The image of the Lipgar Studio on the Home Page was taken on opening night in 1928 by A. H. Lipgar with an 8"x10" view camera. All the other old photos which appear as background images on the Selected Tours pages were also taken by A. H. Lipgar in the 1920's and '30's. As a young boy I worked with my father in the Studio. The background image of the World's Fair of 1939-40 is one I took.
My father's Studio at 268 Fair Street, in a building that was constructed in 1852, is still in use - located in Uptown Kingston opposite the Firemen's Museum. In the early 1940's we moved the Studio to a more modern building two doors down at 270 Fair Street, but this Studio burned in 1957. He lost 37 years of his photographic work - images of people, places and events in the Hudson Valley were destroyed. He rebuilt his darkrooms and studio on the second floor of another building across the street, but in less than two years he died at the age of 64. The images used as background on the Selected Tours pages are recovered from family albums kept at home out of harm's way.