The $8.35 million capital project proposed by the Hudson City School District includes this item: "Reconstruct tennis courts."
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| Credit: FreshHistory |
Wanting to remind readers of the historic significance of the site and in particular the tennis courts, I asked Ken Sheffer for help. Who better to inspire people to care about the tennis courts and their history than the man who literally wrote the book on the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Educational Center? In preparation for writing his massive history, Hudson's Heart: The Story of Hudson, New York's "Greatest Deal from the New Deal," Sheffer spent years of exhaustive research, pursuing the intriguing story of how this complex of playing fields came to be. He succeeded in getting the State Historic Preservation Office to determine Livingston Educational Center eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. He also has significant personal ties to the place. In an introduction to his book, written for Gossips, Sheffer shared this memory from this childhood:
When . . . we moved from Union Street to Joslen Place, little did I know I would fall in love with a Chancellor. Mr. Livingston would give me and my family a country club we could not otherwise afford. I often wonder what would have happened to me without those tennis courts and all that came with it.
Sheffer did not disappoint, responding to my appeal for help by writing a piece about the tennis courts called "Construction, Deconstruction, 'Reconstruction' or Destruction--What Is Actually Planned for Hudson's Tennis Center?" That piece can be found here.
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