The Tyranny of Trucks

On Thursday night, the Economic Development Committee of the Common Council took up the issue of trucks. Trucks are an intrusive presence on the streets of Hudson, and dealing with them--even discussing them--can become a very complicated thing. There are two state truck routes that pass through Hudson: Route 9, at the east end of town, and Route 9G, toward the western end.

Route 9 enters Hudson from the south on Worth Avenue, makes a left onto Warren Street to Park Place, makes a right onto Park Place, goes one block to Columbia Street, then makes a right onto Columbia, curves to the left onto Green Street, continues on to Fairview Avenue, where it makes a left turn and continues north. Route 9G enters from the south on Third Street, crosses to Columbia and makes a right, proceeding up Columbia to the intersection with Green, where it merges with Route 9, follows Green Street out to Fairview Avenue, makes a left turn, and continues north.

In addition to the state truck routes, Hudson has another curse: the dump trucks hauling gravel from the quarry to the port. When Hudson, in the words of a Department of Transportation (DOT) official, "agreed to carry the touring route numbers through the city" (and with them the trucks) was somewhere in the dim, misguided past. The advent of the dump truck traffic, however, is a more recent thing, coinciding with the defeat, in 2005, of St. Lawrence Cement's plan to build the country's largest coal-fired cement plant in our backyard, and many people have fearfully considered it the proverbial camel's nose under the tent.

The dump trucks bound for the port come out of Newman Road, alongside the cemetery. They make a left turn into Route 23B and then roll into Hudson on Green Street. From Green Street they head west toward the river on Columbia Street. 

Since the City started pressuring them to do so in 2011, trucks heading for the port loaded with gravel make a left turn onto Third Street and head across town to the "causeway"--the old rail bed of Fred Jones's railroad, which was pretty much the death knell for South Bay back in 1889. When the trucks exit the causeway, they head north to the Broad Street railroad crossing, past Basilica Hudson, kicking up lots of dust as they go, and on to the port.

Because DOT will not allow the trucks to make a left-hand turn onto Route 9G from the causeway, once they have dumped their load at the port, they head back to the quarry on city streets--north on Front Street to Columbia, east on Columbia to Green, and on out Green Street to Route 23B and Newman Road.

At Thursday night's meeting, Council president Don Moore, who chairs the Economic Development Committee, announced at the outset that he wanted to limit the discussion to the state truck routes: 9 and 9G. The four-page meeting agenda, distributed to the committee and most of the people in attendance, included email correspondence from David Woodin, director of the DOT Traffic Operations Bureau, to Chad Weckler, who had contacted Woodin about Hudson's truck route issues in December 2010. That communication summarized the problem:

The Vehicle & Traffic Law allows cities to regulate truck traffic on their streets. However, if a municipal street connects two state highways as is the case of US 9 and other Hudson routes, then the city cannot restrict trucks unless it provides a suitable alternative route. That route typically has to be within the municipal boundaries. Hudson cannot simply dump its traffic into the adjoining communities unless those towns are willing to take on the extra traffic. As have other cities across the state found, the adjoining communities want no part of taking on the city traffic. Therefore, the City of Hudson cannot unilaterally shut down the truck traffic on their streets when they connect state highways because they have no suitable alternative routes to divert the truck traffic to.

Quoting the statement that Hudson "cannot simply dump its traffic into adjoining communities," Moore questioned whether the truck traffic through Hudson really is the city's traffic. Committee member John Friedman (Third Ward), alluding to the fact that so many trucks that pass through Hudson are bound for the supermarkets and big boxes of Greenport, suggested that the language needed to be changed. "Greenport," he said, "is dumping its traffic on us."

Alderman Nick Haddad (First Ward) suggested, from the audience, that enforcement was the way to get truck drivers to go by way of Route 9H but bemoaned that fact that local police are not trained to enforce laws that pertain to trucks.

Audience member Bob Mechling suggested the same solution that had been proposed by Linda Mussmann in April 2012: close one of the two truck routes through Hudson. It's not clear if the two of them had the same truck route in mind for closure. At Thursday's meeting, however, Mussmann had a new idea: allow parking on both sides of Columbia Street. That, she said, would send the message "find another route." Moore countered that the "other route" found by truckers would likely be State Street or Warren Street.

A couple of times during the meeting, reference was made to a grant that has been applied for, from the Department of Environmental Conservation Office of Environmental Justice: $50,000 to assess the impact of truck traffic on the infrastructure, public health, economic activity, quality of life of the city and do a survey of the origin and destination of trucks entering the city. According to Moore, "without that objective data [from the origin and destination survey], we cannot talk effectively with Claverack and Greenport." Word on the outcome of the grant application is expected in about a month.

Although Moore wanted the discussion to stay focused on the state truck routes, the conversation inevitably shifted to the gravel trucks. Committee member Cappy Pierro (Fifth Ward) advocated for two-way traffic on the causeway, maintaining that it would eliminate all gravel trucks on Columbia Street below Third and on Front Street. Pierro speculated that DOT might relax the prohibition on trucks leaving the causeway making a left turn onto Route 9G "if we went to them and promoted it."

This inspired Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone, owners of Basilica Hudson, to speak up in protest. Auf der Maur asserted that trucks shouldn't be anywhere in the city and declared that she would object to having all the dump truck traffic on the causeway. Going to or from the causeway, every truck would pass the Basilica. "Two-way traffic," said Auf der Maur, "is going to ruin our business," which she described, rightfully, as "a huge asset to the city."

Stone objected to the remedies suggested, calling them "out-of-line." "We are pitting parts of the city against each other," he said. When Pierro started to talk about the positive impact for Hudson "if they got the road through Greenport," referring to the haul road Holcim/O&G proposed two years ago, lining up with the causeway and going from Route 9G to Route 9, Stone reacted, "Let's not treat people like they're idiots here." He posited that the "end goal" of widening and lengthening the private road was "to increase volume to the port."  

Auf der Maur said she was "scared and frustrated." "The truck thing," she said, "is going to make or break the future of the waterfront." Haddad concurred. "It's going to be almost impossible to pull our LWRP together with gravel dust in place."

Audience member Helen Arrott brought the focus of the discussion to the corner of Columbia and Third streets. She spoke of trucks running up onto the sidewalk because they cannot make the turn. She told how her house on North Third Street, which she claims is older than the city itself, is regularly shaken by the vibrations caused by heavy trucks passing in such close proximity. "If my house were brick," she said, "it would be rubble at the moment." Arrott called for structural engineers "to find out what these streets will bear," saying there are "hollow sewers under the streets." Arrott expressed the opinion that the current volume of truck traffic was inappropriate for "this little ancient town," calling it "a threat to historic properties."

Noah Fischel, who owns the beautifully restored historic building on the northeast corner of Third and Warren streets, took up the theme introduced by Arrott, suggesting that the City should "approach this from a historic preservation point of view," focusing on the destructive impact that truck traffic has on Hudson's historic architecture. He reiterated Friedman's suggestion that we needed to change the language when talking about trucks: it is not Hudson wanting to dump its truck traffic on other municipalities, it is those municipalities that are dumping their traffic on Hudson.

When historic preservation was suggested as a possible basis for freeing Hudson from the tyranny of trucks, city attorney Cheryl Roberts said she knew an expert "who specialized in the impacts of trucks on historic properties" and said she would contact that person.
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Cicada Sighting in Hudson

I saw my first cicada today--the first in 2013, that is--when one landed on the windshield as I was parking my car this morning at the Hudson Farmers' Market.

Mayor Vetoes Chicken Law

In a letter dated June 21, 2013, and filed this morning with the city clerk, Mayor William Hallenbeck vetoed the chicken law passed by the Common Council on Tuesday, June 18. The letter explains what he believes are seven shortcomings of the law and concludes: 

To me the law needs more consideration, thought, and dialog on many sections that honestly were either left out, or not presented with enough detail. Therefore I have vetoed proposed Local Law #6 2013. I respectfully request the Common Council to review the law in its entirety and determine if the Council wishes to resubmit the current Local Law #6 2013 for Council vote.

I have noticed a public hearing on this law for Friday, June 28, 2013, at 4:00 PM in City Hall. I look forward to hearing comments from the public at that time and may transmit additional comments following the hearing to the Common Council for its July meeting.

The History of 900 Columbia Street

Last Friday, the Historic Preservation Commission received a letter from Walter Ritchie, submitted on behalf of the Galvan Foundation, requesting an extension of the certificate of appropriateness to move the historic house at 900 Columbia Street to three vacant lots on the 200 block of Union Street. The HPC was grateful for this evidence of Galvan's continuing commitment to saving the house from certain destruction and agreed to extend the certificate of appropriateness to cover the time when Galvan anticipated the move would be carried out--between August 15 and October 15, 2013. 

Since then, Ritchie has provided Gossips with the following well-researched history of the house, which supports the notion that much of the house's historic significance is its location and, in so doing, implicitly argues against removing it from its historic context. But, alas, moving the house remains the only way to save it from being demolished.

In the early nineteenth century, the easternmost part of the city of Hudson, known as “Prospect Hill,” was just starting to develop when Captain William Ashley (1763-1847) built a house on his land located at the intersection of the Columbia and Union Turnpike roads. According to Captain Franklin Ellis’s History of Columbia County, New York (1878), Ashley had been granted the privilege of naming the hill, for he was the first to build a house upon it. The appellation he chose was inspired by the fine prospect of the Hudson River and mountains beyond. Because Ashley’s property included two dwellings, one of which is lost, it is unknown if the house that remains standing at 900 Columbia Street was the first to be built on Prospect Hill. Nonetheless, the residence is one of the earliest houses to be erected near the Columbia and Union Turnpikes in the opening years of the nineteenth century.

William Ashley arrived in the city of Hudson shortly before 1796 with his wife, Nancy Pomeroy Ashley, and their three children. Known locally as “Captain Ashley,” he maintained a store on Prospect Hill and was one of the incorporators of the Hudson Academy, chartered in 1807. Ashley acquired the land on Prospect Hill between 1801 and 1815. His property consisted of approximately thirteen acres located at the intersection of the Union and Columbia Turnpikes. The large lot was bordered on the south by the Union Turnpike (today, the eastern end of Columbia Street) and on the north by the old road that led to Claverack, or current-day Green Street. By 1820, his property included two dwelling houses, a brick store, and several wood structures. Over the next few decades, the lot was greatly diminished in size as parts of the land were sold to various individuals. Ashley continued to reside in the house at 900 Columbia Street until his death in 1847.

About 1810-1815, Ashley built on the site of what is now 900 Columbia Street one of the two houses that stood on his land. The Federal-style two-and-one-half story brick house has a side-gabled roof, raised basement, and symmetrical five-bay main façade with a center entrance that was originally surmounted by a fanlight. The side elevations, each with two chimneys, terminate in gables framed by cornices with returns. The window openings have stone lintels and sills, and were probably fitted with six-over-six-light windows when the house was built.

Photo credit: Scott Baldinger

Between 1859 and 1873, a later owner of the property enlarged the house by building onto the back a large service wing and introducing a one-bay addition to the east side. The entrance was redesigned with a new Italianate-style frame of pilasters rising to a pediment resting on a pair of console brackets and the earlier windows were replaced with modern two-over-two windows.

In 1906, the house was acquired by Claudius Rockefeller, who in 1907 deeded the property to the Hudson City Hospital for use as a home for nurses. The Doctor Crawford E. Fritts Memorial Home for Nurses, which served as a residence for the students of the nursing school associated with the hospital, was founded as a memorial to its namesake, a prominent and highly respected physician who practiced in Hudson in the late nineteenth century. When the dormitory for student nurses was relocated to the Cavell House in 1919, the Hudson City Hospital sold the property at 900 Columbia Street.

Remembering Last Saturday

Of the many pictures taken of the Hudson Pride Parade, this one by Sarah Sterling is definitely among the best.

Food Trucks in the Valley

The July issue of Hudson Valley Magazine has an article about food trucks, which features Hudson's own Tortillaville and its owner Brian Branigan: "Hudson Valley Food Trucks 2013." The article also mentions other favorite food trucks not far away and spreads the word that the Hudson Valley Food Truck Festival is happening today--June 20--at 1776 Route 212 in Saugerties, beginning at 3:30 p.m.    

A Distinctly Hudson Cultural Opportunity

On Saturday, June 22, at 5 p.m., the Hudson Opera House and Diamond Opera Theater present, as part of Opera Deconstructed, a group called Notorious Five--five female artists who will perform operatic and non-operatic works in innovative ways. The five are Cynthia Powell, music director and accompanist; April Fisher and Allison Sniffin, sopranos; and Faye Timmer and Mary Deyerle Hack, mezzo-sopranos.

Three of the Notorious Five: April Fisher, Mary Hack, and Allison Sniffin

Saturday's program includes the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro arranged for voices and a five-minute version of the Baroque opera The Stoned Guest by P. D. Q. Bach (a.k.a. Peter Schickele). 

The performance takes place at Christ Church Episcopal at Union and East Court streets. A reception with the cast will follow in the Parish Hall. Admission is by donation.

"Who Has Killed My Beautiful Little Cherry Tree?"

According to legend, this was the question George Washington's father asked, angrily, when he discovered that his favorite cherry tree had been cut down. Those of us who recall the fable know that six-year-old George had the courage to 'fess up: "I cannot tell a lie, Father. I cut it with my little hatchet."

The owner of 419 Warren Street didn't have to ask who cut down his cherry tree on Cherry Alley, planted in a little fenced garden behind his building. He had a pretty good idea. Yesterday morning, he complained on Facebook that DPW workers had mowed down perennials planted outside the fence, along the edge of the alley. 

Last night he reported that they had returned and brutally "pruned" his cherry tree, which was growing inside the fence.

Contacted for comment this morning, Public Works superintendent Rob Perry told Gossips that he had personally apologized to the property owner and promised that DPW would replace the savaged cherry tree in kind.

Eric J. Feight Is NOT from Hudson

I awoke this morning to hear yesterday's news repeated on WAMC: that one of the men accused of conspiring to build a device that could silently zap "enemies" with deadly doses of radiation was from Hudson. Even worse, the Register-Star, our local newspaper, similarly reported, unquestioningly, that the alleged co-conspirator was a "Hudson man." 

As Gossips discovered yesterday by simply checking an online database, and Sam Pratt confirmed by consulting Columbia County voter records, Eric J. Feight lives at 115 Knitt Road, which is in Ghent or Stockport—miles away from the city limits of Hudson. When will it occur to people—particularly reporters from WAMC's Hudson Valley Bureau and Hudson-Catskill Newspapers—that the 12534 zip code extends far beyond the city limits of Hudson, and it cannot be assumed that everyone with a Hudson mailing address is "from Hudson."
Photo credit: Skip Dickstein/Times Union
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Mark Your Calendars

At last night's Common Council meeting, Council president Don Moore indicated that two topics of great interest will be taken up at committee meetings this month. 

• The issue of the truck route through the city will be discussed at the Economic Development Committee meeting on Thursday, June 20, at 6 p.m.
• The question of ownership of a 4.3-acre parcel of waterfront land, raised by The Valley Alliance, will be considered in the Legal Committee, which meets on Wednesday, June 26, at 6:15 p.m.

Of Interest

The Register-Star reports the 2012 graduation rate data for Hudson High School and other high schools in Columbia County, released Monday by the New York State Department of Education: "State: Graduation rates mixed for Columbia County high schools."

The Chickens Are Coming

On Tuesday night, the chicken law passed in the Common Council by the skin of its teeth--if chickens had teeth. A simple majority requires 1,011 aye votes. The chicken law got 1,020 ayes and 1008 nays. Common Council president Don Moore and aldermen John Friedman (Third Ward), Nick Haddad (First Ward), David Marston (First Ward), Abdus Miah (Second Ward), Sheila Ramsey (Fourth Ward), and Chris Wagoner (Third Ward) voted in favor of permitting backyard chickens; aldermen Robert Donahue (Fifth Ward), Wanda Pertilla (Second Ward), Cappy Pierro (Fifth Ward), and Ohrine Stewart (Fourth Ward) voted against it.

Before casting his nay vote, Donahue said he didn't want chickens for neighbors and his constituents in the Fifth Ward didn't want the stench of chicken poop. Friedman, next in the roll call, said he represented the Third Ward where they wanted "all that stuff."

In the discussion that preceded the vote, Miah spoke of Islamic slaughtering methods, saying that Muslims now have to go to New York City to get chickens that have been slaughtered in the appropriate way. Haddad said that the law provided for egg laying not slaughtering, but Friedman, who crafted the law, maintained that people could raise chickens and kill them for personal use. 

Paragraph 70-17.C of the chicken law, however, states: "Chickens shall be kept as pets and for personal use only; no person shall sell eggs or meat or engage in chicken breeding or fertilizer production for commercial purposes. The slaughtering of chickens is prohibited."
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Our Foundering and Bewildering LWRP

Hudson may hold the record for spending the most time and probably also the most money on preparing its LWRP. The Local Waterfront Revitalization Program was started by the New York State Department of State in the 1980s. It was around that time that a plan to build an oil refinery on our waterfront, embraced by city government and the Hudson Community Development Office, was rebuffed by a local citizens' group, with the support of Clearwater, Scenic Hudson, and the Department of State--an experience that sparked interest among Hudsonians in developing a plan to revitalize the Hudson waterfront and discourage future bad development ideas. 

Two decades later, in 2004, an LWRP for Hudson was finally submitted to the Department of State for approval, but approval was not granted. In October 2005, Charlie Butterworth, then superintendent of public works, and more than thirty other Hudson elected and appointed officials received a twenty-two-page letter from the Department of State outlining the proposed LWRP's shortcomings and giving counsel on how to proceed.

The Department of State kept the previous LWRP for more than a year before delivering its judgment, and most people believe that, eight years later, with the current LWRP, we're back in that same situation: waiting for Department of State approval--an approval which is contingent on fulfilling the conditions outlined in the Findings Statement. One of these conditions is the transfer of ten acres of land on the waterfront from Holcim to the City of Hudson, almost half of which may actually still be owned by the City of Hudson, and it has been the assumption that these conditions were being imposed by the Department of State.

A recent communication from a DOS staffer to a South Bay advocate (who shared the information with Gossips) indicates that a couple of common assumptions about the LWRP and its current status are untrue. First, the City of Hudson has not submitted the LWRP to the Department of State for the Secretary of State's approval. Second, the Findings Statement, which seems to be the basis for the belief that the City must acquire the waterfront land in order to move forward, is a City document. It does not report the "findings" of the Department of State, as one might imagine, nor does it necessarily, or so it would seem, outline conditions that must be fulfilled before the LWRP can get the needed state and federal approvals, even though the mayor and the Common Council seem to behave as if it does.

On May 29,  Tom DePietro, who is filling in for Victor Mendolia on WGXC's @Issue, spoke with members of the South Bay Task Force--Chris Reed, Timothy O'Connor, and Patrick Doyle. Linda Mussmann, who chaired the Waterfront Advisory Steering Committee tasked with rewriting the LWRP in 2006 and 2007, criticized that discussion, expressing the opinion that what Reed, O'Connor, and Doyle said about the LWRP was wrong. So, tomorrow, Wednesday, June 19, DePietro will be interviewing Mussmann, who will correct the misconceptions. 

Reading the LWRP guidebook that DOS published, Making the Most of Your Waterfront, you get the sense that an LWRP, like Abraham Lincoln's concept of government, is supposed to be "of the people, by the people, and for the people." So how is it that we now have a document that is so arcane that people who have devoted a great deal of time to reading it are alleged not to understand it, and people who have been paying attention don't know exactly where the LWRP stands in the approval and adoption process?
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The Persephone Project

The myth of Persephone is the story of the seasons. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. When Persephone was abducted from a flowery meadow and carried off to the underworld to become the bride of Hades, Demeter reacted to her daughter's abduction by refusing to let the earth bear fruit until Persephone was returned to her. Zeus agreed to intervene and enable her return, but, alas, Persephone had eaten a handful of pomegranate seeds--the food of the underworld. As a consequence, she could come back to earth for only part of the year. Her annual return marks the beginning of the growing season, and her departure for the underworld brings on winter.

This week, to celebrate the summer solstice, the energetic and imaginative members of the Hudson Teen Theatre Project ensemble, under the direction of the very talented Carol Rusoff, present The Persephone Project, their unique improvisation on the myth. Performances, which are free, take place on Thursday, June 20, at 8 p.m., and on Saturday, June 22, at 4 p.m. Both performances take place at the Hudson Opera House.

Tour the Future Home of the Library

On Saturday, June 22, the Capital Campaign Committee of the Hudson Area Library Board of Trustees will hold an open house at the Armory. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., visitors can tour a layout of the new library and view large drawings and projections of the plans. Guides will be available to conduct people through the design and explain its features.

In advance of Saturday's tour, reporter John Mason visited the space with HAL board president Mark Orton and reports about it in today's Register-Star: "Public to view future library: Open house at Armory in Saturday." 

When Chickens Come Home to Roast

Tomorrow night, the Common Council will be voting on Hudson's chicken law, which would amend the city code to permit residents to keep no more than five hens--no roosters--in their backyards, as pets or for the production of eggs. 

As luck would have it, San Francisco-based author Matthew Wolpe is now in the Northeast promoting the book he co-authored, Reinventing the Chicken Coop. The book is a manual for building "designer" shelters for chickens. Earlier today, on WAMC, Pat Bradley talked with Wolpe about his book and about raising backyard chickens. Bradley's report, which includes a review of the state of urban chicken husbandry in the Capital District, can be heard by clicking here.

So far, of cities in the Capital District, only Troy allows backyard chickens. Two years ago, a law allowing backyard chickens in Albany was passed by the Common Council but vetoed by Mayor Jerry Jennings. It may be a while before we know if Hudson will join the urban chicken-raising elite. Even if the law is passed by the Common Council tomorrow night, it could still be vetoed by Mayor Hallenbeck.
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"Put down the knitting, the book, and the broom . . ."

Theatre Now New York is doing a production of Cabaret this summer--August 2 through August 11 to be exact--at the Pocketbook Factory right here in Hudson, and they are looking for local talent to be involved in the production.

Auditions are being held for the roles of Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider. Anyone interested in auditioning for one of these two parts or in being a performance intern should send a resume and a photograph by email to casting@tnny.org or by snail mail to Casting/Cabaret, 542 Prospect Street, Hudson, NY 12534.

TNNY is also looking for a lighting designer, a sound designer, a stage manager, a technical director, and "aspiring artists as interns for the summer in all areas of theater, including but not limited to production, technical, lighting, stage management, sound, scenic, etc." People interested in being involved in any of these capacities are invited to send their resumes to the same addresses: casting@tnny.org for email; Casting/Cabaret, 542 Prospect Street, Hudson, for snail mail.

Aid for Economic Development

Beginning at 8 o'clock this morning, applications can be submitted for a share of the $750 million that is available in state aid for economic development. The Albany Business Review has the details. Follow the links to learn about the ten regional councils into which the state has been divided (we're part of the Capital Region Economic Development Council) and how they compete for a piece of the $750 million pie. The end date for submitting applications is August 12.

The History of "The Apartments of Distinction"

The building at the corner of Union and Fifth streets, once known as "The Apartments of Distinction," now has a new slate mansard roof, reproduced chimneys, and restored dormer windows, making the rest of the building seem quite shabby and making most of us wonder what's next for the building. While its future may be unclear, Walter Ritchie has painstakingly researched its past. He wrote this history of the building expressly for Gossips readers.

Standing at 501 Union Street is a large Second Empire-style brick building constructed c. 1864 by John T. Haviland, a local shipping merchant. The sizeable square structure was most likely one of the earliest apartment buildings to be erected in the city. From 1883 to 1896, the building served as Hudson's first Home for the Aged.

About 1864, John T. Haviland, a Hudson commission agent and shipping merchant, built on his large lot at the southeast corner of Union and Fifth Streets a square three-and-one-half story brick building in the Second Empire style, the most prominent feature of which was a slate mansard roof with dormer windows and chimneys with decorative brickwork. Presumably from the time it was built, the structure contained a commercial establishment on the first floor and apartments on the upper levels.

From 1872 until at least 1878, Haviland, formerly a commission agent working in partnership with William H. Clark, maintained a shop on the first level of the building, initially as a wholesale shipping merchant and later as a wholesale grocer.

Architectural evidence suggests that when the building was constructed in the 1860s, the second, third, and mansard roof levels each contained one large apartment. In the twentieth century, the apartments were divided into smaller units that underwent numerous modifications. Today, the staircases located at the front and back of the building are used to access the apartments; however, in the nineteenth century, only the front staircase was for the use of residents while the back staircase, accessed by a door on the west elevation, was used strictly by the servants of the families who occupied the apartments.

From 1883 to 1896, the Home for the Aged, which was incorporated on May 10, 1883, rented the building as a temporary residence before acquiring its permanent home located at the intersection of South Seventh and Union Streets. When established, the Home for the Aged was the only charitable institution in the State of New York to bear that title. After arrangements had been made to rent the building at the southeast corner of Union and Fifth Streets, the organization made a public appeal for furnishings, which resulted in a steady flow of donated items including Brussels and Wilton carpeting and straw matting to cover the floors of the residents' rooms.

After the Home for the Aged vacated 501 Union Street, the property served once again as an apartment building.

The period image is the cover illustration from Decennial Souvenir, 1893: Home for the Aged, Hudson, New York, and shows the building as it appeared toward the end of the 19th century.

Relive the Experience!

Lance Wheeler's video of the 2013 Hudson Pride Parade can now be viewed online, and Chad Weckler's photographs of parade, of which this is one, can be seen on the Hudson Pride Facebook page.

Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard and well to make the Hudson Pride Parade 2013 such a spectacular event. A good time was had by all--spectators and participants alike!