Lively Discussion

The Common Council didn't always meet twice a month. The practice wasn't introduced until 2000, when Ken Cranna was the mayor, and Mary Anne Lemmerman was Council president. The first meeting of the month--the informal meeting--was initiated to introduce new resolutions and legislation, giving the aldermen eight days to consider them before voting on them and also giving the public the opportunity to know what was before the Council before the aldermen voted. In the beginning, it was also a time when the public could express concerns, either on issues before the Council or new issues. Over time, with different Council presidents, the nature of the informal meeting has evolved, but it remains the meeting at which most resolutions and new legislation are introduced.

At the informal Council meeting on Monday night, the proposed amendment to the zoning code for R-2 and R-2H districts (now known as Local Law No. 5 of 2018) was introduced. Presenting the legislation, Council president Tom DePietro reminded everyone that this was "the beginning of a very long process." Later, he elaborated on that process, saying the amendment would have to go to the Hudson and Columbia County planning boards for a recommendation and noting that the amendment, if passed, would only allow any expansion of a nonconforming use to go before the Planning Board for site plan review. 

Asked by DePietro to comment on the proposed amendment, John Rosenthal (Fourth Ward), who chairs the Legal Committee, where the amendment originated, explained that the zoning code was being amended for two "historic businesses"--a term now being used to describe any business that has existed for twenty years or more. He spoke of a community benefit agreement with Stewart's and talked about the need to "move forward and deal with problems." Moving forward and dealing with problems involves "retaining a planner to redo a comprehensive plan." This, Rosenthal said, "will cost a great deal of money," and because the City is "very stressed," he went on to say, "it is our job to engage [with 'corporate actors'] to our benefit." To synopsize, what is being proposed is that the City of Hudson change its zoning to accommodate the desire of Stewart's and presumably also Scali's--two nonconforming uses in districts zoned for one- and two-family houses (R-2) or one- and two-family houses with offices as a conditional use (R-2H)--to expand, demolishing residential properties in the process, in exchange for Stewart's giving the City, in a host community benefit agreement, some yet undetermined amount of money.

Alderman Eileen Halloran (Fifth Ward) proclaimed: 'The chairs of the Legal Committee [Rosenthal] and the Economic Development Committee [Rich Volo] and the city attorney [Andy Howard] are to be commended, because they came up with a solution."

City treasurer Heather Campbell wanted clarification: "They'll get to expand, knocking down buildings on either side, but who makes the decision if what they are offering in exchange is greater than what the City is giving up?" The answer given was the Common Council.

Responding to a question raised by Nick Zachos about a possible conflict of interest posed by "a corporation paying for a comprehensive plan that might benefit them," Rosenthal acknowledged the irony of "carving out exceptions to get money to redo a comprehensive plan when the comprehensive plan might not approve what was given up" but denied it would be a conflict of interest.

Although inviting aldermen and elected officials to comment on the proposed amendment, DePietro postponed public comment until the regular meeting of the Common Council on Tuesday, July 17. His reason for doing so seemed to be to allow time for Nick Pierro, assistant fire chief, to make a presentation to the Council--a presentation that had the effect of validating Rosenthal's assessment that the City is "very stressed." The Fire Department is in urgent need of 82 new oxygen bottles, 42 new air packs, and masks for each fire fighter--the total cost of which is "just under $354,000." Campbell characterized it as "a lot of money we weren't planning for." A bond resolution for the needed funds is expected to be presented to the Common Council at its meeting on July 17.

At the end of the meeting, when DePietro invited public comment, Fourth Ward supervisor Linda Mussmann asked, referring back to the discussion of the zoning amendment: "Is there a number connected to the host agreement?" In further comments, Mussmann complained that instead of fostering "lively discussion" DePietro "shuts it down." In responding, DePietro, in addition to indicating that no amount had been agreed to, asked Mussmann if she would like to report what she is doing on the county level. 

On a motion from Alderman Kamal Johnson (First Ward), the meeting was adjourned, at approximately 7:35 p.m.  
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Long Duration Restoration

The long-awaited restoration of 260 Warren Street, at one of the principal gateways to the city, seems finally to be approaching its finale. The building, the owner of which is now listed in the tax rolls as Galvan Civic Housing LLC, has been transferred from Eric Galloway LLC to another for fifteen years or more, and during that time, proposals for its restoration have come before the Historic Preservation Commission three times, and three times, the HPC has granted a certificate of appropriateness only to have it expire before any of the proposed work was undertaken. The last certificate of appropriateness was granted in January 2018, and it appears the third time was the charm, for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, right around the time of the HPC's most recent review of the project, the picture of the building shown below, from the Evelyn & Robert Monthie Slide Collection, was discovered. It provided the detailed guidance needed for the HPC to insist that the original doors, which disappeared without a trace sometime in 2006, be re-created exactly as they were.

The third time was also the charm in that the proposed restoration was actually undertaken.

I have told the story at least once on Gossips of how, while driving by the building one morning, I witnessed the original doors, which had been removed and replaced with plywood sometime before, being loaded onto a pickup truck and how I followed the truck to a garage on Seventh Street. To bring the story full circle, I happened to be driving by the same corner this afternoon and witnessed the new reproduction doors being unloaded from a truck. Back in 2006, I didn't have a camera with me to snap pictures; today, I did.

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Never Mind

If you were planning to spend your early afternoon today at the IDA meeting at City Hall and on Thursday at the HCDPA meeting at 1 North Front Street, you need to find other ways to amuse yourself during those hours. Gossips has learned that both meetings--the IDA at 1 p.m. today and the HCDPA at 2 p.m. on Thursday--have been canceled. 
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Meetings of Interest in the Week Ahead

The midweek holiday that seemed to spread to the weekends that preceded and followed it is now behind us, and we're back to the monthly round of meetings, starting with a trifecta at City Hall tonight.

Today, Monday, July 9, two public hearings precede the monthly informal Common Council meeting.

• At 6 p.m., there is a public hearing about the proposed new franchise agreement with Mid-Hudson Cablevision. The old franchise agreement expired a few years ago, and it's only now being renewed. To review the terms of the proposed agreement, click here. 
• At 6:30 p.m., there is a public hearing about the route of the Empire State Trail through the city. The route being proposed enters Hudson from the north on Harry Howard Avenue, goes down the Dugway to Mill Street and then Dock Street, south across the city on Front Street, then up Allen Street to Third Street and continues south on Route 9G.

• At 7 p.m., the Common Council holds its informal meeting for July. The proposed amendment to the zoning code that would allow nonconforming uses in R-2 and R-2H districts to double in size and expand onto adjacent lots is expected to be introduced at this meeting. Click here to review the amendments proposed.

The R-2 and R-2H districts are located primarily along Green Street and Fairview Avenue and include the neighborhoods off Fairview Avenue to the west and between Fairview and Route 66 to the east. State Street from Fourth to Sixth streets is also designated R-2 or R-2H as are North Fifth Street and the streets that intersect it--Prospect, Washington, and much of Clinton. 

Also of interest on the agenda for tonight is a resolution to sell 67 Fairview Avenue, a vacant lot where the City demolished a house back in 2013; a resolution to adopt the Strategic Housing Action Plan created by the mayor's Housing Task Force; and the proposed law pertaining to vacant buildings.

On Tuesday, July 10, the Hudson IDA (Industrial Development Agency) is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. in City Hall. No agenda is available for that meeting.

On Thursday, July 12, there are two meetings--one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

• At 2 p.m., HCDPA (Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency) has its monthly meeting at 1 North Front Street. Among the topics it's possible to predict will be discussed are the agency's financial crisis, the imminent departure of its executive director, and the ongoing sale of surplus property, including the parcel now being sold by sealed bid.
• At 6 p.m., the Planning Board holds its monthly meeting. On the agenda for this meeting is an application for a lot line adjustment at 248 and 250 Columbia Street to create two lots of equal size.

Gossips devoted much attention to these two houses back in 2013, when their owner, Per Blomquist wanted to demolish them and build in their stead a new building with five one-bedroom apartments, each with an area of 700 square feet. A misreading of the Bulk and Area Regulations in the zoning code claimed that the minimum size for an apartment was 1,500 square feet, necessitating an area variance for the building. The error was embraced and vigorously defended for months until finally Daniel Tucsinski, then assistant city attorney and counsel to the Zoning Board of Appeals, succeeded in correcting the misconception and clarifying that 1,500 square feet pertained to the lot not the apartment. Meanwhile, Blomquist had lost his funding for the project and expressed his disdain for the snafu by spray-painting the two houses gold. It will be interesting to see what his plans for these two houses are now, but the request for a lot line adjustment doesn't bode well for their survival.

On Friday, July 13, the Historic Preservation Commission holds the first of its two monthly meetings. A full agenda is not available, but certain to be reviewed is the proposed facade restoration/renovation of 364 Warren Street. Jason O'Toole, representing the Galvan Foundation, presented this rendering of the facade to the HPC at its last meeting, but consideration of the proposal was postponed until architect member Kate Johns could be present, which will happen on Friday.

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More McKinstry History

A comment on the post that shared Tremaine McKinstry's letter to his aunt inspired me to want to confirm where the  McKinstrys lived and to connect the information in that post with things I discovered about the McKinstrys a year ago. This started out as a footnote but grew beyond that. 

In 1918, when Tremaine McKinstry was training to be a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Service, he was 26 years old. He was already married and had an infant daughter. The 1920 census indicates that he, his wife Helen V., and a daughter named June, then 2 years and 10 months old, lived at 83 Glenwood Blvd., an address that no longer appears in the tax rolls.

Tremaine's parents, George and Julia, lived at 83 Green Street, at the bottom of McKinstry Place. The map of this part of Hudson from the 1888 Beers Atlas shows that the street we now know as McKinstry Place more or less follows the southern border of the property that once belonged to Tremaine's grandfather, Augustus McKinstry.

Augustus McKinstry's house was in the northeast corner of the property. A document found on ancestry.com indicates Augustus McKinstry's property comprised seven acres, which were used for agriculture, principally orchards. From 1892, city directories indicate that his son, George McKinstry, Tremaine's father, lived at the opposite corner of the McKinstry land, in this once Queen Anne house at 83 Green Street.

Of interest, too, is where Tremaine's Aunt Nellie, the recipient of the letter, lived, but first, some information about Nellie McKinstry. 

In April 1882, Nellie McKinstry, Augustus and Ellen McKinstry's third child, married F. Carroll Hankes, who was described in the newspaper report of their marriage as "one of our most prominent young business men."

Hankes was in the fire insurance business, but he was also an accomplished illustrator. The item that appeared in the Columbia Republican on March 14, 1883, reports that he had been hired to make sketches for an "illustrated paper called Time."

Driven by health issues (he had suffered a "paralytic stroke" in his late thirties, thought to have "dimmed the brilliant faculties of his mind") or the economic depression then happening in the country (the Panic of 1893, followed by the Panic of 1896), Hankes tragically committed suicide early in 1898, at the age of 41. The following is the beginning of the report that appeared in the Hudson Daily Register on January 8, 1898.

The report of his death provides this synopsis of his professional life: 

After careful preparation, Mr. Hankes entered the fire insurance business and for years prospered. He was an expert penman and at one time he was considered the second best engrossing [sic] artist in the State. He was a fine water-color artist and was highly accomplished in many ways, and inherited a small fortune on the death of his parents.

The report also provides the information that he had "for some time past" been living in Newark, New Jersey, but had recently moved to Chicago. At the time of her husband's death, Nellie McKinstry Hankes and their daughter, Ellen, then 14, were living with Nellie's parents at 886 Columbia Street.

After her mother died in January 1905, Nellie and her daughter moved in with Nellie's younger sister, Susanna, who had married William Gray, the proprietor of R. Gray's Sons furniture store at 547-549 Warren Street, and lived at 95 Green Street in a house that was built around 1896 on part of Augustus McKinstry's extensive property. Susanna is the "aunt Sue" to whom Tremaine, in his letter, asks Nellie to give his love.

William and Susanna Gray's home at 95 Green Street figured in a post from a year ago because it was the site, on May 7, 1917, of a Woman Suffrage Party meeting.
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Now You See It, Now You Don't

This morning, when I drove the 300 block of Allen Street on my way to the cemetery for Joey's morning walk, I noticed that the positioning of the Galvan Foundation sign in front of 335 Allen Street had been altered. No longer was it parallel to the sidewalk. Instead, it was set at an angle, so it would be more visible to drivers approaching from the west. I thought about going back to take a picture but didn't.

This afternoon, I got a tip from a reader that the sign was gone altogether, and, lo and behold, it was.

I don't know what transpired to make this happen, but when I find out, I will definitely share the information.
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Mark Your Calendars

In March, Gossips reported on a plan being proposed by East Light Partners to site a solar array just beyond Hudson's border with Greenport, on what's called Vapor Trail, the road created when the Kaz factory on Route 9, now occupied by Flanders, was built in the late 1990s. The partners--Jamie Fordyce and Wendy De Wolf--characterized the proposed site as "not land in agricultural production," next to a factory and next to a prison. What they didn't say was that the land, although currently not in agricultural use, has been identified as "Farmland of Statewide Significance."

Historic Aerials 1952 courtesy Historic Hudson

What they also failed to note was that the part of the prison adjacent to the site was actually the grounds of the Dr. Oliver Bronson House, a National Historic Landmark.

Image from National Park Service NP Gallery

Months have passed without hearing anything about this project, and it was hoped that efforts to dissuade East Light Partners from pursuing this site had been effective, but recent developments suggest that is not the case. A letter from East Light Partners, dated June 28 and addressed to "Dear Neighbor," describes the site as "the fields between the Flanders Building and the former St. Lawrence Cement plant," asserts that "given the topography and natural vegetation that exists on the property, most of the solar farm would not be visible from the road or other key vistas in the area," and invites the recipient of the letter to an "information session about the project" in the Community Room of the Hudson Area Library, 51 North Fifth Street, on Tuesday, July 17, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Gossips has also received word that the project will be on the agenda of the Greenport Planning Board on Tuesday, July 24. The Greenport Planning Board meets at 7:30 p.m. at Greenport Town Hall, 600 Town Hall Drive.
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The Fate of the Sister Ship

Gossips has been following the progress of the SS Columbia and the efforts to restore the historic Great Lakes steamship and bring it to the Hudson River. At present, it's still in Buffalo.

The SS Columbia has a sister ship, the SS Ste. Claire. Unfortunately, today, the SS Ste. Claire suffered a devastating fire where it was docked along the Detroit River.

Photo: Alex Haggart|Detroit News

According to official reports, a welder working on renovations to the boat may have sparked the fire. A full report on the disaster can be found in the Detroit News: "Welding possible cause of Boblo boat fire."
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Thanks to Bruce Mitchinson for bringing this to our attention

Henry Johnson's Links to Hudson

Yesterday, in the post about Henry Johnson, it was noted that, around the time Johnson was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French military, his wife was in Hudson, visiting her brother Clarence Jackson, who lived at 430 Diamond Street. I calculated that 430 Diamond Street would have stood where the TSL parking lot now is.

Not long after I published that post, Bruce Mitchinson sent me this newspaper clipping.

Although the clipping isn't dated, the partial text of articles on the back of the clipping suggests that this was about 1964. It isn't possible to make out house numbers from the photograph, but it is likely that the house on the right was 430 Diamond Street, the home of Clarence Jackson, Henry Johnson's brother-in-law.

Despite the fact that, according to the caption, the houses were being demolished to make way for the office and warehouse of Galway Vendors, Inc., a firm "that distributes amusement and vending machines in Columbia and Greene Counties," Mitchinson recalls that nothing was ever built on the site. It remained an empty overgrown lot until it became the parking lot for TSL.
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Buy a Piece of Hudson History

Yesterday, the City of Hudson announced the auction of some decommissioned City property. Among the pickup trucks, a back hoe, a riding lawn mower, several old Ford Crown Victorias that were once police cars, and some used fire fighting equipment are the old Common Council chairs.

It's not clear how old the chairs are, but they probably don't yet qualify as antiques. The picture below, taken in 1961, the year before City Hall was relocated from 327 Warren Street (the original City Hall, now known as Hudson Hall) to 520 Warren Street, suggests that the chairs may date from 1962. Although many elements of the original 1855 Council chamber made the move and were reinstalled at 520 Warren Street, the new space may have necessitated new desks and chairs for the aldermen.

photobygibson.com

But alas, the label on the bottom of the chairs puts the lie to that theory.

  
The chairs were made at L&B, whose factory, according to the label, was located in Hudson, NY. Since the L&B factory in Hudson wasn't built until 1982 (L&B had previously been located in Stottville), the chairs cannot be more than 36 years old. Annoyingly, whoever entered the date of delivery on this tag, which was never removed, didn't do so in a way that could be deciphered.

However old they actually are, you can get ten well-built, matching chairs--chairs that have been part of four decades of Hudson history--at a real bargain. The opening bid for all ten is $10. 

The auction ends on July 19. Click here to learn more. 
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Questions Continue About the Carpenter Gothic

The restoration of 335 Allen Street now appears to be complete. Curtains at some of the windows suggest that part of the house may already be occupied. 

In April, Gossips shared the explanation for why this project never went before the Historic Preservation Commission and expressed the opinion that if it had the carved railing on top of the porch, seen in the pictures below, might have been restored or replicated, returning the house to the way it was meant to look.

Photo: Historic Hudson, Rowles Studio Collection

Photo: Byrne Fone, c. 2003

Yesterday, a different addition to the property appeared that raised more questions.

Does this sign, which seems enormous, exceed the size limitations for a sign in a residential R-3 district? Why didn't the sign go before the Historic Preservation Commission for a certificate of appropriateness? It is, after all, in a historic district.

Gossips has posed both these questions to the code enforcement officer and is awaiting a response. Let's hope the answer to one or both of the questions involves the information that the sign is only temporary.
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Hudson and History

Today, most of us know the story of Henry Johnson and his extraordinary acts of bravery on May 15, 1918, when he and a fellow soldier, Needham Roberts, repelled an enemy raiding party in the Argonne Forest. Johnson was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, but he moved to Albany his early teens and was working as a redcap porter at Albany Union Station when he enlisted in the military in June 1917. Johnson was the first U.S. soldier to receive France's highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre, but aside from the a parade down Fifth Avenue with his regiment, the New York National Guard 15th Infantry Regiment, known as the the "Harlem Hellfighters," in February 1919, Johnson received no official acknowledgment of his bravery from the United States government during his lifetime. He died in obscurity of myocarditis on July 1, 1929.

Recognition of Johnson's bravery came posthumously. In 1992, a monument was erected in his honor in Washington Park in Albany. In 1996, he was awarded the Purple Heart. In 2003, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest award for valor. On May 14, 2015, Johnson was awarded the our country's highest military award, the Medal of Honor. In presenting the award, President Barack Obama said of Johnson:

Henry was one of the first Americans to receive France’s highest award for valor, but his own nation didn’t award him anything--not even the Purple Heart, though he had been wounded 21 times. Nothing for his bravery, though he had saved a fellow soldier at great risk to himself. His injuries left him crippled. He couldn’t find work. His marriage fell apart. And in his early 30s, he passed away.

Last year, Henry Johnson was the subject of a WMHT special: Henry Johnson: A Tale of Courage. Earlier this year, he was featured in the first episode of the podcast, A New York Minute in History: Spirits of Sacrifice.

This synopsis of the story of Henry Johnson is by way of introduction to two items I discovered yesterday on the front page of the Columbia Republican for July 9, 1918. The first reports that Henry Johnson, along with Needham Roberts (called in the report Herbert Robinson), had been "cited for bravery" by the "French command." It also provides the information that Johnson "is well known in Hudson, where his sister resides and where he frequently visited. His wife spent last week here." 

This item appeared above the fold. In a different column, below the fold, there was a related item, reporting that Henry Johnson's wife had been in Hudson on Friday, July 5. She had been interviewed by a reporter from the Republican. In this article, it is revealed that she too had a sibling living in Hudson: Clarence Jackson.
  

The Hudson city directory for 1918 lists Clarence Jackson living at 430 Diamond Street. Today, of course Diamond Street is called Columbia Street, and 430 Columbia Street is the location of the parking lot for Time and Space Limited.
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In the Good Old Summertime

The Youth Department announced yesterday that lifeguards will be on duty from noon to 6 p.m. seven days a week. 

Oakdale 1951--PhotobyGibson

Swimming is prohibited in the lake when there are no lifeguards present.
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Enjoy Your Fourth of July!

A Letter Home a Hundred Years Ago

Exploring the local newspapers from a hundred years ago, I came upon this letter in the Columbia Republican for June 25, 1918, written by a young man from Hudson, who was training to be a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Service. The recipient was his aunt. The letter is interesting for many reasons, and so we share it here.

 

 

 

 

   
Tremaine McKinstry, whose full name was Augustus Tremaine McKinstry, was 26 in 1918. He was the son of George McKinstry, the second child and only son of Augustus and Ellen McKinstry, who lived in this house, which once stood at 886 Columbia Street. (It was demolished around 1910, and the Dinehart mansion was constructed in its place.)

George McKinstry, at the age of 4, appears in this picture with his older sister, Jennie.

George McKinstry was an artist, who had an art studio here in Hudson from around 1884 to 1889. Bert Geer Phillips, who with Ernest Blumenschein founded the Taos Society of Artists, studied with him. George McKinstry gave up his career as an artist and became a druggist when his father's partner in the Rossman & McKinstry drugstore died. Tremaine McKinstry followed in the family business and was also a druggist.

Tremaine's Aunt Nellie, the recipient of the letter, was three years younger than his father, and Aunt Sue, referenced at the end of the letter, was the youngest of Augustus and Ellen's four children.
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A Reason to Venture North

Gossips recommendations rarely encourage people to travel very far beyond Hudson for any reason, but there are exceptions, and this is one. On Saturday, July 14, an intriguing event is taking place in East Chatham at the Red Rock Historical Society. It's a conversation between a historian and a playwright, called "The Way They Lived," about Ulysses S. Grant and Mark Twain and a little known story of the two men and their friendship. The following is quoted from the press release:

Bankruptcy used to be taken seriously. Now, it's so frequent that there are grades of insolvency--Chapter 9, Chapter 11, and both businesses and individuals continue their day-to-day lives with little interruption. Not so in the 1880s when former President Ulysses S. Grant lost all his money in a Wall Street swindle. Even the title to his New York City home was sold--leaving his family destitute. The former Civil War general didn't wish to revisit his battle exploits, but, with no source of income, an offer to publish his memoirs promised funds where none had been available.

Enter Mark Twain. The author and lecturer idolized Grant for his courage and his brilliance as commander of the Union Army. So he offered to underwrite the former President through his newly formed publishing company. He promised to make the memoir a best seller and invested two years of his life to make that happen. Neither Grant nor Twain knew whether he could write a good book, but Twain took the gamble. He sacrificed his own work, risked his own reputation, and took on enormous debt--all to save his friend.

The details of this story--portrayed in Grant & Twain, a new play written by Elizabeth Diggs--are the jumping off point for a conversation between Diggs and historian and author Hugh Howard.

The conversation begins at 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 14. Red Rock Historical Society is located at 407 County Route 24 in East Chatham. A $10 donation is suggested.

Grant & Twain received an Edgerton Foundation grant for new American plays. It will be performed at PS21 Chatham, September 27 through September 30.
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