The HPC Meeting: Another Perspective

Siobhan Barton reports today in the Register-Star on yesterday's Historic Preservation Commission meeting--a meeting that she did not attend. Instead, she seems to have fabricated the article relying on HPC member Peggy Polenberg's recollections of what happened: "Commission mulls aesthetics on Warren Street."

Gossips, who was at the meeting, will take this opportunity to correct the errors on Barton's piece. First, the white building she speaks of is not between 330 and 336 Warren Street. It is 33o Warren Street. This property, along with the vacant lots at 332 and 334 Warren Street and the building at 336 Warren Street are not owned by David Deutsch, whose not-for-profit PARC Foundation created the pocket park at 328 Warren Street and the linear park, now being completed, that connects Warren Street with State Street. All this property was recently sold by David Deutsch. The plans for the properties are being proposed not by Deutsch but by the new owner.

The facade of 211 Warren Street is not going to be "altered"; it is going to be restored to an earlier appearance documented in historic photographs. (The featured building in the pictures below is the celebrated General Worth Hotel, which was demolished in 1971. The building in question, well documented because of its proximity to greatness, appears at the right in these photographs.)

Although the building undoubtedly started out as a residence, a storefront was introduced into the facade in the 19th century, and it is to this appearance that the facade will be restored, as will the east wall. 

The building behind the facade, which was seriously damaged by a fire five or six years ago and has been condemned, will be replaced by a new passive structure. The only significant difference on the facade will be windows that are not actually double hung but will only appear to be double hung, to meet the requirements of a passive house.

Half the article in today's Register-Star was taken up talking about a letter submitted to the Historic Preservation Commission by me, not in my capacity as the person "who runs the the Hudson blog Gossips of Rivertown," as the article indicates, but as an officer of Historic Hudson and on behalf of Historic Hudson. The letter urges the HPC to consider extending the historic district known as the North Fourth Street Extension all the way to State Street, to include both sides of the street and 400 State Street, which is already an individually designated landmark in Hudson and individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The motivation for making this request has little to do with the perennial talk of building a parking garage on the northeast corner of Fourth and Columbia streets, as suggested in the article, but has everything to do with the resolution, proposed by Mayor William Hallenbeck, to sell the property on the northwest corner of Fourth and State streets, owned by the City, for the development of affordable housing. The entire letter may read here. 

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