In September 2022, Gossips reported on a plan, proposed by Ken Sheffer and Jeff Tsui, to restore the pillars at the entrance to the athletic fields of the historic Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Educational Center, now known as Montgomery C. Smith Elementary School: "Help for the Historic Athletic Field." At that time, the pillars were in sad disrepair.
Today, thanks to Sheffer and Tsui, the pillars have been restored to their original state. The pictures below show the pillars when they were newly completed in 1936 and as they are today, after being meticulously restored.
BRICKS MATTER AND HISTORIC PILLARS MATTER
In 2022, my husband Jeff Tsui and I presented to the Hudson Board of Education a plan to save the broken and damaged brick pillars that guard the iconic and historic recreation area of the Livingston/M.C. Smith Center that Dr. Laurie Cox designed circa 1929 to 1937 (he just kept on designing). The pillars were meant by Cox and Smith to guard the school and also to guard the students who were to enter the campus through them.
The ones most in danger in 2022 were the most iconic ones, nearest the tennis courts. We were called and told that consideration was being given to taking down the pillars. Numerous complaints had been lodged about their dangerous state. Jeff and I jumped into action and made our pitch, which was approved unanimously by the BOE. For that, we are grateful. As we said then, bricks matter. Bricks should be forever. And brick pillars matter even more on an officially declared historic landscape. We were all over it.
Both M.C. Smith and Laurie Cox saw the pillars and the heavy steel fence as key victories in defining the property. (It was raining money on that field for about seven years during the New Deal era.) On April 22, 1936, Cox made his final design pitch on the pillars and fence, and it was approved by Smith and the Hudson BOE that day, according to his diary. And then contracts flew.
In May of 1936 Cyclone Fence, as represented by J.C. Rogerson's of Hudson, was selected to build and install that heavy Bethlehem Steel fence. Cox personally designed the acorn finials for the larger fence posts.
Between June and August of 1936, Cox, Cyclone, and Rogerson's managed the installation of the brick pillars (Cary bricks) and fencing. By September 1, 1936, it was all done and standing proudly over the Livingston campus.
Then shoot forward to 2022, when the danger of losing those pillars became an almost reality. And so we turned to the best, Mike Budai ot Budai Restoration Masonry. He was on it and vowed to save the pillars one at a time. So, two down, nine to go. Mike did it all and even posed with Cox's Hudson WPA sign in from of the pillars (when I forced him to do it).
The next step is to bend the steel gates to open and close properly. That will be done in the spring. Promise. But Mike tells us the pillars are now stronger than they were in 1936. (I won't tell the Cox or Smith families.) And safer. Mike said many tennis players thanked him for making the gates safe and shiny again.
Thank you, Hudson, Hudson BOE, and all for your patience as this work went on. But now we know how to build a lasting memorial--use bricks, steel, and Mike Budai. You can't lose.
Mike and I reviewed the remaining nine pillars, and he will deal with the minor repairs and shining they need in the spring.
But as we said at the time, this is for the students, to welcome them back to the fields, to enjoy the outdoors and the sporting world we so enjoyed as kids, Safely and with historic pride.
Ken Sheffer
Sheffer's book, Hudson's Heart: The Story of Hudson, New York's "Greatest Deal from the New Deal," a small sampling of which Gossips was honored to share back in September, is coming soon. It tells the fascinating story of how, in the darkest days of the Great Depression, the showplace that was the Livingston Educational Center came to be in our little city.
It's wonderful that people like Ken Sheffer and Jeff Tsui step up to the plate, appreciate the need, and ensure that a historic restoration is accomplished. It looks great.
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