Hudson's Historic Athletic Field

The HCSD Facilities Committee is holding a meeting today at 4:00 p.m. in the library of the Hudson Junior High School. The topic of the meeting is the rehabilitation of the baseball diamond behind Montgomery C. Smith School, the school building that was originally the high school but is now serving as HCSD's only elementary school.

The proposed new baseball field is drawing opposition because the school building and the fields behind it were part of a grand design conceived during the Great Depression and constructed as one of the early WPA projects.

In 2007, the State Historic Preservation Office determined the school building to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. When the most recent addition to the building was being planned, SHPO weighed on the design of the addition and its impact on the original building. Recently, thanks to the efforts of Ken Sheffer, who has created a website called "Save Hudson's Historic Sports Fields," devoted to the history of what was originally known as the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Educational Center, SHPO expanded its determination to include the grounds of the school. The following paragraph, written by Daniel Bagrow, is quoted from OPRHP's Resource Evaluation:

Additionally, the school's landscape is a contributing feature to the historic property and was designed by Laurie Davidson Cox (1883-1968), a nationally known park designer, landscape architect, and a professor of landscape architecture in the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University. The contributing features of the landscape include the athletic fields and associated structures (running track, baseball diamond and field, tennis courts, grandstand bleachers (adjacent to the tennis courts and behind the backstop), and adjacent parking) which closely convey their original design as shown in Cox's conceptual site drawings. It does not appear that Cox's proposed playground to the east of the running track or the outdoor theater southwest of the track were implemented. Cox's overall plan can be easily read on the landscape and is relatively unchanged since its initial construction.

Because of the determination, SHPO reviewed the plans for the field and, on August 28, issued the following opinion: 

After reviewing the submitted material our office found that the District has proposed to retain the ballfield and circulation track that were the centerpiece of the executed Cox design. The current proposal will install 4-foot perimeter fencing (between the track and field) and replace the backstop and dugouts. The Homeplate bleachers (metal and concrete sections) will be removed and the area seeded. . . . 

When this office reviews proposed renovations to historic buildings we are guided by the United States Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. The preamble to that document defines "rehabilitation" as "the process of returning a property to a state of utility, through repair or alteration, which makes possible an efficient contemporary use while preserving those portions and features of the property which are significant to its historic, architectural and cultural values." Although this is a landscape feature and not a historic building we believe that the core philosophy can be applied to this action.

To that end, we are pleased to see that the Hudson School District has chosen to retain and rehabilitate the center piece of the Laurie Davidson Cox landscape plan. The ballfield and perimeter track were clearly intended to be the centerpiece of his design and the proposed updating by the district of this component to a state of modern utility does not alter this intention.

As such, our office found that the plan will not adversely impact the eligibility of the M. C. Smith School property. We do however request that district consider using a dark coated perimeter fencing, which will help to minimize the visual impacts of the new installation.

Yesterday, Sheffer made the following statement on his website:

Did you know . . . that the Hudson City School District just yesterday (September 10, 2019) released the size of "the field of their baseball dreams" and it only measures 311 feet long at center field . . . falling short by 40 feet of State and Sectional recommendations! 

It is obvious now that the District did not want to just get the "Baseball Community" a great field BUT THAT THEY JUST WANTED THE LIVINGSTON FIELD. Even though it is barely a Pony League Field!

Since the original plan was to create a new baseball field at the high school, to be part of the new athletic center there, one wonders why the decision was made to locate a new baseball field on the site of the historic Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Educational Center, a landscape steeped in history and significance--both local and national history and for many residents of Hudson also family history.

On the subject of this site and family history, Gary Sheffer has a new post on his blog, Spokesman: "Seeking stories on 'The Gates of Paradise.'"   
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