Sunday, October 14, 2012

Hudson in 1905: Bonus

Although the focus of Illustrated Hudson, N.Y. is the businesses of Hudson, the booklet includes photographs of buildings that were not businesses, among them some of what must have been considered at the time Hudson's most impressive residences. Today two such photographs, which prior to discovering Illustrated Hudson, N.Y., I had never seen before.

In 1905, this house was the residence of W. Frank Holsapple. It was located on Prospect Avenue. The house also appears in the picture below, which was probably taken in the last quarter of the 19th century. The Victorian carpet garden seen in the foreground of this picture was probably in front Cavell House, then the residence of Dr. John Conover Smock, who planted every tree and shrub indigenous to New York State on the grounds of his house.

Here is the site of W. Frank Holsapple's dramatically sited residence today. This building was formerly Eden Park Nursing Home and is now part of Columbia Memorial Hospital.

The second house is this impressive late Victorian home, with a turret and a circular porch similar in design to the one found on east side of 345 Allen Street. This house was the residence of Charles S. Rogers and, according to the 1905 Hudson directory, was located at 24 Green Street.

Here is the site of Charles S. Rogers' residence today--part of the Hudson City Centre, constructed in the early 1990s.

3 comments:

  1. WOW - so many huge and important buildings are gone - what a different place this must have been.

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  2. Someone should do a study of how these great and gracious structures got un-preserved (i.e. torn down). We've made great progress in the last 20-some years (thank you, Historic Hudson) trying to instill an appreciation for our architectural heritage, but there is still much to do. --peter meyer

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  3. Two years ago we had a guest at the Inn and she spoke about how she twice walked down 100 steps to give birth to her children at the Hudson hospital during the war years. When I showed her the photo of the Holsapple's house from Byrne Fone's wonderful Hudson: An Architectural Portrait she teared up. Seems her family never took a photo of the house that had meant so much.

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