Exploring Our City's Beginnings

As regular Gossips readers know, Hudson was founded in 1783 by New England seafarers engaged in whaling and maritime commerce. The History Room at the Hudson Area Library, in collaboration with the Hendrick Hudson Chapter of the DAR and the Columbia County Historical Society, is currently in the process of researching and planning an exhibition about our city's beginnings, called History of Whaling & Maritime Commerce in Hudson, to happen in the spring, from March 6 through June 30, 2025.

Capturing a sperm whale. Whaleship Superior, 1835. Aquatint engraving by William Page from an original painting by Cornelius Hulsart. © Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT

The History Room and its collaborators have important documents from Hudson's early years, but there are other institutions, such as the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the Nantucket Historical Society, the New York Public Library, and Mystic Seaport Museum, that hold Hudson-specific items--logbooks, letters of local whalers, drawings and paintings of Hudson's whaling history. The History Room is working to obtain digital facsimiles of these items, both for the exhibition and for the library's permanent archival collection, so that this period of Hudson's history can be preserved locally.

To raise the money needed for these acquisitions, a GoFundMe campaign has been created. Click here to make a contribution. All donors will have a unique opportunity to view the exhibition and learn details about the research into this important history at a special pre-opening event.

All That Jazz

The Hudson Jazz Festival begins today. Tonight's concert at Hudson Hall and the opening night party at Return Brewing are both sold out, but there are still tickets available for events tomorrow and Sunday.

Click here to view the full festival schedule.

Then and Now and Mill Street

Recently, a reader reminded me of a press release issued by Mayor Kamal Johnson and Michelle Tullo two years ago, on September 21, 2022. The purpose of the press release, which can be found here, was to announce that Kearney Realty & Development and Hudson River Housing had been selected to develop new housing for low- and moderate-income households on three parcels that belonged to the City of Hudson. Rereading the press release two years later, one sentence struck a false note, particularly in light of the proposal for Mill Street that is being fast-tracked through the Planning Board. 

We heard from the community that people prefer smaller buildings scattered across different sites, which allows for more gentle density that fits with the surrounding neighborhood and allows households seeking affordably priced housing more choice in the neighborhoods they live in.

Smaller buildings? Smaller than what? Granted the buildings proposed for Mill Street are smaller than the destined-to-be demolished Bliss Towers, with its nine floors and 132 units, but the two buildings to be called Mill Street Lofts will have a total of 70 apartments, which makes the project bigger than the 63-unit building now going up on North Seventh Street.

Most stunning in this sentence is the clause "which allows for more gentle density that fits with the surrounding neighborhood." What is "gentle" about increasing the population density of Mill Street by 600 percent? And in no way is what's being proposed something that "fits with the surrounding neighborhood." 

When the Planning Board was considering Question 18 on the SEQR Full Environmental Assessment Form, "Consistency with Community Character," Theresa Joyner, who chairs the Planning Board, asserted that the "community" with which this project should be compatible is "not just one block but the whole area . . . the high-rise and everything around that lower part of Hudson." Looking at a Google map of the area shows that Bliss Towers--"the high-rise"--is the anomaly in "that lower part of Hudson" and probably shouldn't be used to justify a decision about the compatibility of another out-of-scale building being proposed for the area.

Besides, when you are actually on the ground on Mill Street, Bliss Towers seems like another world.

What has changed in the past two years to make Johnson and Tullo abandon the notion of "smaller buildings scattered across different sites, which allows for more gentle density that fits with the surrounding neighborhood" when it comes to Mill Street? Or were they being disingenuous, parroting the language of good urban planning, when they crafted that press release two years ago?

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Thrice Blessed

October 4 is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. For this reason, October is the month when churches typically offer a blessing of the animals. This year, there are three opportunities for our furry (and feathery) friends to be blessed.

• On Saturday, October 5, there will be a blessing of the animals at noon in the plaza at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, 429 East Allen Street.
• On Sunday, October 13, there will be a blessing of the animals at the First Presbyterian Church, 369 Warren Street, from noon to 2:00 p.m. Those who plan to attend are asked to register in advance, which can be done here.
• On Saturday, October 19, there will be a blessing of the animals at Christ Church Episcopal, 431 Union Street, at 10:00 a.m. Those who cannot bring their pets or who want to honor a pet who has passed are welcome to bring a picture or other memento of their pet to be blessed.

Animals attending any of the events should be leashed or crated.