In May 2013, the owner of 122 Union Street appeared before the Hudson Preservation Commission seeking approval to build an addition to the building, which would house a bedroom, eliminating the need for her to climb the stairs. The HPC granted the proposed addition a certificate of appropriateness.
The addition was constructed according to plan, but it never looked very compatible either with the house to which is was attached or with the rest of the neighborhood.
The owner who built the addition sold the house in 2022. Apparently, the house was just recently sold again. On Friday, a representative of the new owners came before the HPC with a proposal to "bring the addition more into character with the rest of the neighborhood." What's being proposed is shown in the rendering below.
During the presentation, the applicant made reference to a "carriage house," the ghosts of which appeared on the east wall of the 19th-century house. Since no one on the HPC seemed to remember what was there ten years ago, Gossips will remind them and everyone else. There was a two-story infill house, which stood between the early 19th-century house at 122 Union Street and an 18th-century house that once stood at 126 Union Street. It is not known when the infill house was constructed, but most likely it was built in the 20th century, possibly during the Great Depression.
The 18th-century house to the east of the infill house had a gambrel roof characteristic of Dutch vernacular architecture and was generally believed to have predated the arrival of the Proprietors in 1783. In the early 1990s, the house suffered a damaging fire that completely destroyed the roof structure. Although extraordinary efforts were made to stabilize the house after the fire and restore it, it was ultimately determined to be a lost cause. The house was demolished in 1993, but its west wall remained standing because the infill house at 124 Union Street had no side walls of its own. The buildings on either side provided its side walls.
The house and the wall were both demolished in July 2013 to make way for the addition to 122 Union Street.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CAROLE OSTERINK
Amazing work, thanks Carole!
ReplyDeleteCarole, your catalogue of photos is amazing and what great documentation of what happened in the last 10 years and more. I remember that wall very well. You are a treasure.
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