SET IN STONE
Iconic stone sculpture Opus 40 opens new season
For nearly 40 years, Harvey Fite labored on building Opus 40, a mammoth multi-story, multi-level stone sculpture built out of countless layers of bluestone at a former quarry.
More than 40 years after Fite’s death while working on the sculpture, Opus 40 remains a popular destination for tourists who tour the sculpture itself or even see concerts and other performances in a large corner of the sculpture known as the amphitheater.
Visitors can climb all over the sculpture made of stacked bluestones from top to bottom, walk through narrow passages at the bottom and stroll the grounds surrounding the sculpture. The site opened on May 10 and the season runs through the end of October.
Tad Richards, Fite’s stepson, still lives on one side of that home with his wife Pat Richards.
He recalled his stepfather as being dedicated and disciplined, but fun to be around.
Richards added he had no shortage of places to play as a kid.
Fite balanced working on the sculpture during the warmer months of the year with his professorship at Bard College and working in his studio on both and wood sculptures, Richards said.
Fite came to the Hudson Valley from Texas to go to Bard College, then known as St. Stephen’s College. Fite fell in love with the area and ended up living at the Maverick Art Colony.
Richards said Fite fell in love with a former quarry on a 12-acre plot off Glasco Turnpike in the town of Saugerties while he was teaching at Bard.
The quarries in the area boomed in the 19th century when bluestone was
in high demand for sidewalks in cities like New York City. But after cement superseded bluestone as the material of choice for sidewalks the quarries all closed.
“The quarry business had probably been abandoned for three decades or more,” Richards said.
Fite started working on the sculpture in 1938 and started building the home, where Richards has spent most of his life, in 1944.
“He married my mother and raised a family here,” Richards said.
According to Richards, Fite expected it to take 40 years to finish the sculpture.
“That’s why he called it Opus 40,” Richards said.
Richards said his stepfather’s inspiration for the sculpture included what he saw while working with an archaeological team to restore the Mayan civilization at Copan.
But nothing inspired him more than the stone itself, he added.
Fite never had formal stone-masonry training; instead, he just learned things as he went.
“There was no one to apprentice with,” Richards explained.
There was never a blueprint, and Fite was known to make changes like moving statues off the main sculpture and putting up a big monolith at the highest point of the sculpture.
Fite was still working on
it 37 years later when he was killed while working on the sculpture.
“He died doing what he loved,” Richards said.
Richards said among the things that weren’t finished were a large arch that would’ve went over a drive that led to the amphitheater area.
Richards said after his stepfather’s death he increased public access to the sculpture from just one open house per year to several Sundays and eventually being open to the public four days a week during the warmer months.
It soon became a popular spot to visit and for special events like concerts, including a nearly 25-year run where the pop group Orleans, known for hits such as “Still The One,” played
at the site each Labor Day weekend.
But in 2013 disaster struck when a 14-foot tall section of wall in one of the earliest sections of Opus 40 gave way during a severe storm.
The water built up behind the section already weakened by severe storms like Hurricane Irene that downed more than 100 trees on the property in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Richards said they always knew they were going to restore the section, and turned to some of the most brilliant stone masons in the business, including Sean Adcock of Wales, who first came the summer after the collapse.
Richards said the stone masons expressed doubt they could rebuild the wall completely vertical the way Fite did. Instead, they would have
to cant the wall out a bit.
“They talked and came to the conclusion it couldn’t be done that way,” Richards said.
But Richards would settle for nothing but an authentic restoration. And after a couple of weeks they figured it out.
“We’re going to do it your way,” they told Richards.
But it took a couple of more years to raise the tens of thousands of dollars it would take for the restoration though crowdfunding and a small grant.
Ultimately the restoration was completed by 2016.
Through the years the Richards’ have done their best to stick to Fite’s vision and bring in events that fit that vision that included concerts across all genres, especially jazz, where they’ve welcomed greats like Jimmy Cobb in 2018.
Richards said they brought in a new, more involved board of directors and for this season a new executive director in Caroline Crumpacker.
So far, the special events on this year’s calendar include a psychic fair on July 14 and a production of the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” on July 27, at 2 p.m. in the ampitheater.
For a full list of Opus 40 events visit https://www. opus40.org/
Opus 40 is open Thursdays through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. from May 10 through Oct. 31. Admission is $10, adults; $7, seniors; $3, children over 6; Free for children under six rates. Call (845) 681-9352 for group rates.