823 Signatures and Counting..


Your support for a new public venue or store at 7 Garrison's Landing (the building formerly known as "Guinan's") is overwhelming. As of this writing, there are 823 signatures to the online petition with page after page of heartfelt, eloquent comments accompanying them.

Thank you. And thank you again. I'll keep everyone updated here -- as live as I can -- on the outcome of tomorrow morning's board meeting at 10 a.m. at the Desmond-Fish Library.

There have also been many people who have emailed their stories and reasons for support. Here is one:

My visits to Guinan's were primarily as a commuter getting coffee and a paper before jumping on the train for the last 15 years. That may not sound like a big deal, but when it comes with a friendly neighbor behind the counter sharing 15 seconds of the latest news, a joke or a commiseration about the weather or whatever, it is a big positive deal. You can understand why I, like most of the people who take that train everyday, felt Garrison had to be the best train station in the world to start a hard days' work. I regret now that I did not get to the store as often as I would have liked for a beer after work or an ice-cream with the kids on a weekend afternoon - but the times I was able to do that really make me appreciate what we had in the store.

The long lines at John Guinan's wake attest to how greatly he is missed by so many people in every corner of the Philipstown community. The Guinan family developed and nurtured a wonderfully diverse community at the Garrison landing. In my mind it would be rubbing salt in the wound which Philipstown suffered in John's untimely death if the Guinan's store were simply written off.

Garrison is a unique and beautiful place to live for many reasons. In my experience, the quirky, unassuming, friendly, out of the way store at the landing was cited as one of those reasons as often as the beautiful woodlands, views of the Hudson and amazing cultural institutions like the GAC, the Desmond Fish Library and Boscobel. And that was even before Wendy Bounds' book spread the news of Garrison's secret treasure world wide.

The value of a meeting place/general store/pub like Guinans to Garrison cannot be understated. We are only pretending to have country charm if we don't have a country store like that. I think your efforts to take on running that store, where so many people have had such great memories, will be quite a challenge, but everyone I have spoken with in Philipstown supports you. For the sake of everyone in Philipstown: Good luck!!

Paul Mackey

Top photo by Clemson Smith Muñiz. Second photo by Kelly Guinan. All Rights Reserved.

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