News of Oakdale Lake . . . Now and Then

On Monday, Friends of Hudson Youth announced the second annual Oakdale Lake Picnic, to take place on Thursday, August 8, from 4 to 6 p.m.

I was reminded of the upcoming picnic yesterday when I came upon this article on the front page of the Columbia Republican for July 22, 1919. In 1919, Oakdale Lake, an artificial lake that was created as an amenity for the "Farrand & Watson building tract," the section of Hudson we now know as "the Boulevards," had been in existence for only five years.

 

According to the 1920 census, Augustus Tremaine McKinstry, who was featured in a Gossips post last July, his wife, Helen, and their daughter June, who was two years and ten months at the time of the census, lived at 83 Glenwood Boulevard, a house that no longer exists. The house numbers on Glenwood Boulevard skip from 81 to 85, and it does appear that there may be a house missing.

Interestingly, the newspaper account indicates that the taxi "drove to her home on Oakdale boulevard from the State road entrance," which would have been Fairview Avenue. (Was Glenwood Boulevard originally called Oakdale Boulevard, or did the newspaper make a mistake?) It has always seemed odd that the house numbers on Glenwood, Parkwood, and Oakwood boulevards begin at Fairview Avenue and go up as they approach the rest of the city rather than the other way around, but this story is evidence that access to this neighborhood from North Sixth Street--the only direct connector from "downtown"--was an iffy proposition when this early 20th-century suburb was created.

Today, there is easy access on North Sixth Street to Oakdale Lake and beyond. So, mark your calendars and plan to attend the Oakdale Lake Picnic on Thursday, August 8--which, for what it's worth, is the 45th anniversary of the day Richard Nixon announced to the American people his intention to resign as president. 
COPYRIGHT 2019 CAROLE OSTERINK