About Those Stop-Work Orders

Last week, Gossips reported there was a stop-work order posted on 123 Union Street, a property owned by Eric Galloway/Galvan, although the tax rolls now list the owner as Civis Holding Co. LLC.

Stop-work orders have also been posted at 402-404 Warren Street, the Galvan Foundation's Hudson Public Hotel.

This morning at the Historic Preservation Commission, Code Enforcement Officer Nick Fox reported on the violations of the certificates of appropriateness found at both sites which prompted the stop-work orders.

This is the list of violations found at 123 Union Street (click on image to enlarge):

Of all these violations, the most egregious, in Gossips' opinion, is that thirty windows, original to the building, which the HPC was told would remain, were removed and trashed. Unlike some of the others, that violation is irreversible. 

These are the violations found at 402-406 Warren Street, the Hudson Public Hotel:

In this case, the most egregious violation, even worse than the indiscriminate removal and replacement of the windows, is the loss of the surviving marble columns and lintel that were original to the building and bore traces of the building's and Hudson's history. 

As Gossips reported two weeks ago, those historic elements were removed and presumably trashed.

Photo: Matt McGhee

It was revealed at this morning's HPC meeting that the apparent plan was to cover the colonnade of the building with faux marble, which is something that was never presented to the HPC and certainly never approved. In light of this, it's interesting to recall what happened back in March 2023, when this project was being reviewed by the HPC. 

As Gossips reported, in a post titled "Taking Nothing for Granite," Walter Chatham, who was/is the architect for the project, originally thought the surviving stone on the facade of the building was granite and hence told the HPC that all the new stone needed to restore the colonnade would be granite. Matt McGhee, however, maintained that the stone was marble and suggested it was the same type of marble found on 260 Warren Street. As a consequence of McGhee's intervention, Chatham conceded that the stone on the building was in fact marble. This is what Gossips reported back in March 2023:

. . . Chatham investigated further and concluded that the stone was indeed marble, an opinion he said had been confirmed by sixteen people with stone expertise he had consulted. Based on his investigation and research, Chatham posited that the marble on the building was from Danbury, Maine, a specific type now known as White Olympian Danbury marble. According to Chatham, that is the marble that was originally used for the building and that is the marble that will be used to restore the colonnade of the existing building. The columns and entablatures of the infill buildings, as well as the lintels and sills, will also be marble.

All that erudition, and the plan is now to cover the colonnade with faux marble, which someone at this morning's meeting described as "plastic marble."

What happens next is that the Galloway/Galvan people must present new applications for both projects to the HPC describing what they actually did, and the HPC must decide if the actual work can be granted a certificate of appropriateness. If not, the buildings must be returned to the way they were. Sadly, much of what was done is irreversible. 

The one tiny bit of good news in all this is that, as long as construction is halted at 402-406 Warren Street, the area in front of the building cannot be closed off. So, for the first time in many months, the sidewalk is open and the parking spaces are once again available.  

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