Catskill House & Studio

In 1988, at the age of 62, David Byrd retired from the VA Hospital in Montrose, NY. He purchased 11 acres in Sidney Center, NY, a small hamlet in the Catskills, and began building a home. He created detailed blueprints and a number of drawings of both the exterior and interior of the home. For four years, he lived in a hunter’s shack while building the stone foundation. As an avid scavenger, he salvaged most of the lumber and architectural details from abandoned structures. The furnishings, mainly American primitives, were bought at local auctions. The home sits in a peaceful spot, far back from the road, with a variety of found object sculptures randomly placed around the yard. Building the home was both a labor of love and an act of desperation and worry for Byrd due to harsh weather, time, and money. Ultimately, it was, as Byrd said, a place to paint and finally be free.

David Byrd quotes from letters about the house.

“There is a good stream that crosses the property that the beavers have been busy damming a ways down. Making ponds on both sides of me. I don't see them though. I see quite a few mountain ash in this country and I discovered a young one on my place so I've been cutting down anything around it. Hope it spreads its' limbs now. There is a place here about halfway up, just above where I plan the house that would make a very pleasant, private, poetic spot. One might walk around it looking near and far, enjoy some sculpture, water, stone and escape into ones own experiments.”
Letter 130: David Byrd writes to Aunt Emily Thomas, undated.

“Lately everything is eating and sleeping, work and weather and going to the store. The days are going too fast and the work too slow. I am living the simplest of lives. My adventures are with stone. No two alike. I spend more time than I should standing and looking.”
Letter 137: David Byrd to Aunt Emily Thomas, July 3, 1988.

“What a summer. Building the house in a lot of heat. I'm seeing rocks in my soup I'm so preoccupied with them. It feels like I'm building the pyramids. It goes on forever. The weather is the chief concern… There are many times when I wish I had rented an apartment up here instead and concentrated with intensity that way. I have too much invested to get out now.”
Letter 139: David Byrd to Aunt Emily Thomas, August 14, 1988.

“There were old car wheels or rims lying around so I took and stacked them into a column. They are rusty and make a good yard sculpture… Too much about the weather but I watch it all the time and hope it only rains at night. The war with the house I am building goes on.”
Letter 142: David Byrd to Aunt Emily Thomas, undated.