camera. ... This book is the culmination of years of research, as well as Tompkins’s unflagging enthusiasm for the subject. This visual record of drover’s taverns, small family farms, boardinghouses and historic buildings is as entertaining as it is informative.” Lori Anander, Editor, Windham Journal

“A crowd pleaser for folks interested in Greene County’s past. … Literally a photographic labor of love. … There is a wealth of information in the book, and Tompkins has taken his well-known expertise and put it to the printed page for all to enjoy—and they will.” Jim Planck, Hudson Valley Newspapers