About That Old Church Building

Karen Smith, whose house on Union Street is immediately adjacent to the structure, was the first to express publicly her concern about the soundness of the former Methodist Episcopal Church which is today the Hudson Youth Center. The building, which will be 160 years old next year, probably has not received the most solicitous care since it was taken over by the Boys' Club in the 1930s, but it must be acknowledged that in the past decade or so, since the City of Hudson took possession of the building, there have been some noticeable improvements, which are evident when the first picture below, which was taken in the late 1990s, is compared with the second picture, which was taken this afternoon.

Since 2005, at least $800,000 in grant money has been invested in the building, to replace the roof and install new windows. Still, Smith's concern about the condition of the building, particularly the rusted exterior steel support on the building's east wall, prompted the City of Hudson to engage a structural engineer to do a "cursory structural assessment" of the building. The report of that assessment, submitted by Daniel Proper of Crawford & Associates, was presented to the Common Council at the informal meeting last Monday.

The report makes the statement about the building's condition: "In general terms, the building was found to be in good to fair overall condition. No signs of imminent failure were identified. With regards to the placement of the new addition, no deterioration or existing structural conditions along the north side were observed that would restrict the placement of the addition in this area. Furthermore, it is anticipated that the new addition will be structurally independent of the existing building."

Although no imminent threats of failure were observed, four areas of concern were identified in the report and recommendations were made. The first cause for concern was cracking in and above the six masonry window arches on the south and north walls of the building. These arches support the dead weight of the masonry above the windows. Back in 2006, when the new windows were being installed, it was recognized (and this information is not part of the assessment report) that undue stress had been placed on the masonry arches when the original stained glass windows of the church were removed. The original windows apparently had steel frames, which helped support the weight above the windows. The recommendation made by Crawford & Associates is to install crack monitors on the arches to monitor the rate of movement. It's possible that remedial efforts were made when the new windows and frames were installed (although the cracks were not repaired at that time), and the monitors will detect no further movement. 

A second cause for concern are "significant longitudinal cracks in four roof purlins." Purlins are horizontal timbers that span the heavy trusses and support the roof rafters. Although the report indicates that cracks of this sort are common, the situation, according to the report, calls for fairly immediate action: "It is recommended that the members be full assessed, along with the remaining roof framing, and corrective action taken to reinforce the cracked purlins and their connections to the timber trusses. Due to the severity of the cracks, this work should be completed prior to 2012 winter season."

The third area of concern was the bowing of the tin ceiling along the south side of the second floor gymnasium. The report explains: "As is typical for buildings in Hudson, tin ceilings were installed primarily to cover over the deteriorating original wood lath and plaster ceiling." Apparently, the deterioration that the tin ceiling was meant to cover up has continued, and now the weight of the plaster that was come detached from the wood lath is causing the tin ceiling to sag. Crawford & Associates recommends a full evaluation fo the ceiling and appropriate corrective measures once the extend of the problem has been determined.  

The fourth and final cause for concern is the rusted exterior steel support that worried Smith in the first place. The steel framing supports what Crawford & Associates calls a second floor "bump out" constructed of masonry but was probably an apse in the original church building. The report states that "corrosion was observed to exist on all of the exterior steel support members" and makes the recommendation that "the progression of the decay be evaluated" in order to determine "the steel's allowable capacity to support the bump out loading."

The colorized post card image of the Methodist Episcopal Church was provided by Helen Arrott. The photo of the building in the late 1990s was taken by Byrne Fone. The photo of the exterior support on the building's east wall was provided by Karen Smith.