Hudson in 1974

While doing research in old newspapers for the post on the weighted voted, I was struck by how much was happening in Hudson back in 1974. This was the Urban Renewal era, and 1974 was the year that would see the demolition of a great part of the Second Ward and the construction of Bliss Towers. Warren Street was suffering the loss of business to Greenport shopping centers, and Hudson taxpayers were struggling with a combined city, county, and school tax rate of $98.03 per $1,000 of assessed value.

At the beginning of 1974, Hudson had an energetic new mayor, Samuel T. Wheeler. Wheeler had a vision for Hudson, which he shared in this article that appeared in the Register-Star on January 31, 1974.

New Image Necessary Says Mayor

HUDSON--Hudson Mayor Samuel T. Wheeler said Hudson needs a new image, an aura of vigor, generated by officials whose faith in the city would restore the confidence of its people in local government.

"Hudson," Mayor Wheeler said, "is far from [the] dying urban center pessimists would have us believe. The sparks of vitality never have left us; our job is to see they are rekindled."

He said much of the image-building has been put into motion by an administration whose first weeks in office has [sic] stressed progress and improvement. Chief among Wheeler's goals is [sic] improved public safety, new equipment for the fire department, innovations and increased efficiency in the Police Department.

"Image building, however, is not all a dollars and cents proposition," Wheeler said. "Much of it can be done with enthusiasm, an item that never has appeared in a city budget."

Wheeler says enthusiasm is contagious, and predicted it would be passed down by the administration from department to department, merchant to merchant, industry to industry, taxpayer to taxpayer.

"The struggle to keep our cities alive," he said, "will be a continuous battle. We've won several skirmishes, and will continue to win if we apply enthusiasm to our fight."

"We should not dwell too long on those things we have lost, but redouble our efforts to replace them," he said.

"Hudson is fortunate," he said, "to have officials who care about the city, its citizens and taxpayers. If we can get the people to believe in government, our fight will have been won."

It Still Happens

The Hudson Fire Department came to lower Allen Street yesterday with Tower 32, the Aerial Cat, to rescue a cat thought to be trapped on a roof: "Kitty rescue." In the end, the kitty rescued itself by jumping off the roof and landing in a snowbank.

Demolition by Neglect . . . and Ice and Snow

The Register-Star has the story this morning: "Brick Tavern roof collapses." The article contains comments about the destruction suffered by the landmark at the intersection of Routes 66 and 9H and details of its history from Rod Blackburn and Ruth Piwonka, authors of A Visible Heritage: Columbia County in Art and Architecture; Mary Howell, Columbia County Historian; and Mary Hallenbeck.  

Disposable Hudson

At the Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday night, the Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties presented a proposal that was received with enthusiasm by the three members of commission present: Chairman Don Tillson, Carmine Pierro, and Cleveland Samuels.

The Mental Health Association operates a group home, for ten residents, in this building at 900 Columbia Street.

They are proposing to construct a new building behind this one. When the new building is completed and the ten residents moved in, the existing house will be demolished and the space where it stood used for parking. Although the building has been renovated several times--most recently in 2005 and 2006--Carl Whitbeck, who, as counsel for the Mental Health Association, presented the project to the commission, said, "We've got to stop occupying this building." Commission member Samuels was enthusiastic about the plan, saying, "Taking down the building would be nice."

Whitbeck described the building as 19th century, as if that fact alone were justification for tearing it down. The design of the house suggests that it is very early 19th century or possibly late 18th century. With five bays and a center hall, the original building (the sixth bay at the right is an addition) is similar to several houses on lower Union Street: 117, 119-123, 211, 241--all built by Proprietors (the founders of Hudson) or sons of Proprietors. The location of the house, on the road to Claverack, also suggests its antiquity. A building where Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, once had a law office stood across the street from this house, until a few years ago when it was demolished to expand a parking lot. Research may reveal that 900 Columbia Street also has important connections to local history, but whether it does or not, it's a part of Hudson's architectural heritage, and it should be preserved, not demolished for offstreet parking.       

Some History of the Weighted Vote

In 1964, a decision by the U. S. Supreme Court in Reynolds v. Sims established the "one man, one vote" principle. "One man, one vote" requires that state legislative districts must be approximately equal in size, the goal being to ensure that every citizen has equal representation in an elected legislative body.

Ten years later, Hudson started considering how it could comply with the Supreme Court's "one man, one vote" edict. Hudson then operated on the principle of one ward, one vote--or rather one ward, two votes, since there were then as now two aldermen from each ward. On his second day in office, Mayor Samuel T. Wheeler identified "reapportioning voting districts" as one of the primary goals of his administration. The following is quoted from the Register-Star for January 2, 1974:

[Wheeler] recommended immediate steps to be taken to comply with the Supreme Court's one-man one-vote edict of which the city has been in violation for years. The voting strength among the five election wards, Wheeler said, was "totally out of proportion."

He asked that either a weighted voting system or a realignment of the present five ward boundaries be considered, and suggested the advice of the County Board of Supervisors could be advantageous. The county board last year adopted a weighted system that assigned voting weights to each supervisor on the basis of population in his town or city ward. 

Over the next five months, it seems the City decided to pursue the weighted vote solution rather than redrawing the ward boundaries. On May 29, 1974, Common Council President Donald F. Maloy received a letter from L. Papayanopoulos, the reapportionment consultant the City still turns to every decade to recalculate the weighted vote. The letter stated in part: "Weighted voting can indeed be implemented in Hudson City. The traditional weighted voting analysis used in reapportioning many New York counties (including Columbia, 1972) is usually applied under circumstances of singular representation. Your present form of local representation deviates from this norm since two councilmen are elected from each ward. This necessitates a modification of the traditional method of analysis." Papayanopoulos offered to develop several different types of reapportionment plans "in order to arrive at [one] which is least likely to be challenged."

Papayanopoulos must have come up with a satisfactory plan because in September 1975, the Common Council enacted Local Law No. 4 for 1975 "To Amend the Hudson City Charter in Relation to the Apportionment of Votes by Members of the Common Council." The law states in part: "The apportionment of the voting strength of the members of the Common Council shall be determined by the 1970 federal census in the City of Hudson until the next decennial federal census, in which event the voting strength shall by changed, if necessary, to conform to such decennial federal census."

This chart shows how the voting strength of members of the Common Council has changed--or hasn't--over the past four decades.


The weighted votes, as they were established in 1975, remained unchanged until the 2000 census. As a result of that census, the votes of some aldermen gained strength, the votes of others lost strength. The big winners were the Third Ward aldermen, whose votes were strengthened by 46 votes each. The Second Ward aldermen's votes were strengthened by 24 votes, and the Common Council President gained 8 votes. The losers were the aldermen representing the Fourth Ward (dropping 36 votes), the First Ward (dropping 28), and the Fifth Ward (dropping 12). 

Since the weighted vote has introduced in 1975, the disparity in the strength of aldermen's votes has increased. For example, in 1975 the strength of the least powerful vote (First Ward) was 42 percent that of the most powerful vote (Fifth Ward). Today the strength of the least powerful vote (First and Fourth wards) is just 33 percent of the most powerful vote (Fifth Ward). It is not yet known what the impact of the 2010 census will be on the weighted vote, but it's reasonable to expect that the new census data will create even greater disparity. It's time to reconsider the road not taken in 1975: redrawing the election districts so that Hudson operates on the principle of "one district, one vote" and achieves the goal of "one person, one vote."    

Thanks to City Clerk Tracy Delaney for her invaluable assistance in researching this post.   

More About 518 Columbia Street

The Register-Star today has an article about the situation with 518 Columbia Street and the City's displeasure with the Department of Social Services: "Homeless at 518 Columbia angers city officials." In the article, DSS Commissioner Paul Mossman explains that his agency did not place the formerly homeless tenants in the apartment at 518 Columbia Street; they had found it on their own. DSS had simply provided the cash assistance grant which enabled the men to rent the apartment from the building's owner, Phil Gellert.  

MOD Cafe Coming to Front Street

We all know that there's a new restaurant coming to the building on Front and Union streets which once was Moxie's and more recently Maxie's. Today the WGXC Newsroom has the news that the restaurant opening there is MOD Gourmet Cafe, which used to be located on Main Street in Catskill. Read more about it here.

Last Night at City Hall

Several issues of interest came up at City Hall on Monday night.

518 Columbia Street During the public hearing on a new local law expanding the definition of "Transitional Service Facility" and "Transitional Service Facility Resident," Mayor Richard Scalera raised the issue of 518 Columbia Street, the house owned by Phil Gellert where the Columbia County Department of Social Services planned to establish its first "congregate housing" facility. DSS was thwarted in their plan by the fact that Hudson zoning does not permit transitional housing in that part of the city. Transitional housing is permitted only in areas zoned R-5 (Residential Transitional Service Facility District) or G-C-T (General Commercial Transitional Service Facility District). The location of these districts was described as "Green Street and right around the hospital." 

Scalera revealed that although Hudson zoning code prohibits transitional housing in that neighborhood, DSS has moved three homeless men who had been living at the Sunset Motel into one of the two apartments at 518 Columbia Street. A family is renting the other apartment in the house. 

Scalera declared that this action was indicative of how the county views Hudson when it comes to transitional housing. When someone asked what the City could do about this disregard for its zoning regulations, City Attorney Cheryl Roberts pointed out that being in violation of City zoning code carried a fine of $250 a day. 

Grant from Catholic Charities The informal Common Council meeting is the time when resolutions are introduced, to be voted on the following week at the formal meeting. Last night there was only one resolution, naming new commissioners of deeds. Council President Don Moore explained that there had been a second resolution, authorizing the Hudson Police Department to accept another grant from Catholic Charities for the purpose of discouraging underage drinking. A previous grant for this purpose from Catholic Charities was used to finance a sting operation, in which a nineteen-year-old, who according to all reports looked much older, was sent into package stores and bars to buy beer. Moore questioned the efficacy of a sting operation in discouraging underage drinking and said that he wanted the resolution discussed in committee before it was introduced for a vote. 

Speaking from the audience, Mark Young, proprietor of Mexican Radio, one of eight Warren Street restaurants caught in the pre-Christmas sting, spoke about TIPS (Training for Invention ProcdureS), an educational program for bartenders and servers designed to discourage underage drinking and prevent intoxication and drunk driving. Young argued that grant money, if accepted, should be used for a program that was educational rather than punitive. Hudson Democratic Committee Chair Victor Mendolia also encouraged education instead of punishment and added that there was "no evidence that there is underage drinking in any of the establishments involved" in the December sting.   

The grant and effective efforts to prevent underage drinking will be taken up at the next Police Committee meeting, which is scheduled for February 28 at 6:45 p.m.

About Those Tickets Enforcement of the snow emergency regulations during our latest snowstorm was the final topic to be discussed, brought up by a member of the audience--me. I spoke on behalf of my neighbors and myself--all of whom had gotten two parking tickets during the latest 48-hour snow emergency for parking prematurely on the cleared side of the street and some of whom had their cars towed just minutes before the snow emergency was over for being parked on the side of the street opposite the side studded with "No Parking" signs. I made the point that a snow emergency is a time when a community needs to pull together, and people who act in ways that comply with the goal of regulations--that is, to get the cars all on one side of the street and out of the way of snowplows--should not be penalized for failing to follow the letter of the law, when following the law challenges logic and commonsense.

The snow emergency was certainly a topic that brought people together. Just about every aldermen had something to say about the overzealous and draconian enforcement of the snow emergency regulations because just about every alderman had gotten a ticket. Even Fifth Ward Alderman "Doc" Donahue told me after the meeting that, although he never agreed with me about anything, he thought I was absolutely right in what I'd said about snow emergency enforcement. It seems his son's car had been towed off Glenwood Boulevard at some point during the 48-hour period.

Mayor Scalera's comments on the topic suggest that he may have incited the reign of ticketing and towing we've just experienced. He explained that the City has had snow emergency regulations since 1996, but "the difference this time was enforcement." He explained that he had spoken with Police Chief Ellis Richardson about enforcement, complaining that the snow emergency regulations were not enforced and asking what good it was have laws on the books if the police didn't enforce them. It would seem that the spate of ticketing and towing incidents suffered by Hudson residents and visitors last week was the police department demonstrating to the mayor that they could and would enforce the law. 

Moore promised revisions to the snow emergency regulations, suggesting that "individual experiences can inform the revisions." He also promised to consider "how to remedy wrongs that have been experienced." It is not clear at this time which Common Council committee--the Public Works Committee or the Police Committee--will take up the task of revising the snow emergency regulations.

Hudson from the Sky with Snow

This aerial photograph of Hudson was taken today, February 7, by Daniel Nilsson of  DA|BA. 

The Status of the LWRP

If you've been wondering what's happening with the LWRP, Common Council President Don Moore read the following statement on the subject at tonight's informal Common Council meeting.

Over the past few weeks, members of the Common Council and I have been asked for an update on the status of Hudson's Local Waterfront Development Program (LWRP). Thanks to inquiries to the New York Department of State by members of the Hudson community and from discussions with DOS by the City Attorney, the Mayor, and myself, here is a brief report on where we stand.

By way of background, in 2008, the Common Council issued a "Positive Declaration" under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and determined that it would conduct a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS). Over the past almost year and a quarter, with the release of the Draft LWRP and Draft GEIS (DGEIS), the Common Council, the public, and affected governments and agencies have examined these two documents. During a formal public comment period from January 21, 2010, to March 15, 2010, opportunity was provided to offer comments in writing and during a public hearing. The comments then required responses by the City. Those responses were drafted by the City's LWRP consultants and its attorney after discussions with the Common Council last July.

The next step then was for the DOS to review with the City through its attorney the draft comments and responses for conformity with the policies of the Coastal Zone Management Act and SEQRA. The DOS review is almost complete. We expect to have the LWRP and the DGEIS returned for final review by the Common Council by the end of February 2011. Within a few days, discussions between DOS and the City may produce a final return date. Let's keep out fingers crossed.

I anticipate a month in which the Council will have the opportunity to review responses to the comments on the GEIS and changes to the LWRP based on those comments and then pass judgment on them.

It can be difficult for any of us to grasp--it certainly steepens my learning curve--just how lengthy, thorough, and demanding this process is. But we are very near the end. Once the Council has determined its course of action on the LWRP, and if it approves, then a Final GEIS and SEQR "Findings" are prepared by the City, the Council then enacts the legislation that carries out the LWRP and at the same time adopts the final LWRP, and submits the LWRP and SEQR Findings to and awaits approval by the NY Secretary of State.

What then? The City and its partners in the business, environmental, and civic communities being the work of planning and making the LWRP a reality.

Blogrolling

On his blog at GoToHudson.net, Scott Baldinger ponders some answers to the question Gossips posed yesterday: "What could Hudson do with $10 million?" He also reproduces the colorized post card version of one of the early photographs of the prison buildings that Gossips published today.   

What Could It Be?

Whenever there's a suggestion that the Hudson Correctional Facility might close, people start thinking about a reuse for the late 19th-century buildings that comprise the prison. What is now the prison campus was originally constructed as the Women's House of Refuge, but after a decade or so, that institution closed, and the campus became the New York State Girls' Training School and remained so until the 1970s.

Since most people never get to see the prison buildings except to glimpse them from Route 9 or 9G during leaf-off season, Gossips is publishing these early photographs to assist in the visioning.

Something to consider when thinking about whether or not the Hudson Correctional Facility might be one of the prisons designated for closing: in March 2009, a year after an earlier decision to close the Hudson Correctional Facility was reversed by local and regional protest, a specialized "reentry unit"--one of only four in the state--was opened at the Hudson Correctional Facility. It's not clear if this makes HCF a less likely candidate for closing or not. 

What Could Hudson Do With $10 Million?

In 2008, the Hudson Correctional Facility was on the list of state prisons to be closed, but, because of local and regional protest, it dodged the bullet. Now, three years later, Governor Andrew Cuomo is proposing to close as many as ten state prisons in a long-term effort to balance the state budget. To compensate communities for the loss of a prison, he is also proposing that each community losing a correctional facility receive a $10 million economic transformation program grant. It's not clear which prisons may be targeted this time around. The story is on North Country Public Radio News.   

Make Way for Dump Trucks

In case you've never witnessed it, this is the reason why all the cars need to be on one side of the street. Usually this happens in the middle of the night, but this past Friday on Allen Street, the snow blower and its attendant dump trucks came through just after 11 a.m.

Hudson's Checkered Past

Andrew Amelinckx, as part of his series History happened here, has a feature article in today's Register-Star about Hudson's red light district and the 1950 raid by state police that shut it down: "The crime commission comes to town."

This picture of a Hudson madame and some of her girls appeared in Bruce Hall's comprehensive book on the subject, Diamond Street: The Story of the Little Town with the Big Red Light District (1994).

Gridlock at Columbia and Fifth

Last November, Gossips reported on a standoff at Columbia and Fifth, when an ADM truck and a gravel truck tied up traffic because they couldn't pass each other on Columbia Street. Newsworthy as that event seemed at the time, it paled in comparison with what happened at Columbia and Fifth on Friday: almost total gridlock that lasted for about ten minutes.

According to eyewitness reports, a few drivers got out of their vehicles to try to figure out how to get things moving. Strangely, the Hudson Police officer in the police car that appears in the first picture made no effort to ameliorate the situation but instead took the first opportunity to turn left on Fifth and escape the mess.

Senior Moment

The Register-Star has the story this morning: "Yoga and aerobics to stay free." Last night at the Common Council Youth & Aging Committee meeting, right after First Ward Alderman Sarah Sterling explained that the senior committee had decided on fees for the two programs (for aerobics: $1 for Hudson residents, $2 for others; for yoga: $2 for Hudson residents, $3 for others), Second Ward Alderman Wanda Pertilla, who chairs the committee, announced that "the mayor felt there should be no charge." With the mayor's contribution of $8,000 from his discretionary fund (the part of the $45,000 mayor's salary that his state pension prohibits him from accepting), funding for the two programs still remains $3,300 short. The proposed fees were meant to help make up the difference. According to Pertilla, Mayor Scalera said, "Let 'em go until the money runs out," and promised to find the additional $3,300 somewhere.

Sterling also reported that the RFP (request for proposal) for an architect to design the Senior Center addition to the Youth Center would soon be issued. Its release will be announced as a legal notice in the newspaper.  

"How Have I Transgressed the Laws of Propriety?"

Time for another excerpt from the original Gossips of Rivertown. Readers will recall that last time, Mrs. Jackson, the young widow who is the current object of the Rivertown ladies' gossip, happened to overhear, while visiting the dentist, Mrs. Miller talking about her with the dentist's wife. 

For a week she saw no one. She could not overcome the sickening thoughts that crowded upon her at the sound of a familiar voice. The duties of the day she passed through mechanically, and those performed, she would lie upon the sofa for hours in a dull, yet harassing reverie. One evening as she thus indulged a moody sorrow, she thought suddenly of Mrs. Townsend; true she was not an old acquaintance, and though she shrank from hearing those hateful details, she knew that Mrs. Townsend must have heard all, and would tell her gently their import.

She was right, for no one would have approached more gently.

"Tell me," said Mrs. Jackson, the instant she could speak after Mrs. Townsend's arrival,—for she had dispatched a message to her, ere she slept—"tell me, what do all these stories mean? How have I transgressed the laws of propriety? You must have heard all: of what do they accuse me?"

Mrs. Townsend was at first slightly embarrassed, but she thought it best after a moment's reflection to tell the principal reports, and as carefully as possible spoke of that with regard to Mr. Edward Jackson, and said that Dr. Wheelock's visits had been commented on by Miss Seymour, who was suspected of a penchant for the doctor herself. The last suggested its own rise at once, and Mrs. Townsend passed over it lightly, interrupted only by Mrs. Jackson's explanation of Archie's constant and irritating illness, of the past two months, and Dr. Wheelock's kind attention; —Archie having taken one of those unaccountable childish dislikes to their family physician, Dr. Chester.

At the first Mrs. Jackson was too indignant for words, but at length spoke almost angrily in reply.

"I have known Edward from my childhood," said she. "He was my friend and counsellor, ay, brother, long ere I became a wife! To whom should I turn but to him?"

"It is perfectly natural, I own," replied Mrs. Townsend, "and I have never blamed you in the least. But perhaps you might have been a little more cautious. His lifting you into the sleigh the last time he was here?"

"I had strained my ankle severely, but that very morning, and if you recollect could scarcely walk as far as Mrs. Miller's two days afterwards."

"Yes, I do remember it well," continued Mrs. Townsead. "Your long rides are another ground of comment."

"Our long rides? I have never been farther than the factory with him!"

"Ah, that is it, they of course only judge by the length of your absence. His frequent visits, I can imagine necessary to the arrangement of your business, and allow me to say, though you may consider it an intrusion, Mrs. Jackson, that both my husband and myself approve and commend your unusual exertions."

Mrs. Jackson smiled gratefully through her tears.

"What do they call forgetting," said she, as they once more returned to the principal charge made against her, "if it is to think of him by day, and dream of him by night; if it is making his slightest wish my rule of action, trying to imitate his virtues, and avoiding all that he has disapproved of, believing or at least hoping, that he is permitted even now to watch over me, and appealing to him in thought whenever I am troubled, teaching my boy to revere his memory, and training him to take his place; if this be forgetfulness, then am I indeed at fault. I may not wear a widow's veil, but I have a widowed heart. My dress may not be of the deepest hue, but my sorrow is not regulated by it! Life is too earnest with me to dwell constantly upon the past, and I hold it to be a fearful sin when one rebels madly against the decrees of our Heavenly Father. I am sure you do not misunderstand this"—and she felt it was so, as she saw the eyes that sought her own heavy with tears.

Those who have seen how bravely Mrs. Jackson had borne her earlier trials, may wonder that this idle gossip so distressed her. But strange as it may seem, her husband's death had been endured with twice the fortitude. She had been so secure in conscious innocence, and had cherished the memory of her husband so truly, that she had not dreamed any one could for an instant think that she did not love him.

"I have no patience with these gossiping people," said Mrs. Townsend, as she recounted her visit to her husband that evening. "They have caused Mrs. Jackson more pain, I verily believe, than she had borne before. One cannot help caring for these things and dwelling on them, though you know they are slanders. It's well enough to say 'don't mind it,' but when one is left alone among strangers as she is, they are enough to bear without added misery. I am convinced and have been from the first, that neither she nor Mr. Edward Jackson ever dreamed of marriage, yet these people will not rest until they worry her into an illness, at least."

"Nay, Louisa," said her husband, gently, "you must not speak harshly in your turn. Mrs. Jackson can never be alone while she trusts in Providence with such earnest, unquestioning faith, and censure may prove the finer's fire to her noble character. The purest gold you must recollect is submitted to the fiercest furnace."

"A fiercer than Mrs. Smith's tongue could scarcely be found. Poor Mrs. Jackson! I left her a little comforted, and I know she will try to stem the torrent bravely, now that she understands its force."

Sketch the Fourth. Mrs. Harden's Quilting. Chapter IV.

There's Snow Place Like Home

This picture was taken in Hudson during the Great Blizzard of 1888. That blizzard occurred in March, so it's unlikely that any more snow accumulated on top of this snow before spring arrived that year. This winter, though, we've had snow on the ground since a day after Christmas, and new snow keeps coming, piling onto the snow already there, and the city is struggling under the burden of it.  

A snowstorm is a time when people should--and usually do--pull together. It's always a nice neighborhood-bonding ritual when folks head out with their shovels to dig their cars out of the snow and repark them on the cleared side of the street. Most people understand instinctively the logic of parking on the side that the snowplows have already cleared to allow the plows to clear the side where the cars had been parked, but somehow the rules of officially declared snow emergencies seem to confound everything and make citizens feel confused, angry, and even victimized by their own city government. This winter, just about everyone who parks a car on the street has a story about being ticketed or towed--or being rousted in the middle of the night to save a car from being towed.

So, for everyone feeling confused, angry, or victimized, the Communications Specialist for the Hudson Police Department explains the rules once again in today's Register-Star: "Snow know-how." 

We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the current snow emergency is supposed to be over at 8 p.m. tonight--at which time cars should be parked on the even side of the street.              

Moving Houses

Scott Baldinger offered a brilliant suggestion for redeveloping the Second Ward after Bliss Towers is demolished: moving houses that are now awkwardly sited because of development that has happened around them into the void that will left when Bliss Towers is gone. Baldinger included a picture of a house he considered a possibility--a house I couldn't place. I have my own favorite candidate: the house that sits at the point where Columbia Turnpike forks off to the left as you approach Hudson on Route 23B. For all the years I've lived here, it's been boarded up, and it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to live there with cars and trucks approaching it pretty much head-on day and night.

The classic children's book The Little House, written by Virginia Lee Burton and published in 1942, is about moving a house--a little house that starts out "built at the top of a small hill, far out in the country," is over time surrounded by development, and finally, after ending up sandwiched between two skyscrapers, is moved to another hill, far out in the country. 

Houses used to be moved in Hudson. The yellow house on Allen Street across from St. Mary's Academy originally stood on Union Street and was moved to its current location when City Hall Place was created. The house designed by J. A. Wood, where Catholic Charities is located on East Allen Street, originally stood at the corner of East Allen and East Court streets and was moved when St. Mary's Church was built in the 1929.    

Today, we don't move houses in Hudson, we demolish them, and often houses are not demolished because they are dilapidated beyond repair, but simply because they are in the way. A perfectly sound Arts & Crafts bungalow on Columbia Street was demolished when the parking garage at Columbia Memorial Hospital was built. The City demolished two or three houses on Seventh Street to create a parking lot at the Central Firehouse, and CMH demolished a very old house associated with Martin Van Buren to expand a parking lot. Within the past year, another Arts & Crafts bungalow, this one on Prospect Street, was demolished so that the owner of an adjacent house would have a place to park his cars, and a week or so ago, a house on Robinson Street was demolished so that the owner of the house next door could have a bigger garden.

When I lived in San Antonio at the end of the 1980s, my favorite restaurant was in the Fairmount Hotel. The Fairmount was built in 1906, but in 1984, it was in the way of new development: the Rivercenter Mall and the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel. Instead of being demolished, the hotel was moved in 1986 to a new location several blocks away. The Fairmount is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest structure ever to be moved on wheels.

Growing up in the Midwest, I witnessed houses being moved on more than one occasion, but moving houses doesn't seem to be done much anymore. It can't be that people no longer possess the knowledge and ability to move a house. The Fairmount Hotel is evidence that people still knew how to do it in the latter part of the 20th century. Can moving an existing house be that much different from loading a prefab house onto a truck and hauling it someplace on the Thruway?

If you're intrigued by the idea of moving a house, here are some fascinating videos.