Saturday, November 6, 2010

Catching Up with Historic Hudson

They maintain an second-floor office on Warren Street. Their shingle hangs above a doorway next to Le Gamin. They can be counted on to weigh in whenever a historic building or the historic character of Hudson is threatened. If it weren't for them, there would be a building missing in the 100 block of Warren Street, the glass negatives of Frank Forshew's remarkable nineteenth-century photographs of Hudson would still be stashed away in an attic, the Dr. Oliver Bronson House--a National Historic Landmark since 2003--would still be moldering away abused and unnoticed on the grounds of the Hudson Correctional Facility, and the City of Hudson would be without laws to protect historic properties.    

Although their achievements since their founding in 1996 have been significant, it's not generally known from day to day what the preservation group Historic Hudson is up to, especially now that, as the stewards of the Dr. Oliver Bronson House, they're having to focus major energy and effort on implementing the Conservation and Stabilization Plan for a building that can be viewed by the general public only once or twice a year. A couple weeks ago, after their well-attended and well-received Old House Tour "At Home with History," the board of Historic Hudson gathered to assess the organization's achievements over the past year. With the permission of the board, I share that chronology with Gossips readers. Click HERE to access it.      

Full disclosure: The "voice" of Gossips was one of the founders of Historic Hudson and has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1996, serving as secretary from 1996 through 2000, president from 2002 to 2006, and vice president since June 2010. 

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