Freddie Matara Leather: A Church of Our Own

Leathercraft artist Freddie Matara, best known for his stunning leather cuff bracelets and his leather watch bands, wanted something a little different when he went looking for a new living and working space about two years ago. The former frontman for the rock band Birthday had become an established artist in Brooklyn during the new millennium, but after years of thriving in the excitement that pulses through the city, he wanted to slow it down a bit and focus on his art.

Freddie and his lovely wife Rebecca found what they didn’t know they were looking for in the slightly upstate town of Patterson, New York, a burg of 12,000 souls on the Connecticut border. “We’d looked at about 50 places,” Freddie says, “but there was always something one of us didn’t like. When we found this, we both just knew.” The couple now lives in a former church. Built in 1875, the venerable building served