Making Plans Beyond Election Day

Autumn is a favorite season for lectures, and, between now and the winter solstice, there are a number of lectures of interest.

Next week, on Tuesday, November 15, architectural historian and Historic Hudson board member Peter Watson will speak about the Dr. Oliver Bronson House for the Society of Architectural Historians at the University Club of Albany. The Dr. Oliver Bronson House is, of course, Hudson's own National Historic Landmark, designated such for its association with renowned 19th-century architect Alexander Jackson Davis and its distinction as the earliest surviving example of the picturesque Hudson River bracketed style. The lecture begins at 6 p.m., preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m. The University Club is located at 141 Washington Avenue in Albany.

Historic Hudson and the Columbia County Historical Society are partnering again this fall to present a pair of lectures. The first takes place this coming Saturday, November 12. Peter Cipkowski will explore the early turnpike system in Columbia County in a lecture entitled "All Roads to the River: The 1799 Columbia Turn Pike and Historic Toll Houses." The lecture takes place at 4 p.m. at the Village Hall, 6 Chatham Street in Kinderhook.

In a companion lecture on Sunday, December 11, Dr. David William Voorhees will speak about Hudson before the arrival of Thomas and Seth Jenkins and the founding of the City of Hudson in a lecture entitled "Before the Proprietors: The Dutch Port of Claverack Landing." This lecture takes place in Hudson, at 4 p.m., at Stair Galleries, 549 Warren Street.

For more information and to purchase tickets for these two lectures, visit the website of either the Columbia County Historical Society or Historic Hudson.

On Thursday, December 1, as part of the Local History Speaker Series at the Hudson Area Library, Walter G. Ritchie will present his research on 59 Allen Street in a lecture entitled "The Hudson Residence of Charles C. Alger and His Patronage of Alexander Jackson Davis." Alger was the designer of the Hudson Iron Works and also the original owner of Gothic Revival brick house at the corner of Allen and Second streets, which overlooked the blast furnaces. The house, built in 1851, "embellished with wood bargeboards, finials, and eared drip moldings . . . was a well-known landmark for many years, situated on a large property that extended down a slope to Cross Street." Ritchie's lecture will discuss "Alger’s elegant Gothic Revival residence in Hudson and illustrate many of the original architectural details that survive inside the house . . . and will also address his Newburgh and New York City residences remodeled by A. J. Davis and detail his extensive art collection, which encompassed works by significant 19th-century American painters and sculptors, including Hudson’s own Sanford R. Gifford (1823-1880)."

This lecture takes place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, December 1, in the Community Room of the Hudson Area Library.
COPYRIGHT 2016 CAROLE OSTERINK