Memorial Days Past

Yesterday's post about Memorial Day in Hudson inspired Bruce Mitchinson to recall in a comment the Memorial Days of his youth and to recount the route of Memorial Day parades, which "started at Front, proceeded up Warren, around the park, out Green St., around what is now Scali's Pizza corner, over Paul Avenue, and into the main gate of the cemetery and over to the front of the house where the ceremonies took place." Mitchinson's recollections in turn inspired Bob Tomaso to share pictures of Memorial Day parades from half a century ago. The first two were taken in 1969; the third is from 1967.

The first two pictures were taken from basically the same vantage point: the intersection of Columbia and Green streets. The last picture was taken a little farther along Green Street. The background appears to be this stretch of Green Street, as it appears today--or more accurately as it appeared last summer.  

Tomaso called my attention to the grand house in the background of the 1967 photo, and I immediately thought of this house, which stood at 24 Green Street and was the home of Charles S. Rogers. 

Charles Rogers owned C. S. Rogers Wholesale Grocer, located just across the intersection at 743-745 Columbia Street, which in 1969, as can be seen from the first picture, was the location of Hudson Billiards and Silvernail Appliance. The picture below shows the building in 1905, when Rogers operated his business there. 

The location of C. S. Rogers' home and business is no doubt the reason why the little traffic island/park where Columbia, Green, and State streets come together is known as Rogers Park.

Attention to the shape and position of the turret and the roof lines of the house in the 1967 picture make it immediately clear that this was not Charles Rogers' house, but it appears it may have been the house that appears in the far left in this post card image of Green Street.

If that's the case, the house in this picture would have stood right next door to the Rogers house. What a grand and gracious place Green Street must have been before it was sacrificed to commercial development, an affront that continues today, and given over to truck traffic.
COPYRIGHT 2019 CAROLE OSTERINK