The Documents in the Case: The General Worth Hotel, Part I

The demolition of the General Worth Hotel forty years ago continues to fascinate. The hotel is mentioned, although not by name, in Henry James’s The American Scene. Its demolition is the historic event at the center of the novel The Spirit of the Place, by Hudson native son Stephen Bergman, writing as Samuel Shem. It should have been Hudson’s Penn Station, but it wasn’t. Instead its demise was the beginning of an orgy of demolition and rebuilding in Hudson that altered forever the area around Promenade Hill and more than fifty acres in the Second Ward.  

Gossips recently discovered two newspaper articles from the fall of 1969. Their discovery is the beginning of an investigation of what was reported in the press about the controversy over the demolition of the General Worth. The Hudson River Valley Commission, which is mentioned in both articles, was a precursor of the Hudson River Valley Greenway—a state entity focused on the environmental and physical needs of the Hudson Valley—which existed in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Schenectady Gazette, September 10, 1969

Hudson Hearing Set on Razing Old Hotel

ALBANY (UPI)—The Hudson Valley Commission will hold a public hearing Sept. 15 in Hudson to determine whether the historic General Worth Hotel can be preserved.

The General Worth was built in 1837 and was the center of the city’s social and cultural life in the mid 19th century, when Hudson was a major river port. The hotel was closed six years ago and city officials want to demolish it.

Kingston Daily Freeman, October 10, 1969

Would Preserve Hudson Hotel

HUDSON—The Hudson River Valley Commission today urged that the City of Hudson, Columbia County, abandon its plan to demolish the historic General Worth Hotel, and, instead, recommended that the City or interested civic groups take advantage of Federal and State programs to renovate the building for present day community needs.

The Commission announced its findings on the importance of the General Worth Hotel following an extended review of the proposed demolition, including a public hearing held Sept. 15 in Hudson.

HRVC Chairman Fergus Reid III, who made the announcement, said that “the Commission finds that the General Worth Hotel is an historic resource of importance to the nation as well as to the citizens of this Hudson River Valley,” and described the 1837 building as “a building of prime importance as a rare example of a Greek Revival hotel, one of the earliest remaining prototypes of the urban hotel in America.”