The Future for Hudson Upper Depot

In April, Hudson Upper Depot at 708 State Street made Gossips' list of Nine Not to Ignore. On Friday morning, Jason O'Toole, director of property management for the Galvan Foundation, was before the Historic Preservation Commission seeking a certificate of appropriateness for the restoration planned for the building.

The last time a plan for the historic depot came before the HPC was in November 2013, when Mark Schuman of Mountain View Masonry and Landscaping, the firm that had "disassembled" 900 Columbia Street earlier that year, was seeking a certificate of appropriateness to demolish the building and salvage the materials to resell them. He told the HPC that the owner, then Van Kleeck Tire, wasn't interested in maintaining the building and wanted to demolish it to "get a little more staging area." The HPC denied his request. Six years later, the HPC found what is being proposed for the building more acceptable.

The Galvan Foundation, which acquired the building two months after permission to demolish it had been denied, is now proposing a meticulous restoration of the building to prepare it for its new tenant: Upper Depot Brewery. The windows and doors will be replicated by a master craftsman. The roofline, which is intact at the front of the building, will be restored and replicated for the back of the building.

O'Toole explained that, because load requirements prohibit putting a real slate roof on the building, a slate substitute in a charcoal gray color will be used for the roof. He indicated the snow guard, which can be seen in the historic photograph below, will be replicated.

Needed repairs to the masonry of the building will be made using brick from the orphan asylum across the street, which was demolished in March of this year. O'Toole maintained that the brick was "from the same era" as the brick in the depot. That's not exactly true.

Although the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad was established in 1838, this depot wasn't built until 1871. The Hudson Orphan Asylum was established in 1845. It is most likely that the building in which it was located already existed at that time, making the demolished building a few decades older than the depot. But since brick making methods probably didn't change much in those years, it matters little.
COPYRIGHT 2019 CAROLE OSTERINK