Disassembling or Demolishing?

At the Common Council meeting on Monday night, Mayor William Hallenbeck defended what has been happening at 900 Columbia Street by saying it was being "taken down methodically" instead of bulldozed. He seemed to think the fact that what was happening was "methodical" made the destruction of the historic building something other than demolition.

Recently, another building was taken down in Hudson: 124 Union Street. In the case of this building, in spite of the fact that its demolition entailed destroying the surviving wall of a Dutch house that predated the arrival of the Proprietors in 1783, there was no pretense made of "disassembling" it so it could be "reassembled" someplace else. It was demolition pure and simple. Yet the dismantling of the house and the wall was as "methodical" as anything going on at 900 Columbia Street.

 
The bricks from 124 Union Street were salvaged for reuse. There was no intention, stated or implied, that the bricks would be used to rebuild the ancient wall exactly as it had been.

The bricks from 900 Columbia Street are being treated similarly, but in this case, the people and elected officials of Hudson are expected to believe that bricks will not simply be reused but will be "reassembled" to reconstruct 900 Columbia Street as it originally was on the 200 block of Union Street. 

COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK