An Image from the Past

We think about grocery stores a lot in Hudson, especially since the area's two supermarkets are out in Greenport, and Hudson has been declared a "food desert" by the USDA. Illustrated Hudson, N.Y., which Gossips serialized over the course of three months, included about a dozen retail grocers, only a fraction of the forty-five that existed in Hudson in 1905. Recently a reader sent this photograph of a grocery store that existed in the latter part of the 19th century.

The store, which was called Tanner & Clapper, was located in the 700 block of Warren Street, where Grazin' Diner now stands. The men in the picture are (left to right) Frederick H. Clapper, Alexander Tanner, and Levi P. Couse. Tanner and Clapper purchased the business from Couse in 1868.