The Robert Taylor House, located at the head of Tanners Lane, is generally believed to be the oldest surviving house in Hudson.
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| Detail of 1799 Penfield map |
The Galvan Initiatives Foundation acquired the house in August 2011. In June 2015, a hole was discovered in the north side of the house, beside a boarded-up window.
It was alleged at the time that the hole had been created in an attempt to break into the house. The hole was patched up, and a fence was installed around the house.
In November 2017, Gossips reported that the brick around the window frame was deteriorating, and the boarded-up window was falling out.
Today, Colleen Hamm posted these pictures of the north wall of the house on the Hudson Area Community Board Facebook page, and with her permission, I share them here.
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| Photo: Colleen Hamm |
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| Photo: Colleen Hamm |
One wonders how long it will be before Dan Kent issues a statement about the oldest house in Hudson that begins "We are saddened to announce . . . ," like the one he made on March 7, 2019, when the demolition of the original home of the Hudson Orphan Asylum began.
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| Photo: Stephen McKay |
When will people understand what Galloway is about?
ReplyDeleteThese historic houses should be saved to honor
ReplyDeletethe founders of Hudson. they had the vision.
Sitting on an empty house for 10 years and doing nothing to restore it. Negligence. And the City does nothing about it. Useless. And this is the man who wants to build two huge buildings, in fact three. He should look after his own first.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure Dan Kent is as proud of their “work” on this property as he is as their other projects. As an attorney, I find everything associated with these companies and their executives to be duplicitous. As a tax payer in the city of Hudson (which I believe sets me apart from EVERY Galvan executive) I find them uniformly full of shit.
ReplyDeleteDoesn’t the Board have the right, and ability, to simply agree: NO to all and any development requests from Galloway until some (name number?) of his empty properties are renovated? This one being an absolute MUST.
ReplyDeleteCould the Planning Board agree? (Some of you who know better are probably shaking your heads at my naïveté!)
But it’s an appeal I’ll make. Does it make any sense to create new when old is left unattended?
I suggest writing an email to Betsy. She will share it with the Board and enter it into the record. The document that Carole linked to had a lengthly email stream relating to parking - which is certainly an issue. I think the Board needs to hear from more community members about our other concerns, including concerns about this developer as a bad actor in Hudson. While weighing in on the developer may not be within their purview, hearing about our broader concerns about this project with any developer would be worthwhile. Betsy is very professional. The meetings I have attended were very well run and very deliberative. They just need to hear from more of us.
DeleteSee City of Hudson Code at §169-2: "DEMOLITION BY NEGLECT"
Delete"Allowing a building to fall into such a state of disrepair that it becomes necessary or desirable to demolish it. Property owners have been accused of permitting demolition by neglect on purpose, in order to save demolition costs."
What a beauty! And what a tragedy. I put some trust in public shaming. The negligence is a crime! Shame to all complicit in this disgraceful example of egregious neglect. Ten years conspiring to permit irreparable decay. To what end really? This is pretty sick. If Galvan lost interest or whatever their intentions were in the first place (tax dodging?), they had years of opportunity to put it on the market and give it a second chance. A historic house of this stature should have been listed as intended back in the 80's. I have hope it can still be saved by the proper outfit with love for such a special piece of history. Obviously, the Galvan clan has no remorse. The city government has no clout. What's the point. It has innumerable committees, councils, surveys, consultants and dysfunction. The house's condition calls, yet again, for emergency measures to forestall the decay. Any good souls out there? And please! Put it on the market so a responsible party can have an opportunity to restore it as it deserves. Thanks Carole, for keeping us informed.
ReplyDeleteThe Council should declare a moratorium on new projects until the zoning code is rewritten. That is the only way THIS government can shut down Galvan: he owns the mayor who relies on Galvan for his housing (a lease by the way that should be made public but which the mayor is too corrupt and simple to understand).
ReplyDeleteOn multiple levels I find Mr. Friedman's comment inherently racist.
DeleteI don't see it, how is the comment racist? Because the Mayor is not Caucasian? So you can't question a non-Caucasian public official about a conflict of interest without being racist?
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