Another Look at Charlie's Corner

Gossips' recent posts about Charlie's Corner, which was destroyed by fire in 1990, prompted Neal Van Deusen to provide this picture of the conflagration, which happened on February 25, 1990.

Photo: B.J. Pendergast

Van Deusen, who was First Assistant Chief of the Hudson Fire Department at the time, recalls that the day before the fire, a Saturday, had been springlike, with temperatures in the 60s. But on the day of the fire, the weather had changed dramatically. The temperature was well below freezing, with a howling wind from the northwest. Van Deusen's account of fighting the fire provides insight into the interior condition of many Hudson buildings at the time:

In addition to the wind, another difficulty in fighting that fire were the numerous dropped ceilings with openings for wiring cut into the ceiling and walls which were wainscoted. Opening wainscoting is one of the most difficult jobs in interior firefighting.

The third floor exterior of the corner building had been sided over, covering the windows which would have allowed for ventilation and there was only one narrow interior stairway. Although we tried to gain access to the third floor from the inside, it was dangerous work because we were under the fire and we could hear it roaring above us. The third floor did eventually collapse, which we had anticipated, and no one was injured.

Four months passed before the burned out buildings were demolished. Today--thirty years later--the site where they stood, owned since 2006 by some iteration of the Galvan Foundation, still stands empty.
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