The Gossips of Rivertown: Some History and a Challenge for the HPC

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Some History and a Challenge for the HPC

Last summer, Gossips stumbled upon this little item in the Hudson Daily Register for November 7, 1867.

The buildings being constructed by the enterprising builders Avery and Hildreth were these four houses--210 through 216 Allen Street.

The four houses were apparently built "on spec," because by March of the following year, three of them were being advertised for sale.

The next year, Avery & Hildreth moved on to bigger things. An item in the Hudson Evening Register for July 8, 1869, reports they had received the contract to build a house in the next block of Allen Street for Rensselaer Gray, who owned a prosperous furniture store on Warren Street.

This is the house that was built for Rensselaer Gray--342 Allen Street.

Returning to the row of four houses on the 200 block of Allen Street, despite the fact that Frank Forshew, the pioneering photographer responsible for documenting so much of Hudson in the second half of the 19th century, owned the lot in which the four houses were built and probably had a financial interest in their construction and subsequent sale, no early photographs of the buildings survive. That is proving to be an unfortunate circumstance today.

On Friday, a proposal to replace the steps leading to the parlor entrance to 214 Allen Street came before the Historic Preservation Commission.

The stairs were removed this past summer when the existing stairs were determined to be rotted and unsafe. Soon after, there was a proposal before the HPC to rebuild the staircase using a faux wood composite for all the elements of the stairs, including the spindles and the railings. The HPC did not grant a certificate of appropriateness to the project. There is now a new proposal before the HPC, which involves a custom railing made of mahogany and architectural cedar for the stair treads. A sample of what was proposed for the railing was presented.

Chip Bohl, the architect member of the HPC, asked for a historic photograph of the house and was told that none is known to exist. He then observed that the door surround, which is the same and survives intact on all four buildings, is "elevated Victorian style" which the design of the proposed railing "does not approach." He suggested that the design of the railing should be "a little more in keeping with the architectural design of the house." HPC chair Phil Forman noted that the proposal had come "from plastic to mahogany," but Bohl maintained that the design was not appropriate to the house. Audience member Matt McGhee suggested that what was proposed needed to be "less Arts and Crafts" and the bottom newel post needed to have "more strength."

In the end, it was decided that the HPC would hold a special workshop session with the person who will build the new staircase to arrive at a more appropriate design. Bohl commented, "Our objective is to determine appropriateness. That is our first charge." The special workshop session will take place tomorrow, Monday, January 13, at 10:00 a.m., at City Hall.

Over the past two decades, this house has had a few different staircases. Paul Barrett, the historian member of the HPC, found these pictures of the house, taken in 2004, 2006, and 2015--each time, during that period, the house was on the market--and shared them with Gossips.