Activity on the Precipice

In November, Gossips published a news item discovered in the Hudson Daily Star for April 30, 1851, reporting how the precipice at Promenade Hill was being made steeper to enable the Hudson River Railroad to lay tracks at its base.

A hundred and sixty-six years later, the railroad--now Amtrak--is again at work altering the rock face below Promenade Hill. This morning, Richard K. Wallace submitted this report to Gossips, along with photographs and a video.

Men on a Mountain

Track repair at NYC's Penn Station is creating the "summer of hell" for some Amtrak riders. In Hudson, it's the summer of hell for nesting birds and other little creatures nestled in the trees and bushes along the cliff and rugged rock face just below Parade Hill, at the foot of Warren Street.

There, a crew of chain-sawing tree men, climbing and repelling from the top of the hill, have begun clearing all the vegetation along the full length of the ridge, above the railroad tracks below. Across the tracks, a ground crew retrieves the falling limbs, branches, and brush, feeding everything into a mulch-making chipper.

This noisy, daring operation began yesterday and is expected to continue for six weeks until the entire escarpment is cleared of all vegetation, soil and loose rock—this according to the hard hats on the job. Once completed, the bare surface will be covered with shotcrete, a process that involves applying a kind of mortar mix onto the rock face using a hose, pneumatically projected at high velocity, usually reinforced by conventional steel rods, steel mesh, and/or fibers. 

Gone from view forever will be the Cambrian shale, argillite, and quartzite geologic formation, the foundation of the Parade Hill escarpment, first exposed when this Hudson railway cut sometime in the early 1800s. Gone too will be one more green nesting ground and safe refuge for all manner of Hudson's beloved winged, furry, and who-knows-what other manner of creatures, flora, and fauna.

As if in lamentation of this gross alteration of the landscape of the 1795 "Proprietors" grant, this morning a mixed gathering of distressed birds perched on the hill were doing their chirping, singing best to angrily protest the workmen, chain saws, and chippers below. Sad.

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Gratitude to Richard K. Wallace for this report

More Development Beyond Our Borders

Gossips has been watching this row of early houses for more than two years now. 

Ten Broeck Row in 1926|Photo courtesy Peter Cipkowski

I first assumed they had been built by Fred W. Jones for his workers at the New York Coral & Shell Marble Company (the houses are located right across the road from the house where he lived), but I was wrong. I have since learned they were built by the Ten Broeck family at the beginning of the last century, after Jones had already died, and maintained by the Ten Broecks as rental property. The houses were once known as Ten Broeck Row.

In February 2015, it was feared the row of houses was to be demolished. They were vacant, and notices had been posted on the doors. It turned out, however, that they were to be renovated. There was hope that the front porches might be spared and restored, and some effort was made to get that to happen, but alas, in April 2016, they came off. The original plan, as it was explained to Gossips by the Town of Greenport building inspector back in August 2015, was to change the orientation of the houses, putting their front doors in the back, giving access to a parking area. That plan seems to have changed, and recently little floating gables have appeared over the doors of a few of the houses. 

This morning, a reader sent Gossips a picture that shows that the final vision for the little houses involves brickface on the facades.

Photo: Robert Mechling

If I were ever to assemble a dictionary of architectural terms, I would probably use these before (below) and after (above) pictures to illustrate my definition of remuddling. 

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Meetings Tonight

At 7 p.m. tonight, the Hudson Common Council holds its informal meeting, at which new resolutions are introduced and discussed. Although the agenda for tonight's meeting has not yet been published, Common Council meetings are rarely lacking in intrigue, so that's where Gossips will be.

But there's another meeting happening tonight of great interest and importance: the Claverack Town Board meeting, that which the board is expected to discuss an amendment to the Claverack zoning code--the adoption of the Planned Development District (PDD)--that would permit the massive development proposed by Amedore Homes for a site on Route 9H just south of the intersection with Route 66.

Recommended reading for anyone who is not familiar with what's being proposed and what's at stake is a piece by Enid Futterman published yesterday on Imby: "Stupid Growth--NOT IN OUR BACK YARD." The town board meeting, which begins at 6 p.m., takes place at Claverack Town Hall, 836 Route 217, on Mellenville.
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Talking Trash

We now have this dreadful vending machine in front of City Hall, defacing the front of the elegant 1907 former bank building and offending everyone who cares about such things. It might be tolerable if it did what we were told it was going to do, but it doesn't.

It was supposed to take all forms of payment--credit cards, debit cards, even Apple Pay. It doesn't. It accepts only paper currency. It was supposed to save the City money by eliminating the need to employ people to sell the trash bags. It hasn't. The trash bag sellers are still there, and today, I was grateful for that.

In need of a blue trash bag this morning before the garbage truck made its rounds, I went to the vending machine to buy just one small bag to meet my immediate need. I parked the car in front of the machine and got out, with a dollar bill and two quarters in my hand--$1.50, the price of one small bag. Studying the machine, I could find no place to insert coins. There was only a slot for bills--$1, $5, $10, or $20. So, I went back to the car, pulled a $5 bill out of my wallet, and returned to the machine. I inserted my $5, tapped in the number of the item I wanted, and waited. Coins dropped--three $1 coins and two quarters--but no garbage bag dropped. The wretched machine had taken my $1.50 but wasn't giving me a bag! 

Fortunately, one of the unkept promises of the machine allowed me to go inside City Hall (it was now a few minutes after 9 a.m.) and use one of my newly acquired $1 coins and the two quarters to purchase a trash bag from a human being. Happily, I managed to get my trash at the curb before the garbage truck came around.
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Trespass on the Haul Road

On May 31, Gossips linked to a report in the Register-Star that the Hudson Police Department had opened an investigation into alleged trespassing on Colarusso property. At the time, I fell, admittedly, into the post hoc ergo propter hoc pit, hinting that the investigation might have had something to do with the pictures published the previous day, documenting the damage to the haul road done by Superstorm Sandy. 

It seems, however, that the trespassers in question are people joyriding on the haul road under cover of darkness. Yesterday, A. Colarusso & Son posted a video, apparently captured by a surveillance camera, on their Facebook page.

The brief video shows a woman and a man in some kind of all-terrain vehicle presumably entering the haul road. To see the video on the Colarusso Facebook page, you need to scroll past their propaganda video showing the perils of navigating a dump truck through Hudson's streets. The haul road currently being proposed isn't the only way to avoid traversing city streets to transport gravel to the river. 
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Hudson a Hundred Years Ago

Last week, a reader told Gossips that at the June Common Council Public Works Committee meeting, DPW superintendent Rob Perry speculated that, because of personnel shortages, it was possible that no crosswalks would be repainted this year. It will be remembered that last year, the diagonal lines--or zebras, as they are called--on many crosswalks were not painted because of equipment failure.

I was reminded of the current crosswalk situation yesterday when I stumbled upon the following news item, which appeared in the Hudson Evening Register a hundred years ago, on July 7, 1917.

In the summer of 1917, the Hudson Police Department acquired two motorcycles. One was donated to the department by City Judge Harold E. Fritts; the other was purchased by the City. Prior to acquiring the motorcycles, if a police officer needed get anywhere in the city (the corner of Green Street and Fairview Avenue was cited as an example of a location far afield), he had to go on foot or hope he could hail a passing motorcar or horse-drawn carriage.
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Architectural Salvage at the Furgary

A year ago, Gossips did a post on the occasion of learning that the siding on the facade of one of the shacks at the Furgary was made up of pieces of a tin ceiling from what was once the C. H. Evans mansion at 412-416 Warren Street. 

Photo: Walter Ritchie|Galvan Foundation

On Thursday, Gossips had the chance to tag along when Bill Krattinger from SHPO toured the Furgary site with Mayor Tiffany Martin Hamilton. During that walkabout, I noticed for the first time two other architectural elements, each apparently salvaged from some house in Hudson. The first is this window hood, quite distinctive for its dart pattern molding.

The second is the frame around this gate, reminiscent of the fence posts seen in the historic picture of Promenade Hill below it. 

Needless to say, these elements inspire curiosity. Where did they come from? When and how did they become a part of the complex and layered fabric of the Furgary? I have embarked on a search of historic photographs of Hudson houses, but so far it has been fruitless. Help from readers in the quest to learn the origin of the window hood and gate frame will be acknowledged and greatly appreciated.
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In Case You Missed It

Today, Ralph Gardner, Jr., devoted his weekly commentary on WAMC's Saturday Midday Magazine to a hero of the Hudson Valley, Joan K. Davidson. Click here to listen to "Partying for a Good Cause with Joan Davidson."

Photo: J. M. Kaplan Fund

A Visit to the Furgary

On Thursday afternoon, Bill Krattinger, from the the National Register Unit of the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), toured the site of the Furgary Boat Club with Mayor Tiffany Martin Hamilton and Nick Zachos, chair of the Waterfront Advisory Committee. Afterward, he met with the mayor, several members of the Common Council, and members of the community at City Hall.

The site was determined to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2015, but Krattinger predicted that the next step--preparing the documentation of the site for National Register nomination--would be very challenging because the site is not a typical historic property. It has evolved over time using salvaged materials, which makes it difficult to identify a period of significance, something that is typically done for historic properties. Krattinger, however, seemed willing to take on the challenge. He did urge that advocates for the shacks "have to sell a use and a vision for the property." Regarding that use and vision, Krattinger noted that National Register designation "does not come with built-in design restraints."  

The next step for the Furgary now, as it has been all along, is to identify which shacks should be saved and to agree on a use and vision for the site. At the meeting on Thursday, Hamilton suggested some criteria for making decisions about the former--age, stability, and history--and sought Krattinger's guidance in making that analysis. It was mentioned a few times during the meeting that the site is included in the City's Downtown Redevelopment Initiative application, but nothing more specific than "Site development for public access & use" is known about what was proposed in that application. 

A proposal that addresses both the question of which shacks should be saved and the question of the site's future use has been put forward in a map created by a group calling itself the Shantytown Committee. The proposal defines the site's use as a "historic-and-recreational park" and identifies shacks to be redeveloped as a visitor center and a shad museum and others to be "sealed and preserved for aesthetic value."

On Thursday, Leo Bower, one of the Furgarians involved in developing the proposed site plan, told his fellow Furgarians who were calling for restored access to the site, "We're never going to go back in it. . . . It is historic. There could be a shad museum, so kids can see what it was like. It's so unique. It's so awesome."

The Furgary c. 1958

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Ships Ahoy!

Replicas of the two of Christopher Columbus's ships, the Nina and the Pinta, are making their way up the Hudson River, on a tour that started in March in Pensacola, Florida.

Photo: Paul Zoeller|postandcourier.com

The replica Nina was built entirely by hand, without the use of power tools, and is considered "the most historically correct Columbus replica ever built." The replica Pinta, built recently in Brazil, is a larger version of a caravel, a Portuguese sailing ship from the 15th to 17th centuries. The replicas are operated as a floating museum by the Columbus Foundation in the British Virgin Islands.

Today, July 7, through Tuesday, July 11, the Nina and the Pinta are moored at the Riverfront Marina in Newburgh, where they are open for tours. Early on Wednesday, July 12, they are scheduled to set sail for Albany, where they will be docked for tours in Rensselaer at the Albany Yacht Club from Friday, July 14, through Sunday, July 16. At some point on Wednesday or Thursday, the ships will have to pass by Hudson. Gossips will try to let you know when that's about to happen.
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Thanks to Katy Cashen for bringing this to our attention

Mark Your Calendars

As Gossips has already reported, the Economic Development Committee is planning to hold a public hearing at the beginning of its meeting on July 20 to receive comments from the community about the request from Stewart's Shops for the City of Hudson to change the zoning along Green Street and Fairview Avenue to allow Stewart's to expand their gas station and convenience store, creating on that site something that will resemble the Stewart's Shop in Chatham. 

Yesterday, Alderman John Friedman (Third Ward), who chairs the committee, issued the following press release:

The City of Hudson’s Economic Development Committee will host an information session as part of its regularly scheduled monthly meeting for Hudson residents regarding proposed changes to the Stewart’s Shop on Green Street. Stewart’s intention is to expand and update its building and change its parking lot for safety and accessibility reasons. Stewart’s has purchased the homes on either side of its existing shop and plans to demolish them to provide space for this expansion. The Stewart’s plan requires a change to the City Code before it can be approved by the Planning Board. A Stewart's representative will present the project and answer questions from the Committee and public.

John Friedman, 3rd Ward Alderman and Committee Chair, invites Hudson residents to attend the meeting and share their thoughts about the plan. “Stewart’s has been a good neighbor and employer in the City of Hudson for many years. The store’s parking lot essentially straddles the northwest side of the intersection of Green Street and Fairview Avenue and has been the site of several accidents in the past. This is the busiest intersection in the City according the State DOT and we hope this discussion will propose a solution to make it safer.”

The Economic Development Committee has raised concerns about the plan in relation to the code variance required as well as the plan to take down two adjacent residences. Rick Rector, 1st Ward Alderman and a member of the Committee said, “The Council is aware of the current need for more affordable housing in Hudson, and we want to be sure that we understand the impact of the potential loss of two dwellings in this area before we make a determination.”

The meeting is scheduled to take place on July 20 at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Hudson City Hall.

Gossips believes that the press release is incorrect in stating that "Stewart’s has purchased the homes on either side of its existing shop." When the Stewart's representative made a presentation to the Legal Committee in March, he said that the company was in contract to buy the two houses but the sales were contingent on the City changing the zoning to allow the proposed expansion. It's unlikely that the status of the sales has changed.

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The Ubiquitous Officer Miller Returns

Two summers ago, Gossips indulged an obsession with Officer Frank Miller, whose name appeared regularly in the newspapers a hundred years ago, in stories recounting his exploits arresting drunks and drifters, intervening in domestic squabbles, foiling attempted burglaries, and pursuing stolen cars. Recently, I stumbled upon another story involving Officer Miller, in the Hudson Evening Register for July 2, 1917. Because it involves the ubiquitous Officer Miller, and because it's a tad reminiscent of the incident last winter of the CPR dummy, which got Hudson mentioned on Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!, I share it here.

Smilingly, Dr. G. A. Klock, of Daytona, Florida, owner of the Daytona private hospital and sanitarium, admitted this morning that he has encountered numerous strange experiences, but the one confronting him Sunday morning in Hudson was really a "top-notcher."

Dr. Klock, who is one of the most widely known physicians in the Daytona section in Florida, said he was on his vacation. After an extremely busy winter he decided to take an auto trip north, and for a number of days has been "taking things easy."

Saturday night he arrived in Hudson rather late and parked his machine in front of an up-town boarding house. He left the "dimmers" on the car, and thought the machine would be all right along the street.

Shortly before midnight, Officer Miller's attention was attracted by the car, which had on it what appeared like a newly repainted license plate. The patrolman also found a gun in the car. He called Officer Slater and both agreed that it looked as if it might be a stolen machine. Sergeant Cruise then ordered the car placed in a local garage. 

Upon arising Sunday morning Dr. Klock found his car missing. The first thing that struck him was that it had been stolen. He called up police headquarters. Officer Connors was at the desk, having just come on duty. He knew nothing about the affair, and could not find a report of the matter. Chief Lane subsequently came in and the auto case was straightened out.

Dr. Klock, typical of the hospitable and general [sic] southern people, took [the] circumstance as a great joke, and explained satisfactorily the appearance of the license plate. He expects to remain in Hudson a day or two and to-day visited several of the city officials. He is dictator of the Daytona lodge of Moose and is health officer of his town. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

He left a card with Chief Lane, who declared he's going to keep it as a memento of a peculiar circumstance, and one which shows the Hudson police are alert.

A few months after this incident, in December 1917, Sergeant John Cruise, who ordered the car placed in a local garage, became the chief of police. A little more than four years after that, in March 1922, Chief Cruise was suspended as a consequence of a prohibition raid conducted in Hudson by the state police. He was subsequently tried, found guilty of dereliction of duty, and demoted to the rank of sergeant. Gossips told that story in 1915, a series of posts called The Scandal of 1922. 
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The Day After the Fourth in Hudson

On the eve of the Fourth of July in 1917, the Hudson Evening Register urged, "Let 'safe and sane' be your motto." On July 5, the paper reported that the holiday had in fact been "safe and sane."  

It seems the bar for "safe and sane" back in 1917 was set pretty low.
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Meeting Reminder

Tomorrow, July 6, Bill Krattinger, the staff member from the National Register Unit of the State Historic Preservation Office whose territory includes Columbia County, will pay a visit to the former Furgary Boat Club--a.k.a. Shantytown, North Dock, and the Shacks. 

Photo: SHPO

After the site visit, Krattinger will meet with the mayor and members of the Common Council to discuss state and national historic designation for the site. That meeting will take place at 4 p.m. at City Hall.
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Turn Your Radios On

John Faso, our congressman, will be speaking with Alan Chartock today from 2 to 3 p.m. on Vox Pop on WAMC. It's a call-in show, so get ready. The number is 1-800-348-2551.
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They Don't Build 'Em Like They Used to

A reader recently brought to my attention this little item, which appeared in the Hudson Evening Register for April 2, 1875.

Needless to say, I was curious to know if the house built with such astounding speed had survived the past 142 years, so I set off to find out which house on Clinton Street was the house built for William H. Power. The 1882 Hudson city directory simply indicates that the house of Wm. H. Power was on Clinton Street north of Fifth, suggesting that there wasn't much else on Clinton Street at the time.

The Hudson city directory for 1891, two years after the change in numbering on east-west streets was done, gives an actual address: 520 Clinton Street.

A drive across town yesterday confirmed that 520 Clinton Street is indeed still standing and appears to be undergoing some kind of repair or restoration.

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July 4 in Hudson a Hundred Years Ago

On the eve of the Fourth of July in 1917, Hudson Evening Register published this information and advice for the holiday.

Electric Park was an amusement park on Kinderhook Lake. Located midway between Hudson and Albany, the park was created and owned by the Albany and Hudson Railroad Company.

Admission to the park, which was adjacent to the trolley line, was free for those who paid the round-trip fare of 40 cents from Hudson or Albany. The trolley's third rail powered the lights that lined the park as well as some of the attractions.

Electric Park opened in 1901, but there is some uncertainty about when it closed. One source says is was "essentially closed by 1917." Another notes that the trolley stopped running in December 1919. Still another indicates that "it was officially all over in 1921." The item in the Evening Register for July 3, 1917, is evidence that on the Fourth of July, a little more than two months after the United States had declared it was at war with Germany, Electric Park was open and offering "special attractions."
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The Great War: July 2, 1917

In 1917, July 2 fell on a Monday. In the previous week, the first U.S. troops had arrived in France. On the previous day, Sunday, every minister in Hudson took to his pulpit to preach about the need to be frugal with food. The following item appeared on the front page of the Hudson Evening Register on that day.

In response to a letter from Herbert Hoover, appointed by the President to organize the country in the interest of thrift and conservation of food supplies, the pastors of all the local churches spoke Sunday upon the necessity of saving food, and pointed out that unless war be made upon waste, the case of the allies will suffer.

The co-operation of the womanhood of the country was especially solicited by local clergymen who pointed out generally that this is a woman's war as well as a man's and that unless the women of the country band together to do away with the millions of dollars worth of waste every year in this country victory may not be hoped for. As Mr. Hoover stated in his letter sent to clergymen throughout the country:

"The thousand million dollars of needless waste which thus takes place yearly in the households of America can and should be stopped.

"The ways of thrifty living are not new. In order to practice them we need do little more than return to the frugal habits of earlier days. To purchase wisely; to lose nothing for lack of proper care; to serve no more than hunger demands; to serve again the unused portion; to preserve in time of plenty against the lean months ahead; to save wheat for France and England by eating corn ourselves, because they do not bake at home, and corn bread is unknown: these are some of the means of helping to save the waste."

A letter dated August 1, 1917, from the United States Food Administration to Ruth Watson of the Royal Baking Powder Company, read in part:

. . . the use of baking powder breads made of corn and other coarse flours instead of patent wheat flour is recommended by the Conservation Division of the Food Administration. The wheat needed for export is thus conserved, and at the same time healthful food for our own people is provided. The circulation of recipes providing for these uses would be of assistance in carrying out our plans.

In response to this request, the Royal Baking Powder Company published, in 1918, the booklet Best War Time Recipes, which consisted of forty-seven recipes "that saved eggs, butter, milk, and wheat flour for our allies in Europe who were starving in some instances." 

The booklet includes recipes for such things as Peanut Muffins; Rice Griddle Cakes; Eggless, Milkless, Butterless Cake; Barley Bread; and, of course, more than one variation of cornbread.   

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A 100-Year-Old Hudson Tradition

Last year, a group led by Trixie Starr, a.k.a. Rich Volo, revived the Hudson bed races--a tradition that some say goes back farther than the 1980s, when they were organized by then youth director Dick Tracy. The bed races this year are scheduled to take place on September 23, on South Front Street rather than Warren Street.

Recently Gossips discovered another long-abandoned Hudson tradition, one that was part of the rituals of graduation week at Hudson High School, and wondered about the likelihood of its being revived. The following report appeared in the Hudson Evening Register on June 28, 1917.

In keeping with the time established custom, the young men of the Hudson High School participated in the annual nightshirt parade last evening. Headed by High Muckedy Muck Arthur Flatley the paraders marched through the streets of the city serenading the "sweet girl graduates," the teachers of the faculty and the Board of Education.

As in years past the paraders were costumed in night shirts with their class numerals painted on their backs and many carried banners and transparencies. At a number of homes which they visited the boys were treated to peanuts and ice cream. "Time out" was also called at various ice cream parlors along the line of march.

At the residence of Mrs. J. W. Gillette, the woman member of the Board of Education, red fire was burned and sky-rockets set off, and the paraders were particularly strenuous in their demonstration for this popular member of the Board.

The popularity of this custom is on the wane, it would appear, if the number of men in line as compared to the showing made other years is an indication.

Prior to the parade a meeting was held in the basement of High school building at which Walter Dolan was elected High Muckedy Muck for next year.

School board member Grace J. Gillette was the wife of John W. Gillette. In 1917, they lived with their son, John W., Jr., and four servants in this house at 601 Union Street. (Their daughter Helen had been married in 1915.)

Photo courtesy Historic Hudson

Two decades later, in 1936, the house became the Elks Lodge.

The building is now known as the Upjohn Mansion/Hudson Lodge—Upjohn Mansion because it was built following a pattern by Richard Upjohn, which A. J. Downing, who included it in his book The Architecture of Country Houses, considered to be "one of the most successful specimens of Italian design in the United States."

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It Isn't Over Until It's Over

Allison Dunne reported this morning on WAMC about the current situation with the commercial anchorages proposed for the Hudson River between Yonkers and Kingston: "USCG Suspends Hudson River Anchorages Proposal."

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