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The Zadock Pratt Museum
Main Street (Route 23)
Prattsville, NY
12468
518-299-3395
The Zadock Pratt Museum, an Historic House Landmark, inconspicuously nestled on Main Street (Route 23) in the picturesque little village of Prattsville in western Greene County, was the home and operations center for one of the most benign industrial tycoons in American history. When Zadock Pratt arrived in the near-wilderness of Schoharie Kill (present-day Prattsville) in 1824, he announced to the scattering of settlers, "I come to live with you, not on you."
He kept his word. The little settlement grew and prospered, and entered a golden age. Beginning with his immense tanning operation initiated in 1825, Pratt went on a building and public works spree. He widened and expanded the road through town, and planted over 1000 trees along the new main street. His crews built over 100 houses which Pratt sold at affordable prices to his employees.
Since man cannot live on tanned hides alone, Pratt also built a saw mill, grist mill, cabinet shop, machine shop, hat factory, three woolen mills, a match factory, glove factory, oil cloth factory, iron foundry, chair factory, general stores. a printing plant (for the new town newspaper he founded), and a-covered bridge over the Schoharie Creek. He established the Prattsville bank and printed his own currency (with his own picture on it!) which was redeemed at the time in Wall Street banks at full face value.
Pratt Rock Park is on the National Register of Historic Places. The land was donated to the village as a pleasure park by Zadock Pratt in the early 1840s. In 1843, the first of many relief sculptures were carved in the gray sandstone cliffs above the park, a project that would continue for 30 years, eventually becoming a pictorial history of Zadock Pratt and Prattsville, and an early Civil War monument in commemoration of the death of Pratt's only son, Col. George Pratt, at the Second Battle of Manassas. There is also a small recessed chamber at path-level by the cliff, carved as a tomb for Zadock. That idea was abandoned, it is said, because the stonecutter found the task too difficult, and water leached into the chamber.
Incredibly enough, a recent architectural survey shows that 94% of the structures Pratt built, in and surrounding the little hamlet that bears his name, still stand in 1995"-over 160 years later! The exploits and accomplishments of this remarkable man have been chronicled in a recent book, Bare Trees: Zadock Pratt, Master Tanner A the Story of What Happened to the Catskill Mountain Forests, by Patricia E. Millen, former curator of the Zadock .Pratt Museum. Sponsored by the museum, and published by Black Dome Press in 1995. Bare Trees made its debut last summer at a special book premier and book signing during the village-wide celebration, "Old Prattsville Days."
The Pratt Museum Will Open Season With New Exhibits
The museum, housed in the beautifully-restored 1828 homestead of
the Honorable Colonel Zadock Pratt, one of the Catskills' most colorful and
legendary figures, is about to embark on its most ambitious season ever and
will be offering a host of FREE public events for the benefit of residents and
visitors to the region.
In addition, the Zadock Pratt Museum will be entering into its second year as host for a series of free lectures, workshops and walking tours. Following is a brief notice of planned events. For more information, contact museum curator Carolyn Bennett at 518-299-3395:
The Zadock Pratt Museum is located on Main Street (Rte.23), Prattsville, NY. From the east, take Route 23 west, off exit 21 of the NYS Thruway. From the west, take Route 23 east from Oneonta, off exit 15 of 1-88. Prattsville is 35 miles from Catskill, 40 miles from Oneonta. The museum is located in the center of town, next to the post office. For further information contact Curator/Director Carolyn Bennett at 518 299-3395.
The Zadock Pratt Museum and the above-listed events are made possible in part with public funds from the Greene County Legislature, the New York State Council on the Arts "CIP" Program (administered in Greene County by the Greene County Council on the Arts), the New York Council for the Humanities the National Endowment for the Humanities, and generous support from the O'Connor Foundation.
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