Hudson

Hudson
—  City  —
Nickname(s): The Friendly City
Hudson
Coordinates: 42°15′4″N 73°47′6″W / 42.25111°N 73.785°W / 42.25111; -73.785
Elevation	25 m (82 ft)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	12534
Area code(s)	518
FIPS code	36-35969
GNIS feature ID	0953386

Hudson is a city located along the west border of Columbia County, New York, United States. The city is named after the adjacent Hudson River and ultimately after the explorer Henry Hudson.^[1]

Hudson is the county seat of Columbia County.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.0 km©˜ (2.3 sq mi). 5.6 km©˜ (2.2 sq mi) of it is land and 0.4 km©˜ (0.2 sq mi) of it (6.47%) is water.

Hudson is located on what began as a spit of land jutting into the Hudson River between the South Bay and North Bay, now both largely filled and partially degraded by industrial-era waste.

Across the Hudson River lies the town of Athens and Greene County, New York; a ferry connected the two municipalities during much of the 19th century. Between them lies Middle Ground Flats, a former sandbar that grew due to both natural silting and also from dumping the spoils of dredging; today it is inhabited by deer and a few occupants of quasi-legal summer shanties.

Demographics

As of the census^[2] of 2000, there were 7,524 people, 2,951 households, and 1,590 families residing in the city. The population was 7,524 at the 2000 census, and has since been estimated at 7,296[1] in 2003, and at 6,985[2] in 2006. These numbers include the approximately 500 residents of the local Hudson Correctional Facility. Recent population declines may be attributable to real estate trends in which retirees, young couples, childfree couples, singles and weekenders have been gradually replacing larger families and converting apartment buildings to single-family homes, as the number of unoccupied homes and tax delinquency has declined.

The population density was 1,338.7/km©˜ (3,468.2/sq mi). There were 3,347 housing units at an average density of 595.5/km©˜ (1,542.8/sq mi). The racial makeup of the city was 64.29% White, 24.02% African American, 0.28% Native American, 2.84% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 4.15% from other races, and 4.41% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.41% of the population.

There were 2,951 households out of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 29.4% were married couples living together, 19.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.1% were non-families. 39.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.7% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 106.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 105.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $24,279, and the median income for a family was $27,594. Males had a median income of $26,274 versus $22,598 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,759. About 23.8% of families and 25.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.7% of those under age 18 and 13.9% of those age 65 or over.

History

Artist's rendering of fishermen on the Athens side of the Hudson, with view of City of Hudson waterfront (date unknown)

Warren Street in downtown Hudson.

Engraved view of the city (date, artist unknown)

The land was purchased from native Mahicans by Dutch settlers in 1662 and was originally part of Town of Claverack; formerly it was known as "Claverack Landing." Settled by New England whalers and merchants hailing primarily from Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Providence, Rhode Island, Hudson was chartered as a city in 1785. The self-described "Proprietors" laid out a city grid, and Hudson grew rapidly as an active port, coming within one vote of being named the capital of New York State.

The city grew rapidly and by 1790 was the 24th largest city in the United States.^[3] As late as 1820, it was the fourth largest city in New York State^[4].Martin Van Buren opened his first law office in Hudson. Margaret B. Schram's "Hudson's Merchants and Whalers: 1783-1850" tells the story of the city's maritime history. On March 1, 1794, General William Jenkins Worth, the future liberator of Texas in the Mexican-American War, was born on Union Street in Hudson. The house where he was born still stands. Worth Avenue in the city is named after him, as is Fort Worth, Texas. Sanford Robinson Gifford, a member of the second generation of Hudson River School of landscape painters, was born in Hudson on July 10, 1823, and following his death on August 29, 1880, was buried in Hudson's Cedar Park Cemetery. Hudson obtained a new charter in 1895. In 1935, to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the city, the United States Mint issued the Hudson Half Dollar. The coin is one of the rarest ever minted by the United States Government with only 10,008 coins struck. On the front of the coin is Henry Hudson's ship the Half Moon and on the reverse is the seal of the city. Local legend has it that coin was minted on the direct order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to thank the Hudson City Democratic Committee for being the first to endorse him for State Senator and Governor.

In the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, Hudson became notorious as a center of vice, especially gambling and prostitution, as described in Bruce Edward Hall's book, Diamond Street: The Story of the Little Town with the Big Red Light District. (The former Diamond Street is today Columbia Street.) At the peak of the vice industry, Hudson also boasted of more than 50 bars. These rackets were mostly broken up in 1951 after surprise raids of Hudson whorehouses by then-Governor Thomas E. Dewey netted, among other catches, several local policemen.

After a steep decline in the 60s and 70s, the city has undergone a significant revival. A group of antiques dealers opened shops on the city's main thoroughfare, Warren Street, in the mid-1980s, the earliest being the Hudson Antiques Center, founded by Alain Pioton, and The English Antiques Center. Their numbers grew from a handful in the 1980s to almost seventy shops now. Following this business revival, the city experienced a residential revival as well, and is now known for its active arts scene, antiques shops, restaurants, art galleries and nightlife.

In the last few years, perhaps encouraged by the number of gay business owners among the original antiques dealers, Hudson has become a destination for gay people who have opened new businesses, moved here from larger urban areas, and who have been in the forefront of the restoration of many of the city's historic houses.

With hundreds of properties listed or eligible to be listed in the State and National Registers of historic places, Hudson has been called "a finest dictionary of American architecture in New York State." The vast majority of properties in the Register-listed Hudson Historic District are considered contributing. A discussion of Hudson's architecture, its history, and recent revival, together with a collection of 200 period photographs of the city spanning the mid-19th to the early 20th century, is Historic Hudson: An Architectural Portrait by historian Byrne Fone.

In the 1990s and early 21st century, Hudson has had five mayors: William Allen, Dolly Allen, Richard Scalera, Kenneth Cranna and Richard Tracy. This period has been marked by unusual levels of friction between elected officials and residents as the demographics and economics of the city have shifted. Several controversial industrial projects brought these already-simmering tensions to a boil, such as an unsuccessful proposal in 1998 for a dry cleaning waste plant at the Hudson waterfront supported by then-Mayor Scalera as well as the Columbia-Hudson Partnership.

This was followed from late 1998 'til spring 2005 by a land use conflict between St. Lawrence Cement (SLC), a subsidiary of what was then on the world's largest cement companies, the Swiss multinational giant Holderbank (since renamed Holcim), and private citizens. The company proposed a massive, coal-fired cement manufacturing project sprawling over 1,800 acres (7.3 km²) in the city of Hudson and the town of Greenport, Columbia County, New York. Sustained grassroots opposition ^[5] to the project was spearheaded by business owner Peter Jung^[6] and journalist Sam Pratt,^[7][8] co-founders of Friends of Hudson (FOH). The controversy garnered national attention from news outlets such as CNN and The New York Times, as well as media outlets in Canada and Switzerland. The project was withdrawn after Secretary of State Randy Daniels determined that the company's plans were inconsistent with the State's 24 Coastal policies, an outcome which opponents described as "a colossal relief" and supporters denounced as "flawed in its logic." Nearly 14,000 public comments were received by the State's Division of Coastal Resources (87% of them opposed to the project), a record for that agency.

Other notable features and residents

South Western View of Hudson City N.Y. from Academy Hill, or Prospect Hill (1837) by W.H. Bartlett

South of Hudson is the location of Olana, the home of landscape painter Frederic Church, now Olana State Historic Site.

Hudson is home to the FASNY Museum of Firefighting, one of the largest fire service centered museums in the world. It is on the grounds of the Fasny Firemen's home, the first old-age/nursing home for firemen in the country.

Several movies and television shows have been filmed in Hudson, which includes The Wonder Years, Odds Against Tomorrow starring Harry Bellafonte and more recently Ironweed starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep and Nobody's Fool starring Paul Newman and Jessica Tandy, and the aforementioned documentary, Two Square Miles.

Noted residents include New York State Poet Laureate John Ashbery, Father John Corapi, composer Philip Glass, Artist Nicolas Carone, photographer Lynn Davis, former As the World Turns announcer Dan Region, and New York Giants cornerback Rashad Barksdale. The author Dawn Langley Simmons, a famous hermaphrodite, lived quietly in Hudson during the 1980s while writing her biography of Margaret Rutherford. Hudson was also the hometown of author Daniel McGuire, a 1987 recipient of an American Book Award for his novel "Portrait of Little Boy in Darkness." Throughout his life, McGuire worked as a laborer in a factory in Hudson and never published another work.

The psychiatrist and novelist Stephen Bergman, who uses the pen name Samuel Shem, grew up in Hudson and evokes the town frequently in his works, including in his most recent novel "The Spirit of the Place" (Kent State University Press, 2008), where Hudson is represented by a town called "Columbia."

Rail transportation

Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Hudson, including stops by the following trains:

• The Adirondack, operating daily in both directions between Montreal, Canada, and New York City.

• All Empire Service trains, operating several times daily in both directions between New York City and either Albany-Rensselaer or Buffalo, New York.

• The Ethan Allen Express, operating daily in both directions between New York City and Rutland, Vermont.

• The Maple Leaf, operating daily in both directions between New York City and Toronto, Canada.

References and notes

New York portal

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2006)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hudson, New York

• City of Hudson
• Hudson Area Association Library
• FASNY - Fire Museum of Firefighting New York
• Hudson Athens LightHouse
• The 12534
• Hudson City Democratic Committee

v • d • e Municipalities and communities of Columbia County, New York County seat: Hudson City Hudson Towns Ancram | Austerlitz | Canaan | Chatham | Claverack | Copake | Gallatin | Germantown | Ghent | Greenport | Hillsdale | Kinderhook | Livingston | New Lebanon | Stockport | Stuyvesant | Taghkanic Villages Chatham | Kinderhook | Philmont | Valatie CDPs Claverack-Red Mills | Copake Lake | Germantown | Ghent | Lorenz Park | Niverville | Stottville

v • d • e   State of New York Albany (capital) Topics Administrative divisions · Congressional districts · Demographics · Economy · Education · Elections · Geography · Government · History · Symbols · People · Politics · Transportation · Visitor Attractions · Windmills Regions Adirondack Mountains · Allegheny Plateau · Capital District · Catskill Mountains · Central · Champlain Valley · City of New York · Finger Lakes · Holland Purchase · Hudson Highlands · Hudson Valley · Long Island · Mohawk Valley · New York Metro · Niagara Frontier · North Country · Ridge and Valley · Saint Lawrence Seaway · Shawangunks · Ski country · Southern Tier · Southtowns · Tech Valley · Thousand Islands · Upstate · Western Metro areas Albany / Schenectady / Troy · Binghamton · Buffalo / Niagara Falls · Elmira/Corning · Glens Falls · Ithaca · Jamestown · Newburgh/Middletown · New York City · Poughkeepsie · Rochester · Syracuse · Utica/Rome Counties Albany · Allegany · Bronx · Broome · Cattaraugus · Cayuga · Chautauqua · Chemung · Chenango · Clinton · Columbia · Cortland · Delaware · Dutchess · Erie · Essex · Franklin · Fulton · Genesee · Greene · Hamilton · Herkimer · Jefferson · Kings · Lewis · Livingston · Madison · Monroe · Montgomery · Nassau · New York · Niagara · Oneida · Onondaga · Ontario · Orange · Orleans · Oswego · Otsego · Putnam · Queens · Rensselaer · Richmond · Rockland · Saint Lawrence · Saratoga · Schenectady · Schoharie · Schuyler · Seneca · Steuben · Suffolk · Sullivan · Tioga · Tompkins · Ulster · Warren · Washington · Wayne · Westchester · Wyoming · Yates