Wednesday, January 30, 2013

What We Lost: An Exciting Discovery

Some mornings just start out better than others. This morning began with the discovery, in my inbox, of these two amazing images, sent to me by a reader, showing the buildings that once stood on the west side of South Front Street. I think they are drawings, but the person who sent them says they are photographs. Either way, this is the first pictorial documentation that I have ever seen of these buildings, all of which were demolished during Urban Renewal. Beneath each image, I have quoted the descriptions of the buildings from the 1970 National Register application for the Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District

(NOTE: Pennoyer Street was the continuation west of Front Street of Union Street; Fleet Street was the continuation of Partition Street.)  


SOUTH FRONT STREET West Side
(Between Warren and Pennoyer Streets)

1  Three-story brick structure, gabled and semi-hip roof, five bays wide on West Warren Street, three bays wide on Front Street, flemish bond brickwork, brick flat arches, fan windows in gable.

This structure was built in the late 1780's or early 1790's and used as a store by Marshall Jenkins, who was one of the original proprietors.

3  Three-story brick dwelling and store, three bays wide, gabled roof, stone lintels, flemish bond brickwork.

5  Three-story wood dwelling four bays wide, gabled roof, remodeled first floor. 

7  Three-story brick dwelling and store, three bays wide, flat roof, flemish bond brickwork, stone trim, original arched doorway trim intact, modern storefront.

9  Three-story frame dwelling, three bays wide, gabled roof, bracketed cornice, remodeled first story, modern asbestos siding.

(Between Pennoyer and Fleet Streets)

27  Three and one-half story brick dwelling, five bays wide, gabled roof, bracketed cornice, flemish bond brickwork, splayed stone lintels, central arched doorway with original stone trim, fan windows in gable. 

29  Three and one-half story brick dwelling and store, three bays wide, gabled roof, two dormers, splayed stone lintels, flemish bond brickwork, remodeled first story.

31  Three-story brick dwelling and store, two bays wide, gabled and flat roofs, common bond brickwork, remodeled first floor store front.

33  Two and one-half story brick dwelling and store, four bays wide, gabled roof, common bond brickwork, brick flat arches, first floor bracketed store front.

35  Three-story brick commercial and residential block, three bays wide on Front Street, seven bays wide on Fleet Street, flat roof, common bond brickwork, bracketed and paneled cornice, first floor store front.   

6 comments:

  1. The South Front St. visuals are actually pics of copies of pictures.
    Hats off to Joan Lezette & her many Hudson briefs located on facebook "your probably from Hudson...."

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  2. Bravo! And I'm not much of a car person, but by the looks of the autos in these pics, they had to have been taken not too many years before the buildings were demolished. Carole, I didn't go to the site -- no time! -- but wouldn't there have been pics as part of the National Register application?

    -peter m.

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    1. Peter--In response to your last comment, I requested and received from Bill Krattinger at SHPO a few years ago all the documentation from the 1970 National Register nomination. There were no pictures in the state files, and there are no pictures online at the National Register website. You're correct in believing that they must have existed at one time, but where they are now, I do not know.

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  3. Wow ,this is so great to see .I rented at 30 South Front Street for a year and 4 months and had the whole building,cause there was only one apt, finished. I had a broken leg and spent most of time studying Hudson and it's founders and first citizen's histories.I used to look out the window and daydream what it must of looked like across the street before they tore it all down. Why this is so wonderful to see.I decided to stay here and bought a little house built by an original Nantucket family.
    Thank you for sending these to Gossips.

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  4. What a great find! Many thanks to the people who provided them.

    Even though they are copies of photos, I wonder whether it's possible to get better, darker scans at a much higher resolution, say 300 dpi?

    There may be more details available in these incredibly rare images, and this may be our one chance to secure them.

    Again, thank you.

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  5. What grand structures dating to the days of the Promenade they bordered... and demolition continues here as "the cure."

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