Monday, September 30, 2013

Always on Sunday

On September 17, code enforcement officer Peter Wurster issued a demolition permit to allow the second story of a early Greek Revival town house on North Fourth Street to be taken down. Wurster cited "the 'emergency' nature and public safety concerns" as the reasons why he bypassed the Historic Preservation Commission and issued a demolition permit for a building in a locally designated historic district without a certificate of appropriateness from the HPC. Despite the alleged emergency, the second story facade was still standing when Gossips took this picture on Thursday, September 26.
Now, two weeks after the roof and top story disappeared and almost two weeks after the "emergency" demolition permit was issued, the second story is gone. Late Sunday afternoon, a reader sent these pictures of what remains of the house and of the remains that seem to have tumbled into the street during the demolition.

Odd. It was also late on a Sunday afternoon that another reader alerted Gossips to the demolition of the top story. Are there demolition companies that only work on weekends?
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3 comments:

  1. JenniferSeptember 30, 2013 at 4:33 PM

    Hudson is becoming like Dodge City - lawless!

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  2. OnthelamSeptember 30, 2013 at 6:11 PM

    Midnight demolition was not uncommon in Miami Beach - a city that certainly reaped huge benefits from historic preservation - particularly in the 90's when the real estate market surged and developers couldn't be bothered to work to code. In some cases historic buildings were razed quickly and the developer just paid the relatively modest fine so they could build a new building faster. I'm sorry to see that kind of attitude at work in Hudson. Aside from the disservice to our culture, it's short-sighted when trying to revitalize a community.

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  3. 1RiparianSeptember 30, 2013 at 7:54 PM

    Known Peter for fifty years and Rick's minions got him to outlaw the shacks needed to operate Hudson's only rod and gun. Airports need hangers and Navigators need boat yards.

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