Art Upstreet and Downstreet

It's a glorious day, and the evening promises to be just as lovely--perfect for walking on Warren Street, visiting galleries, and maybe winding up someplace for dinner.

Downstreet, BeLo3rd is presenting its ART/DINE Gallery Stroll, with eight restaurants and seven galleries participating. Upstreet, from 6 to 8 p.m., there's an opening at McDaris Fine Art, 623 Warren Street. The new exhibition is made up of recent paintings by Kim Bach and the new photographs by Miami photographer Ariel Baron-Robbins. 

Also upstreet, from 6 to 8 p.m., there's an opening at the always intriguing HuMP (Hudson Museum of Photography), located at 552 Warren Street. Currently being exhibited at HuMP are a group of oil paintings by Lucien Rees-Roberts, done over a series of summers on a remote island off the coast of Croatia. The exhibition, which opens tonight, continues through December 29. During that period, HuMP will be open from noon until 5 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday. Click here to preview images of the paintings.

Of Interest

The article about Hudson that appeared in the November issue of Architectural Digest is now online: "Hudson, New York's Best Boutiques, Restaurants, Hotels, and Historic Sights."

The Glory Days of the Hudson Elks

A reader recently acquired some memorabilia from the Hudson Elks' Lodge. Among the treasures was the souvenir program from the Grand Opening of Hudson Lodge 787, when the Elks moved from 231 Warren Street to 601 Union Street. The event took place seventy-seven years ago, on November 15, 1936.

The cover of the booklet provides a wonderful image of the house when the Elks took possession of it in 1936, and found within the booklet is a fascinating history of the early days of Hudson Lodge 787.

HUDSON LODGE--787

On June 28, 1901, an unobtrusive article appeared in the Hudson Republican to the effect that "there was some talk of starting a lodge of the Order of Elks in this city." Very shortly after the appearance of this announcement application to the Grand Lodge was made for a charter. The incident was hailed with considerable attention and excitement in town and preparations were begun for a celebration, civic in character.

The day of the induction of the new lodge was a gala holiday in which the entire city participated. The Opera House, scene of the festivities, was decorated with the colors of the order, both inside and out. Warren street also was lined with festive bunting in honor of the occasion. . . . 

The Elks were popular from their founding and continued to grow in number quite lustily. For a time meetings were held in the hall over the post office, but it soon became apparent that more suitable quarters were required. The Knights of Columbus Hall was also used for a while, but efforts were made to obtain a meeting place and clubhouse that would be exclusively for Elks.

To that end a mammoth bazaar was held under the Persian title of "Mawsim," the first of a series of similar events which proved quite popular and enjoyable to the public. An attractive feature was the prize drawing, at which it is interesting to note that Grant Miller walked off with the grand prize--a $150 upright piano (or a lady's sealskin jacket). Your historian has no information as to which our worthy trustee saw fit to choose. As an added attraction for the bazaar a stage show was presented in the Opera House, starring "Pretty and Petite Agnes Ardeck" in "Mademoiselle Louise." This was the first of a group of theatrical ventures with which the Elks became identified.

In 1903, the Elks took upon themselves the management of the Opera House as a legitimate theater. The move was hailed as an advantageous one by the townsfolk and the local lodge proceeded to change the name to the Elks' Theatre, and to effect a number of alterations and improvements. As the first attraction they featured the great Robert Mantell in Tremayne's "The Dagger and the Cross." This was received as a great success, as were modifications made in the building by the new management. To quote from an editorial in the Republican, "For the first time in many years a woman could go there without ruining her gown; the old barn had actually been cleaned . . . and an attempt was made to keep order in the gallery." The theatre continued under lodge management until 1907, when the club moved into new quarters. During the time that the Elks were in charge they instituted many improvements and provided many interesting and entertaining programs. Although traveling companies were the vogue of the day local talent was also given opportunity to demonstrate histrionic ability which in many cases proved surprisingly good. In 1906, a benefit performance was given to aid those who suffered in the San Francisco earthquake. Hudson lodge participated with others throughout the country in providing a fund of $30,000 for the relief of the destitute. . . . 

In 1907, the need for new quarters became acute, and the lodge finally chose the Hudson River National Bank building as their new dwelling. The building which was the home of the local lodge until last month, was entirely remodeled and redecorated. Reception room, reading and smoking rooms, buffet and kitchen were arranged on the ground floor; card rooms, committee chambers and billiard room were directly above. The lodge, described as "the handsomest in the city and at the same time the best ventilated" occupied the top floor. Money for the construction and refurnishing was raised by means of shares of stock sold to the members at $10 and bearing suitable interest. The progress of the new clubhouse was marked by Hudson residents, and the paper described it as "the showplace of Hudson" and a building that "would make them sit up and take notice."

Now that building, after almost thirty years of continuous service has outlived its practical usefulness. Some of the furnishings and in particular the oak wainscote in the grill room, are being used in the new lodge. The old home has been the scene of many hours of pleasure and good fellowship for hundreds of our brothers and we leave it with the regret we always feel in the passing of the old familiar things. However, the new lodge is so much more spacious and offers so many more possibilities for the future that we feel sure most brothers are accepting the change as a mark of progress and advancement.

The history says the lodge at 231 Warren Street had "outlived its practical usefulness," but there seem to have been other reasons for the move. In the summer of 1935, there was a fire that caused significant damage to the Elks Lodge. The Chatham Courier reported: "Damage estimated at $20,000 was caused and one fireman was hurt in an early morning fire of unknown origin which swept two floors of the clubhouse of the Hudson Lodge No. 787, B.P.O.E, at 231 Warren street, Hudson, Sunday morning."    

Of Interest

John Mason covers Wednesday night's Planning Commission meeting and the plight of Per Blomquist's apartment project in today's Register-Star: "Hudson commission delays small apartment project again."

Catch-22 Continues

"I feel like a little pinball," said Per Blomquist, who was back before the Planning Commission on Wednesday night, seeking the recommendation the Zoning Board of Appeals needed before they could close their public hearing and make a decision about granting him an area variance. Blomquist, it will be remembered wants to tear down these two houses at 248 and 250 Columbia Street and build in their place a five-unit apartment building.

Blomquist has run afoul of the City's regulatory boards because the one-bedroom apartments he plans for the building will each be 770 square feet, and, accordingly to Cheryl Roberts, city attorney and counsel to the Planning Commission, the city code requires a minimum of 1,500 square for every dwelling unit in a multi-unit building. Gossips, however, maintains that the minimum requirement of 1,500 square foot per dwelling unit pertains to lot size not to the interior size of the dwelling units. A land use attorney and an architect have supported this interpretation. The Planning Commission and the ZBA, however, and now the Legal Committee of the Common Council as well, which is pursuing a change in the code, are being guided by Roberts' reading of the Schedule of Bulk and Area Regulations for Residential Districts. 

Roberts was not present at last night's Planning Commission meeting, but she called in her advice. After excusing himself to the hallway to carry on a ten-minute conversation with Roberts on his cell phone, Planning Commission chair Don Tillson reported what Roberts had advised that Blomquist's project is "not something the Planning Commission should recommend" because it would be "doubling the density." Based on this advice from legal counsel, the Planning Commission tabled Blomquist's request for a recommendation until December.

Next Wednesday, the ZBA was expected to wind up the public hearing on this project and make a decision on whether or not to grant the area variance. In October, they left the public hearing open because they were waiting for a recommendation from the Planning Commission, but since that will not be forthcoming, it is unclear what they will do. At their previous meeting, Roberts advised the ZBA, "This is not a variance you can grant." But one has to wonder why not? 

Let's assume that Roberts is right, and the code requires dwelling units that are no less than 1,500 square feet. Here's what the New York State General City Code has to say about granting area variances: 

In making its determination, the zoning board of appeals shall take into consideration the benefit to the applicant if the variance is granted as weighed against the detriment to the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood or community by such grant. In making such determination the board shall also consider:

(i) whether an undesirable change will be produced in the character of the neighborhood or a detriment to nearby properties will be created by the granting of the area variance;

(ii) whether the benefit sought by the applicant can be achieved by some method feasible for the applicant to pursue, other than an area variance;

(iii) whether the requested variance is substantial;

(iv) whether the proposed variance will have an adverse effect or impact on the physical or environmental conditions in the neighborhood or district; and

(v) whether the alleged difficulty was self-created which consideration shall be relevant to the decision of the board of appeals, but shall not necessarily preclude the granting of the area variance.

According to the law, the ZBA's principal task must be to weigh the benefit to the applicant if the variance is granted against the detriment to the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood or community. If Roberts is right, the variance is indeed substantial--the apartments will be only half the size required by code--but that is only one of five criteria to be considered in weighing the benefit to the applicant against the detriment to the community. Given that what is being proposed has no detriment to the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood and community--indeed it can be argued, and has, that the project will be a significant benefit to the health, safety and welfare of neighborhood and community--it is hard to see how this is not a variance that the ZBA can grant.

Roberts has warned the ZBA that they could be subject to a lawsuit if they grant the area variance, but one has to wonder who would initiate such a legal proceeding. It seems more likely that Blomquist might sue them if they don't.

Of course, Blomquist could achieve his goal of creating five affordable one-bedroom apartments by renovating the existing buildings. That way, he could avoid the tsuris of the regulatory boards altogether and make the people who mourn the imminent loss of two of the few remaining original houses on the block very happy.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

Economic Development in Columbia County

Sam Pratt has two important posts on his blog. The first reports on the plastics extrusion plant that was supposed to happen in the old button factory on the north end of Second Street here in Hudson: "Ashes for Phoenix Hudson?" The second recounts last night's informational meeting about the Columbia County airport: "County and Richmor heap scorn on their own 'grantsmanship.'" 

Another Delay

A special Common Council meeting took place on Tuesday night to consider the purchase of 701 Union Street for reuse as a police and court facility. Council president Don Moore opened the meeting by explaining that it had been the intention to bring the issue to a vote at the meeting, but "some problem with the title" has been discovered and "reservations have begun to develop."

Two of those reservations, which seem to be coming by way of Alderman Wanda Pertilla (Second Ward), were things that have already been addressed: environmental concerns raised by the Phase II environmental study (not a problem so long as the soil isn't disturbed) and police support of the proposed location (Gary Graziano, police commissioner, reported that all but one of the members of the police union were in favor of the proposed site). One was a concern not heard before: police response time. How quickly could the police get to where they were needed from a location at Union and Seventh streets? (Fourth Ward supervisor Bill Hughes, Pertilla's brother, helpfully offered the information that most crime in Hudson occurs below Fourth Street.) What if the train were coming through when the police were summoned to the scene of a crime?

The concern about response time seems calculated to frighten people. It's not as though our Hudson police officers hang out at the station, as Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife did in Mayberry, waiting for someone to call for help. The police cars and the officers are on the street. They're dispatched to where they're needed from where they are. Besides Hudson is only two square miles, and the police know when the train will come through.

Gossips has much more to report about the special meeting and the proposed police and court facility, but for the time being the news is that there is to be a public hearing about the new facility on Wednesday, November 20, at 6 p.m. at the Central Fire Station. Subsequent to the public hearing, on Friday, November 22, at 5 o'clock, there will be another special meeting of the Common Council to vote on purchasing 701 Union Street. 
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

Lineup of Meetings at City Hall Tonight

Tonight there are no fewer than three meetings back to back at City Hall.

At 6 p.m., the mayor presents the 2014 budget to the Common Council. Tomorrow the proposed budget is expected to be on the city website for review by the taxpayers. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Monday, November 18, at 5:30.

At 6:15 p.m., there is a special meeting of the Common Council "to consider proceeding with the Courts and Police Facility at 701 Union Street."

At 7 p.m., the Common Council holds its informal meeting for November, at which new resolutions are introduced and new business discussed.

Mass Gatherings

In May, Joe Fierro got a mass gathering permit to shut down Warren Street between Third and Fourth streets for what was expected to be a giant car show. He had obtained a mass gathering permit from the mayor, but his plans to close down the street for most of a Saturday came as a surprise to his commercial neighbors on the block, whose businesses were impacted by the street closure.

This fiasco inspired the Legal Committee of the Common Council to undertake to amend the application process for a mass gathering permit, but some of the proposed changes are drawing criticism, and, according to today's Register-Star, the Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee is unhappy with them, too, which seems a bit bizarre since Alderman David Marston (First Ward), who chairs the Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee, is a member of the Legal Committee that drafted the changes. John Mason reports what transpired at last Wednesday's AE&T Committee meeting: "Proposed mass gathering rules ruffle feathers."   

Up by the Station Early in the Morning

If more evidence were needed to make the case that Hudson Upper Depot deserves to be saved, here it is: a photograph, taken this morning by international photographer Lynn Davis, which shows just how handsome a structure it is.

PHOTO COPYRIGHT 2013 LYNN DAVIS

Observing the Day in Hudson, Ninety-Five Years Later

Photo credit: C. Vitall

Ninety-Five Years Ago Today

Although we now call it Veterans Day, November 11 was originally called Armistice Day. Ninety-five years ago today, in a railway car at Rethondes in the forest of Compiegne in France, the Allied powers signed a ceasefire agreement with Germany, and, at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the fighting in the Great War, now known as World War I, came to an end.

The photograph is from the archives of the New York Daily News and shows "the first 'unofficial' celebration of Armistice Day" in New York City, which took place on Fifth Avenue and 34th Street on November 11, 1918.

A Neighborhood-Altering Proposal

On Friday morning, there was another challenging proposal before the Historic Preservation Commission. The current owners of 39 South Fifth Street are seeking a certificate of appropriateness to install a six-foot high privacy fence around the yard beside the house, where South Fifth Street curves into East Allen Street.

When shown a picture of the type of cedar fence to be used and told it would be painted white, HPC member Peggy Polenberg opined, "Very nice. I like it." Other HPC members, however, were concerned about the height of the fence and how it would block the view of the building and interfere with the sense of openness. 

In the late 19th century, there was a fence around the property, but it was low picket fence, open in its design, which could be seen over and through.

The HPC urged the applicant, who was there representing the owners, to look at other examples in the city where the desired goals of privacy and security were achieved in ways that were "more of an enhancement than a barrier." A wrought iron fence, a picket fence, and a privet hedge were suggested as possible solutions.

The application was determined to be incomplete because it lacked a site plan that showed exactly were the fence would be positioned and an image that showed what the fence would look like in context. The HPC will continue its consideration of the application at its next meeting on Friday, November 22.

COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

Happening Next Weekend

Next Saturday, November 16, BeLo3rd's ART/DINE Gallery Stroll returns, offering tastings from eight BeLo3rd eateries at seven Belo3rd galleries. Of particular interest is a tribute exhibition, opening that night at BCB ART, of outsider art collected by the late Cynthia Coulter.

A respected artist, Coulter had a passion for collecting unique and unusual outsider art from her native state of Oklahoma, as well as from rural locales in Texas, Illinois, and New York. The exhibition features select pieces from her collection--handmade lamps fashioned from ice cream sticks and marbles, tables made from twigs and spools, colorful paintings and drawings, and polychromed carved wooden animals.

In accordance with the artist's wishes, the proceeds from the sale of these works will be donated to charities dear to her heart, among them the Texas Women's Shelter and the Humane Society of the United States.

Ear to the Ground

Often, unexpected information can be picked up at meetings in City Hall. Yesterday, at the Historic Preservation Commission meeting, a building owner seeking a certificate of appropriateness to replace three ground floor windows revealed that a small record label is moving here from Brooklyn. 

More About the Hudson Upper Depot

John Mason catches up on the story of the threat of demolition to the train station at State and Seventh streets: "Depot in danger of demolition." City historian, Pat Fenoff provided for the article the information that the building was completed in 1871, which makes this depot three years older than the depot that is now the Amtrak Station. Fenoff also provided this historic photograph of the depot.

The depot can also be seen in the background of this historic post card image of the Public Square, a.k.a. Seventh Street Park.

At the Historic Preservation Commission meeting on Friday morning, Mark Schuman of Mountain View Masonry and Landscape Supply presented the application for a certificate of appropriateness to demolish 708 State Street--the former Hudson Upper Station on the Albany & Boston Railroad. As justification for the demolition, Schuman explained that the owner has had the building for ten years, and it is now in need for a lot of work. The owner, Van Kleeck's Tire, is not interested in maintaining the building and wants to demolish it to get "a little more staging area"--in other words, to park trucks there.

Schuman, whose company demolished the Old Brick Tavern at the intersection of Routes 66 and 9H in 2011 and "disassembled" 900 Columbia Street earlier this year, wants to salvage the materials from the depot and resell them. He told the HPC, perhaps in an effort to make what he does sound like historic preservation, "Buildings we take down let other buildings live on." Indeed, bricks from the Old Brick Tavern found their way into the rebuilt brick veneer front wall of 211 Union Street, General Worth's birthplace.

Obviously thinking that it somehow made a difference, Schuman pointed out that the current owner had purchased the building in 2004, two years before the locally designated historic district that includes the building was established.

HPC chair Rick Rector seemed ready to put the application to a vote, informing Schuman, "If we do vote and deny this, you can appeal to the Common Council." Carl Whitbeck, now counsel to the HPC, cautioned against voting immediately. "You don't have any facts," he told the HPC and advised them to "make appropriate findings on which to base your judgment." Whitbeck described the depot as "a structure that is significant in its own right." He recalled that Smith Tire, the previous owner of the property, had received a grant from the federal government in 1980 to rehab the depot and other nearby buildings for commercial use, among them what remained of the Gifford-Wood Foundry.

In the end, the HPC voted unanimously that the application was incomplete. After this decision was made, Craig Haigh, Hudson's newly appointed code enforcement officer, reported a sentiment he had heard expressed, although it wasn't entirely clear by whom, that the owner could just take down the building and suffer the consequences. He defined the consequences as a $250 fine and 10 days in jail and concluded that "the consequences are not onerous enough."

Whitbeck commented that municipalities had to decide to enforce their statutes and suggested that action might be taken in the New York State Supreme Court to prevent demolition or to require people to put something back if it was destroyed without a certificate of appropriateness, intimating that the $250 fine could apply for every day from the time the demolition began to the time the building was returned to the way it had been.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

Post card image courtesy Byrne Fone; photo of Gifford-Wood Foundry from Mirrored Memories, Columbia County Historical Society, 1991.

In Memoriam

William lost another dog friend this week: Quinn. We often encountered Quinn and his human on Warren Street or on Second as they headed toward the river. Quinn loved to swim. William and Quinn were cool toward each other whenever they met. They were guy friends. But hanging out at Bruno's just won't be the same for William without the chance of meeting up with his old bud. Our sympathy to Quinn's human for his profound loss.

Photo credit: Wendy Kenneally

Not to Be Missed

Jamie Larson has an article in Rural Intelligence about Lou Blasingame and Don Friday of Ad Lib Antiques and the very not antique chandeliers, sconces, and lamps that Blasingame, as Lou Blass, is now creating: "Lou Blass and Don Friday of Ad Lib Antiques Take Off into the Future." 

The Fate of the Garden

Last night, it was standing room only at City Hall as Hudson Urban Gardens (HUG) and Habitat for Humanity presented their proposals to the Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency, represented by executive director Sheena Salvino and three of its five board members (Cappy Pierro, Ohrine Stewart, and Don Tillson; Mayor William Hallenbeck and Lyle Shook were absent). John Mason reports on the meeting in today's Register-Star: "Compromise sought in garden dust-up."

Gossips took Salvino at her word when she said, after the presentations and the brief public comment period, that the meeting would move on to other agenda items. Mason didn't and was there to hear Salvino refer to the people in the community who came out to support the garden as an "excited mob," to hear Tillson (chair of the Planning Commission) use the term "mob mentality" at least twice, and to hear Pierro characterize citizens' desire to be involved in the decisions that affect them as "They love to battle." They must have not realized the press was still in the room.

Late in the brief period set aside for public comment, Victor Mendolia questioned how exhaustive the search for alternative building sites had been and mentioned the lot at the corner of Fourth and State streets, which the City has owned since 1994 and which a year ago the Common Council agreed to sell in order to close a gap in the much touted zero increase 2013 budget. Amazingly, as Mason reports, the HCDPA board seems to have glommed on to that as an alternative site for Habitat's single family passive houses--no matter that the site could more appropriately be used for a more substantial building that would provide affordable housing for more than just three or four families.

COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

History Threatened

The Historic Preservation Commission meets in the morning--Friday, November 8--at 10 a.m. One of the matters before them will be an application for a certificate of appropriateness to demolish 708 State Street--the former train station now owned by Van Kleeck's Tire.

This surely is a building that must not be lost. It was the passenger station for the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad, which opened for travel from Hudson to West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in September 1838. This ad for the line appeared in the Albany Argus for August 12, 1841.

An article that appeared in the Chatham Courier for December 23, 1891, contained this recollection of watching the train leave the station at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

It was an interesting sight to see a train start out of the Hudson upper station to go to West Stockbridge at 3 o'clock. The writer can remember when a small child in 1845 being taken by his father to "see the cars." The locomotive looked rather too formidable and a good distance was maintained as the idea was uppermost that there might be a discharge of steam or something of the kind that might prove fatal. But when the bell began to ring and old Capt. James Bagley, the conductor, mounted to his place on the foot board then it was interesting. One of the things that the writer can perfectly remember was than Benjamin Gates, the prominent New Lebanon Shaker, was one of the passengers.

The Hudson and Berkshire Railroad evolved first into the Hudson and Boston line and then became the Hudson Branch of the Albany & Boston Railroad. In 1959, after more than a century of operation, permission was granted to close the line. The removal of the tracks began in 1960. The tracks that remain today extend only as far as the ADM plant in Greenport. On August 20, 1959, an article in the Chatham Courier, commemorating the first railroad in Hudson, contained this reminiscence from the early years of the 20th century.

In the fall, when leaves turned scarlet there was always "The Vassar Special" bringing carloads of pretty girls en route to their New England homes for the holidays, leaving many a palpitating heart among the young swains who viewed this gay, feminine trainload on its way through the countryside.

By 1910 there were four passenger trains a day running between Chatham and Hudson. Trains moved daily between Hudson Station, Hudson Upper Station on State Street, Claverack, a flag stop at Country Club, Mellenville, Pulver's Station, Ghent and Chatham.

A wooden-legged Civil War veteran, "Font" Osborne of Hudson, bellowed out the stations from his conductor's post, while up front, Jim Armstrong of Hudson, the engineer, knew every lane and cow crossing and sounded a warning blast or tooted at a farmer friend doing his spring plowing at Old Ghent.

"Hudson Station," now the Amtrak Station, was built in 1874 and meticulously restored in 1992. "Hudson Upper Station" is older, possibly dating from the late 1830s, and deserves to be similarly respected and restored. It cannot be allowed to suffer the fate visited upon a building from the same era or earlier in recent months. Fortunately, the train station is in a historic district, and, unlike 900 Columbia Street, its destruction can be prevented.

COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK