Don't Ask Permission. Ask Forgiveness.

The title of this post expresses the attitude that T. Eric Galloway and everyone associated with him have consistently shown toward the Historic Preservation Commission. Among the most egregious examples is coating the historic marble piers, lintels, and sills at 260 Warren Street with some unknown white substance which, it was explained after the fact, was meant to "protect" the ancient marble.

Far from protecting the marble, the white coating, whether it was paint or something else, gave future tenants license to slap more paint on the historic marble.

Learning from the experience of 260 Warren Street, the HPC was careful, when granting a certificate of appropriateness to 501 Union Street, another Galvan project, to specify: "The original patina of brick shall be maintained." Nevertheless, the building was sprayed with limewash, to "even out the appearance of the brick" because Galloway "thought it looked terrible." Because the limewash cannot be removed without harming the brick, we are now just waiting for the weather and time to wear away the limewash. How many decades that will take is not known.

Despite the fact that the Galvan Foundation has given most of its real estate holdings in Hudson to Bard College, Galloway/Galvan continues to do irreparable damage to Hudson's historic buildings.

On July 27, the Historic Preservation Commission approved the installation of awnings on the buildings at Warren and North Fourth streets that are to become the Hudson Public Hotel.

At the time, the only member of the HPC to have an issue with the awnings was John Schobel, who noted that the awnings diminished the ability to appreciate the architecture of the building because they covered the marble colonnade. That may have been exactly what was intended.

At this morning's meeting of the HPC, Phil Forman, who chairs the HPC, said there were "issues with the property regarding the previous C of A and the facade." He went on to say the awnings would violate the previous certificate of appropriateness. Code enforcement officer Nick Fox then explained that the cornice above the windows was missing and "now they want to put awnings there."

Further discussion revealed that it was the marble lintels over the windows and doors that were missing. The status of the original marble pillars was also in question. Many of the pillars on the Warren Street facade were lost during the abuse suffered by the building over the years, but two survived, and the conditions set forth in the certificate of appropriateness specified that the surviving pillars and lintel were to be preserved--at least that's what we thought.

During the discussion, Forman wanted to know if the original marble was gone, or if it was now buried under other material. Walter Chatham, who is the architect for the project, did not answer that question. When public comment was permitted, Matt McGhee did have the answer. The original marble columns were removed. McGhee provided Gossips with these pictures, taken in June 2025. The first shows one of the columns still in place. (It has since been covered up.) The second shows the other marble column and a fragment of the lintel removed and on the ground.

Photo: Matt McGhee

Photo: Matt McGhee

McGhee also pointed out that the height of the doorway had been lowered, and the columns on the infill building to the right, which were supposed to be the same width as the columns on the main building, were not the same width.

Ronald Kopnicki reported that the brickwork had been sanded, and the mortar used for repointing was "extremely white" and did not match the original mortar--all in violation of the specifications in the certificate of appropriateness. 

It was decided that, because the Galvan Foundation ignored many of the stipulations of the original certificate of appropriateness granted in March 2023, and some of the deviations from that C of A are irreparable, the Galvan people would submit a new application for a certificate of appropriateness based on what they actually did, not what the original certificate of appropriateness required them to do. 

Don't ask permission. Ask forgiveness. 

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