Open house for underground performances in Poughkeepsie
Inconspicuously located within the 97-acres of College Hill Park, the Poughkeepsie Cistern was initially constructed in 1923 to house the city’s municipal water supply. The underground cistern was built upon 187 unreinforced columns that rely solely on “the compressive forces of the soil above” to distribute the weight across structure, according to the MASS Design Group. While the cistern’s five million gallon capacity storage facility supplied the city for over a century, instead of continuously repairing the leaking structure, in 2017, the city reverted to two adjacent prefabricated tanks for water storage, and the cistern was drained and decommissioned in 2021.
This Saturday, May 9, 2026 from 1 to 8pm, the Poughkeepsie Cistern will reopen with a series of timed performances in the acoustically-unique space as part of a series of “test activations” presented by the City of Poughkeepsie in coordination with the MASS Design Group, a global non-profit design collective focused on creating social impact through the built environment.
The MASS Design Group has previously worked regionally on projects including the Hudson Valley Farm Hub in Hurley, the revitalization of the Trolley Barn in Poughkeepsie, and the Scenic Hudson’s Northside Hub, a now-carbon-neutral headquarters in a converted manufacturing factory.
The space maintains a stable, 64-degree temperature year round, according to the group, and if you clap your hands, the cistern’s vaulted ceilings and scalloped floors cause the sound to reverberate for up to fourteen seconds.
“I’ve never sung in a space with this long of an echo,” says soprano Emma Grimsley, a MET opera singer who experimented performing in the space in September of 2022.
No reservations are necessary for the May 9 open house, but since the space can only host 40 visitors at a time, entry will be on a rolling basis with scheduled performances every hour, on the hour. In between performances, guests can sign-up for an open mic slot to “play the Cistern.” (Please note the site is currently not ADA accessible.) For more information, visit https://www.poughkeepsiecistern.com/openhouse
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