Bardavon Opera House and Ulster Performing Arts Center (UPAC)

35 Market Street
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
845-473-5288

The oldest continuously operating proscenium theater in New York State and among the oldest in the nation, the Bardavon 1869 Opera House has flourished as a performance hall, movie palace and community gathering place for 139 years. When in 1975 the theater’s Poughkeepsie, NY community rallied to save the historic building from demolition, they also saved a cultural anchor that decades later would play a vital role in the revival of a key city and region of New York State. Today, the Bardavon continues as a leading venue, cultural center and place of entertainment of the mid-Hudson Valley. In recent years, the Bardavon has also met the challenge of halting the decline and securing the survival of two important arts organization partners. In 1999, the bankrupt Hudson Valley Philharmonic was acquired, and September 2007 marked the merger that brought the Ulster Performing Arts Center (UPAC) in Kingston, NY into the Bardavon as a subsidiary. Like the Bardavon, in the 1970s UPAC’s vintage Broadway Theater was rescued from demolition by a group of concerned local citizens, placed on the National Register of Historic Places and restored to full operation as a major regional venue.