A Documentary of Interest

The Catskill Game Farm, which closed in 2006 after 73 years of operation, is the subject of a new documentary, American Zoo.  

The British filmmaker Tim Travers Hawkins, who directed American Zoo, had this to say about the film on Instagram.

Four years ago me and my girlfriend (now mother of my son!) explored the ruins of an abandoned zoo on a camping trip in the Catskills. Inside the old gift shop I found some old 16mm films, which set in motion one of the strangest and most beautiful adventures of my life. The final result, my latest feature AMERICAN ZOO will premiere first at Tribeca Film Festival (June 4) and then days later at SXSW in London (June 6). Two awesome festivals in the two best cities on Earth.

The film is reviewed today in the Times Union: "'American Zoo' reveals Nazi-linked animal breeding program at Catskill Game Farm." It was previously reviewed in The Overlook: "New Documentary Unearths Dark Side of Catskill Game Farm."

The trailer for the documentary can be viewed on YouTube. According to Netflix Junkie, which described the film as a "true crime horror story," "Industry viewers expect the film to land a streaming or digital deal after its festival run, as interest in the project continues to build."

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Another One Lost

At last evening's Code and Infrastructure Committee meeting, Rob Perry, superintendent of Public Works, reported that Shack 7 at the former Furgary Boat Club had slipped into North Bay.

Perry went on to explain that Shack 7 was one of the buildings scheduled to be razed last year, but the demolition of that building alone was expected to cost $50,000, exceeding the amount available for the project, so, with the consent of the Department of State, it was decided to let nature take its course.

In the map above, the shacks in red were demolished in 2024, the shacks in white were demolished in 2025 (except for Shack 7), the shacks in yellow are to be rehabilitated; the shack in blue is to be mothballed.

Last year, when the majority of the shacks were demolished, Shack 7 had already started slipping into the water. The picture below was taken on April 14, 2025, just before the demolition of the shacks began.

Photo: Theresa Nicholson

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Parades in Hudson Without The Hudson

For as long as most of us can remember, there hasn't been a parade in Hudson that did not include The Hudson, the replica of the first ship built in Hudson. The original Hudson was completed in 1785, the same year the City of Hudson was incorporated. The replica Hudson, a parade float, was built in 1985 by the Department of Public Works (DPW) for the City's bicentennial celebration. It seems, however, that parades in Hudson will have to do without the replica ship in this year of the nation's semiquincentennial.

Last month, Gossips reported that vandals had broken into the Dunn warehouse where the replica ship was stored and snapped off the dolphins that adorn its base.

At this evening's Common Council Code and Infrastructure Committee meeting, Rob Perry, DPW superintendent, reported that when the replica ship was removed from storage recently, in preparation for repairing the broken dolphins and getting The Hudson shipshape for parade season, it was discovered the float was unstable and listing to one side. Further investigation identified a problem with the frame, which was likely not caused by vandalism but rather was simply a consequence of time. Perry explained that the replica ship had been built on an old farm wagon donated for the purpose back in 1985. Perry indicated that The Hudson would be back but not in time for this year's parade season.

The replica ship typically carries members of the Common Council in the Flag Day parade. It is unclear what conveyance, if any, will carry the Council down Warren Street to the reviewing stand at Front Street in the Flag Day parade this Saturday.

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Prepare for the Weekend

Flag Day, the event that disrupts the lives of Hudsonians more than any other, is coming up this weekend. The routine of road closures, temporarily designated one-way streets, and no on-street parking has been pretty much the same for the past twenty or more years, but just in case you don't know the drill, below is the information distributed by the Hudson Police Department to help you plan your Saturday and avoid having your car towed. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

June is parade month in Hudson, and the week ahead culminates in the Flag Day parade and fireworks extravaganza. But before all that happens, here's what else is going on.

• On Monday, June 8, the Common Council Code and Infrastructure Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here to join the meeting remotely. 
• On Tuesday, June 9, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., there is a workshop session about the facade improvements for 11 Warren Street. The meeting will include a brief presentation by the project team, followed by an opportunity to provide input on three proposed exterior renovation options for the building and take a community survey. The meeting takes place in person only at 401 State Street.

• Also on Tuesday, June 9, the Planning Board meets at 6:00 p.m. In the agenda for the meeting is the adaptive reuse proposal for the former John L. Edwards school building. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and in Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely. 

• At 6:30 on Tuesday, June 9, Mayor Joe Ferris holds a town hall meeting for the Fifth Ward at the Central Fire Station, 77 North Seventh Street. The meeting is expected to go on until 8:00 p.m.
• On Wednesday, June 10, the Housing Trust Fund Board meets at 5:30 p.m.  This will be the first meeting since new members--Tray Tepper, Kelly Crimmins, and Serria McGriff--have joined the board. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.
• Also at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10, Mayor Joe Ferris holds a town hall meeting for the Second Ward at Bliss Towers, 41 North Second Street. The meeting is expected to do on until 7:00 p.m.
• On Thursday, June 11, the Common Council Legal Committee meets at 6:00 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here to join the meeting remotely.  
• On Friday, June 12, the Historic Preservation Commission meets at 10:00 a.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.
• On Saturday, June 13, Flag Day in observed in Hudson. The parade down Warren Street begins at 4:00 p.m. Fireworks start at dusk.

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Celebrating Church's 200th Birthday

As we in Hudson are all well aware, this year marks the 200th anniversary of Frederic Church's birth. The epicenter of the celebration, of course, is Olana, Church's home and his final masterpiece, but the observance of Church's bicentennial is taking place in other locations as well. You can explore all the events and exhibitions, happening at Olana and elsewhere, by clicking here.

It came to Gossips' attention recently that one of the museum's celebrating Church's bicentennial is the Detroit Institute of Arts. 

To mark the 200th anniversary of Frederic Church's birth, the Detroit Institute of Arts presents Guests of Honor: Frederic Church's Cotopaxi, an exhibition highlighting the artist's dramatic 1862 painting of an erupting South American volcano. One of the DIA's most beloved American paintings, Cotopaxi appears together with three of Church's oil studies of the volcano and a related landscape by his contemporary, Louis Remy Mignot.

Cotopaxi is one of two Frederic Church paintings in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The other is Syria by the Sea, the painting whose completion for James Frederick Joy of Detroit was reported in the Hudson Weekly Star on January 1, 1874. 

Syria by the Sea was given to the Detroit Institute of Arts by Joy's widow in 1910.

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Food News

Brian Mahoney reviews one of Hudson's newest restaurants in Chronogram: "Mr. Cat Brasserie Reimagines Kitty's in Hudson." The following is quoted from the review:

On a recent evening, the dining room hummed with the kind of energy restaurateurs spend years trying to manufacture. During the course of dinner, I spotted artists, musicians, writers, and assorted members of Hudson's cultural ecosystem. Some lingered at the bar, others clustered around tables. The atmosphere felt lively but never scene-y, stylish but never self-conscious. People seemed genuinely happy to be there.

More of the Semiquincentennial Exhibition

Patriots of Hudson in the Revolutionary War, the exhibition commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country, continues at the Hudson Area Library until the end of the month. In the meantime, Gossips will continue to share samples from the exhibition. Today, we share the panels that tell about Alexander Coffin, Jr., the son of one of the founders of Hudson, and the artist John Trumbull. (Click on the images to enlarge. The main text of each panel is transcribed below the image.)

Alexander Coffin, Jr.

In His Father's Footsteps: A Life of Adventure,

Heroism, and Patriotism

In 1781 Alexander Coffin, Jr., began serving as a midshipman on an American Navy frigate, the South Carolina, which captured several British ships while sailing to Havana. He was captured by the British in 1782 and was held on the notorious prison ship Jersey in Wallabout Bay, Brooklyn. Conditions on prison ships were horrendous and death from starvation and disease so common that General George Washington wrote letters to British commanders imploring them to afford the prisoners better treatment. Coffin described the horrid conditions in a narrative published in American Prisoners of The Revolution by Danske Dandridge:

When I reflect how many hundreds of my brave and intrepid countrymen I have seen, in all the bloom of health, brought on board of that ship, and in a few days numbered with the dead, in consequence of the savage treatment they there received, I can but adore my Creator that He suffered me to escape; but I did not escape, Sir, without being brought to the very verge of the grave.

When Coffin and the other men on board were given a choice of being released and serving in the British Army or staying prisoner, they stayed on the prison ship. Coffin writes:

And I must mention...to the everlasting honor of those unfortunate Americans who were on board the Jersey, that notwithstanding the savage treatment they received, and death staring them in the face, every attempt which was made by the British to persuade them to enter their ships of war or in their army, was treated with the utmost contempt...and if there be no monument raised with hands to commemorate the virtue of those men, it is stamped in capitals on the heart of every American acquainted with their merit and sufferings, and will there remain as long as the blood flows from its fountains.

After the war Alexander, Jr., continued in maritime trade and, quite unfortunately, was again captured while on a merchant ship during the War of 1812. After the war, he worked as a whaling master on several voyages; out of New Bedford, 1820 and 1822, and then three voyages out of Hudson, 1832-1836 (on the Meteor, the James Munroe, and the Edward). 

 

Letters to James Madison

In 1805, Alexander Coffin, Jr., wrote four letters to then Secretary of State James Madison to protest the seizure and condemnation of his ship Penman by British naval authorities during a lawful commercial voyage. In these letters he details a complex trading journey that began in New York in 1803, carrying legally imported tea and European goods, with the ultimate intention of trading in Asia and returning profitably to the United States. He asserts that the seizure was arbitrary, unlawful, and damaging not only to himself and his co-owners but also to the U.S. government, which lost substantial customs revenue of $73,000. Coffin appeals to Madison for diplomatic support. The Department of State returns the papers concerning the ship Penman as requested, however explains that providing financial assistance to support an appeal would violate established executive practice.

After the War of 1812, Coffin again writes the President Madison requesting an appointment as U.S. Marshal for the District of New York. He is in urgent financial need, with a wife and seven children to support. Coffin recounts the earlier British seizure and condemnation of his ship Penman and the severe personal losses he suffered under British actions. However, he does not refer directly to his time as a prisoner of war on the ship Jersey. He professes he would "be serviceable to my beloved Country, which I had the honour of serving as an officer in the Revolutionary war & to which, & the present Government of which I am & have been devotedly attach'd."

John Trumbull (June 6, 1756--November 10, 1843) was a veteran of the American Revolution, who later became an artist. His historical renderings of the American Revolutionary War are displayed in the Rotunda of the U. S. Capitol. Trumbull served in Boston and witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was appointed second aide-de-camp to George Washington, and in June 1776, deputy adjutant general to General Horatio Gates.

Trumbull was a prominent New Englander who was well-connected to the Founding Fathers and other Revolutionary War veterans. Trumbull knew Alexander Coffin, Jr., as a Midshipman on the frigate South Carolina, the largest warship under American command during the war. In 1832, Trumbull signed and testified in Coffin’s pension application to Congress, a common practice for veterans to receive pensions due to the lack of record keeping in the colonies at the time of the American Revolution.

Panels from the exhibition previously published on Gossips can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

Tennis v. Pickleball

Last month. at the school district election and budget vote, there was an exit poll to solicit public opinion on whether or not the historic tennis courts at Montgomery C. Smith should be striped for pickleball. When the results of the election were shared, the outcome of the exit poll was not. The only information offered in response to an inquiry was that the Board of Education would be discussing the data from the election at its June 16 meeting.

This morning, Gossips received an email from former mayor's aide Justin Weaver, an avid and accomplished tennis player who regularly plays at the M.C. Smith courts. With Weaver's permission, that email is quoted below:

I was out playing tennis on those very courts at Montgomery C. Smith School yesterday, and the contractors who will be performing the renovation showed up, alongside of the Hudson City School District facilities crew. They were carrying plans and clipboards and going from court to court, taking notes. I asked them if the courts were going to remain tennis courts, and they told me two of the courts will also be suited for pickleball. I found out later . . . that the two courts that will become suited for pickleball are the two courts closest to the bleachers. Surprising that this is happening without any known disclosure to the public about the results of the survey voters filled out on the day of the budget vote. I'm thinking that the survey was just something to ameliorate the masses and this was the plan all along. I also find it surprising that the two courts that will become suited for pickleball are considered the show courts as they are closest to the bleachers. Whenever there was a tournament there, the bleachers would be filled with spectators watching the matches. The best matches were featured on those two courts and usually had the best players playing on those two courts. Apparently now, spectators can bask in the glory of pickleball players. Alas, change is inevitable. Tennis players will now be fighting for the tennis court furthest away from those pickleball courts and closest to Paddock Place or, like myself, will be searching for a new place to play tennis.

Tournaments may not be a consideration in the future. I seem to recall Ken Sheffer, whose knowledge of all things tennis and of the history of these tennis courts is boundless, saying that sanctioned tournaments cannot be played on tennis courts that have been striped for pickleball.

I do wonder if the public will ever learn the results of that exit poll.

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"You Don't Know What You Got 'Til It's Gone"

Since 2004, the artist Nancy Shaver has operated an antiques shop at 348 Warren Street called Henry. 

At Henry you could find an ever-evolving collection of art, textiles, antiques, and objects rescued from flea markets and yard sales.

But, alas, after twenty-two years, Henry is closing next month. Nora Peck provided this statement about the closing of Henry.

When loyal visitors are told that Henry is closing, their expressions move rapidly through the four stages of grief. At a time when shops in Hudson suddenly appear and just as suddenly disappear, Henry, whose owner is the artist Nancy Shaver, has offered the comfort of continuity for locals and visitors alike. That it will not be here in the future is hard to accept. 

Henry opened in 2004, but Nancy was already part of the vintage and antiques community in the area. She had begun selling at local flea markets and then, with two partners, opened a shop on Warren Street. Finally, the desire to use her unique artistic eye in the retail space led to the founding of her own shop just a few blocks away. 

Nancy's goods have always been arranged and displayed in a way that enables disparate objects to live in unexpected harmony, inspiring customers--some who became Henry "loyals"--to reimagine their own decor. 

Shopping at Henry has been a delightful process of discovery and a voyage through unusual textiles, quits, and rugs, vintage signs, housewares, toys, paintings and furniture, and more. Looking around the house I’ve owned for twenty-two years, I can spot a Henry purchase in every corner. My favorite is a 1950s light fixture that resembles a space ship and floods the room with yellow and orange light. The shop will be sorely missed when it closes its doors on July 16.

Henry is closing on July 16. There are just six weeks left to find and acquire a special object at Henry--or several--to grace your home.

Happening Today

As part of the celebration of Frederic Church's 200th birthday, Hudson Hall is hosting the premiere screening of Language in Landscape: The Art of Frederic Church, a short documentary by The Olana Partnership and WMHT Public Media. 

Featuring rare archival materials and interviews with leading experts, the film explores Church's iconic paintings and his enduring influence on how we understand art, nature, and landscape. A post-screening conversation follows with Sean Sawyer, Elizabeth Kornhauser, and Victoria Johnson, moderated by director Catherine Rafferty.

The event takes places at 6:30 p.m. today, Thursday, June 4, at Hudson Hall. There may still be tickets available. To secure one, click here,

"Thriving Cities Have Safe Streets"

Today, Hudson Common Sense published a guest op-ed by Brent Krueger, who lives on Warren Street: "Hudson Knows the Problem. Now What About Pedestrian Safety?" It is recommended reading.

Some History of a House

Yesterday, Gossips was alerted to something happening at South Fifth and Partition streets. The siding was being removed from 35 South Fifth Street. 

Because the house is located in a historic district, and because the project had not come before the Historic Preservation Commission for a certificate of appropriateness, I alerted Nick Fox, our code enforcement officer, who promptly went to the site to check things out. As it happens, the project is a like-for-like replacement, which does not require a certificate of appropriateness, although it is not clear why what appears to be perfectly good old growth wood siding needs to be replaced.

The attention to this house reminded me that in 2018 Gossips published two posts about it: "Time and Again" and "Footnote to 'Time and Again.'" Those posts were inspired by the discovery of this image of the house that appeared on the back cover of the city directory for 1918.

For those who don't have the time to read the old posts, I'll summarize the information they contain. The house at 35 South Fifth Street was built in 1888 by Edmund Denegar, who was a prominent building contractor in Hudson at that time. Denegar built the house for his own family. The brownstone foundation of the house was laid by John F. X. Brennan, the son of Irish immigrants who became a very successful stone mason and bricklayer. We know that Brennan laid the foundation from an item that appeared in the Hudson Evening Register in October 1888. It seems Denegar and Brennan often collaborated on the construction of houses in Hudson. Brennan's own house, which he built in 1894-1895, stands at 39 West Court Street, and it is likely that Denegar was involved in the construction of that house, too.

39 West Court Street

The collaboration of Denegar and Brennan in their construction is not the only thing that connects the two houses. Most people in Hudson know that 39 West Court Street was for many years the home of the late renowned poet John Ashbery and his partner, David Kermani. What may not be known is that Ashbery and Kermani once owned 35 South Fifth Street and rescued it from the spectre of imminent demolition. In 2018, Kermani shared with Gossips this information about 35 South Fifth Street:

In the mid-1980s, John Ashbery and I, along with Lydia Littlefield, operating as the St. Winifred Alliance, purchased and restored that house because we loved it, and it was in such a dangerous state of disrepair that we were afraid it would be condemned and torn down. (Those were the days when city officials would ask at public meetings if anybody had anything they wanted taken down, "because I've got a bulldozer next Tuesday.") The Preservation Tax Credits were a relatively new thing then, so that is how we justified our seemingly rash activity of restoring to high standards and then running a rental property, which none of us knew anything about.

35 South Fifth Street in 2018

35 South Fifth Street today

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The Financial State of the City

At the Common Council meeting on May 26, Heather Campbell, city treasurer, reported that expenditures in 2025 exceeded revenues by $161,000, and that amount had been taken from the fund balance. This was an improvement over the previous year (2024), when $1.3 million had to be taken from the fund balance to meet expenditures.

Campbell reported that the overall fund balance was now $4.4 million, but the unassigned fund balance was only $1.395 million. She noted that it is recommended that a municipality have a minimum of two months' expenses in its unassigned fund balance, which for Hudson would be $2.6 million--twice what the City currently has. She advised the Council to work on building the fund balance. Councilmember Jason Foster (Third Ward) asked, "What does 'work' look like?" Campbell's answer was simple: "Increase revenue, or decrease expenditures."

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