December 24, 2006

North Highlands Methodist Episcopal Church, Philipstown, NY DEMOLISHED ~DECEMBER 2006~ This church at Davenports Corners (outside Cold Spring) in Philipstown, Putnam County, was demolished on December 4, 2006 as part of a road widening project. Sources: Ginny's History, Genealogy and Historic Preservation website Putnam County News and Recorder - "Methodist Meeting House Taken Down." December 6, 2006.

December 13, 2006

Tioronda Bridge, Beacon, NY DEMOLISHED ~DECEMBER 2006~

The Tioronda Bridge was dismantled in early December. The planned demolition was first reported in the 2005 Demolition Alert. Apparently, the piers will be restored and the trusses will be replaced when a new roadway is installed for limited vehicular access. Photograph courtesy of John Fasulo.

Fishkill Encampment and Supply Depot:
Also in Dutchess County, a Revolutionary War site listed on the National Register of Historic Places is threatened by commercial development. The Fishkill Encampment and Supply Depot was occupied by the New York State and Continental United States armies from 1776 to 1783. According to the Fishkill Historical Focus, the Supply Depot "was a small city which included extensive barracks, a guard house and palisade, a prison, major hospital, artillery placements, and a powder magazine which supplied all Northern Patriot forces . Today, the only maintained structure is the Van Wyck Homestead, a farmhouse which served as a headquarters for military operations." Despite its significance, the site has not yet been properly studied by military archaeologists. The Supply Depot property is threatened by commercial development on land east of Route 9, jeopardizing the archaeological and historical record of what remains of the encampment. 

Source Article:
Various articles have appeared in the Poughkeepsie Journal, most recently: "Fishkill Depot: Shopping area once supplied, housed fledgling army." The Poughkeepsie Journal, December 13, 2006. By Lauren Giordano.

December 12, 2006
Letchworth Village, Thiells, NY:
Stewart Hall, one of the buildings at Letchworth Village planned for reuse for a condominium development, burned on December 6, 2006. It appears that demolition of the remaining structures may begin in early 2007.

Source Article: 
"Fire guts building at Letchworth Village; video." The Journal News, December 7, 2006. By Sarah Netter.

October 31, 2006

Carvel Ice Cream Bakery, Hartsdale, NY

America's first Carvel ice cream stand may soon fall to the wrecking ball. The metal and glass building with forward leaning facade opened for business in 1936 (on the site of the pottery store in which Tom Carvel first sold ice cream) and has been in continuous operation since. The Yonkers-based Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation sold the stand and 1.45 acres this past September to the current store managers for 3.5 million dollars. The new owners plan to raze the Central Avenue icon of roadside Americana and build three stores on the site. According to Carvel's website, Tom Carvel began selling ice cream at this spot in 1934 when his delivery truck broke down (thus providing his inspiration for soft serve ice cream); he opened the new Carvel store on the same location two years later.

UPDATE: November 11, 2006
A subsequent Journal news article was more optimistic for the (at least immediate) future of the Carvel store. The new owner, Abdol Faghihi, was quoted as saying he would like the store to remain open, but his decision will be determined by the success of attracting other business to his property.

Source Article:
"Sale of Lot Could Mean Last Stand for First Carvel." The New York Times, October 27, 2006, by Erin Duggan.
"Owner of original Carvel store in Hartsdale struggles to stay open." The Journal News, November 1, 2005. By Rebecca Baker Erwin. 
"First Carvel Store Sold to Developers." Preservation Online, November 1, 2006. By Margaret Foster.

October 16, 2006

Grandview School, Catskill, NY DEMOLISHED ~OCTOBER 2006~

The Grandview School in Catskill, NY, was demolished during the week ending October 13, 2006. The 1896 building served the Catskill school system through 2002, when a new elementary school opened. After that point the Grandview School  sat vacant. Widewaters Properties acquired the building for one million dollars in June 2006, after several years of planning. The company plans to build a drugstore (likely a Walgreens) on the site; it will be Catskill's seventh drug store, and third in a one-block radius.

UPDATE:
Shortly after the Grandview School was demolished, it was announced that Walgreen's is no longer certain to build on the property.

Source Article: 
"110 years of school history reduced to pile of rubble." The Daily Freeman, October 15, 2006, by Ariel Zangla.
"Catskill seeks alternative tenant for Grandview School site." The Daily Freeman, December 31, 2006, by Ariel Zangla.

July 16, 2006
Dugan's, Dobbs Ferry, NY:
We have received emails stating that Dugan's along the Saw Mill River Parkway has been demolished.

May 16, 2006
Alf Evers's House, Shady, NY:
The Woodstock Times recently reported that the home of the late great Hudson Valley author Alf Evers was largely destroyed when a new owner enlarged the house. The Hutchin Hill Road cottage, once part of the Vosburgh Mill, was Evers's home for 51 years, during which time he authored voluminous books about the Catskill Mountains, the village of Woodstock, and more recently, the city of Kingston. Evers's estate sold the house to cover a Medicaid lien, and the new owner, a neighbor, erected a modern luxury house in its place.

April 14, 2006

Henry Gourdine's Fishing Shed, Ossining, NY DEMOLISHED ~MAY 2006~

This humble wooden shed, like the more majestic ruins on this website, was witness to a once-ubiquitous way of life along the Hudson now practiced by few. Ossining fisherman Henry Gourdine used the shanty, built in 1927, to store two handmade boats and various equipment. The New York Times and the Journal News recently memorialized the shed in two articles. The land it stands on is owned by the village of Ossining but will be turned over to a private developer who will construct riverfront condominiums. Some local residents contend the parcel was intended to be public parkland and thus should not be developed. The property includes a handful of industrial buildings that will also be torn down (see Demolition Alert March 4, 2006). Henry Gourdine's fishing shed will be demolished by the Ossining public works department on Monday April 17, 2006.

Source Article:
"End of the line for fishing shanty in Ossining." The Journal News, April 11, 2006 by Robert Marchant.

UPDATE APRIL 26, 2006:
Local residents were able to obtain a restraining order prohibiting demolition of the fishing shed until the case can be resolved in court. Thus the shed is still standing.

UPDATE: Henry Gourdine's fishing shed was demolished into a heap of fractured boards on May 16, days after developer Martin Ginsburg promised the shed would be "dismantled and numbered," not demolished.

In other news, the County Asphalt plant in Tarrytown (see February 2, 2006) has been dismantled.

March 4, 2006

Storms Tavern, Valley Cottage, NY

The rock quarry company Tilcon recently purchased an 18th century home uphill from its operations in central Rockland County. It appears the Storms Tavern was recently inhabited and looks to be in good condition from cursory exterior examination but Tilcon took the steps of cutting off gas and electricity to the house, which it may demolish. A company spokesperson stated that the house is "uninhabitable" and "infeasible to refurbish."  The house, believed to have been built in 1765, is a Town of Clarkstown historic site and review by a town board is necessary for a demolition permit.

Source article: 
"Homeowners worry that a historic home could be demolished." The Journal News, January 26, 2006 by Jennifer Weil.

 

Waterfront industrial buildings, Ossining, NY DEMOLISHED ~spring 2006~

A long anticipated groundbreaking at the Ossining waterfront occurred on February 28, 2006.  Developers Martin Ginsburg and Louis Cappelli plan to construct an eighty-foot tall building consisting of 150 residential units and 10,000 square feet of retail space on a former industrial site on the Hudson River. Three buildings will be demolished to make way for the project, including one identified on its facade as the Meredith & Hitchcock Storage Transportation Warehouse. Village officials celebrate the advancement of this plan, although some residents contest the transfer of public parkland to private interests  without necessary approval at the State-government level.

Source article: 
"Harbor Square work begins." The Journal News, March 1, 2006, by Robert Marchant.

February 2, 2006

County Asphalt, Tarrytown, NY DEMOLISHED ~EARLY 2006~

The County Asphalt plant in Tarrytown is being relocated to Mount Vernon as part of the ongoing effort to remove industrial operations or redevelop former industrial sites along the Hudson River. The plant, which has existed in its current location since 1924, may be gone as early as March of this year. Called "an ugly remnant of the riverfront's industrial past" by a Tarrytown village official, County Asphalt will eventually be replaced by 238 townhouse-style residential units known as "Ferry Landings." At a nearby site, another condominium complex is being built by Ginsburg Development Corporation, while larger-scale plans still stir for the former General Motors property in Sleepy Hollow. 

Source articles: 
"Waterfront Development pushes ahead," The Hudson Independent, February 2006 by Kim Gaudin de Gonzalez.

"Asphalt plant to be dismantled and moved," River Journal, January 2006 by Robert Bonvento.

January 8, 2006

New York Rubber, Beacon, NY DEMOLISHED ~august 2005~

Belatedly, we bring the news that fire on August 11, 2005 destroyed the New York Rubber mill on the Fishkill Creek in Beacon. Subsequently, the entire brick building, one of the last great Hudson Valley mills, was demolished. In 1858, New York Rubber began operations in a cotton mill built seventeen years earlier. The last active occupant of the site, Tuck Tape, ceased manufacturing in 1989. Plans in the early 2000s appeared to call for adaptive reuse of the building as senior citizen residential units, but the developer, Advantage Capital Partners, Inc., changed plans in 2005 to build new, high-end luxury apartments, which will rent for as high as $3,000 per month. In typical ironic fashion, Advantage Capital has chosen the name "The Haven at Beacon Mills" for the proposed complex.

More New York Rubber:
Fire Photo - Images of the August 11, 2005 fire.

Habirhsaw Wire Company, Yonkers, NY DEMOLISHED ~winter 2005-06~

Demolition of the Habirshaw Wire Company buildings near Glenwood, in Yonkers, is nearing completion. From 1915 to 1930, Habirshaw produced paper-insulated, lead-jacketed cables. Phelps Dodge continued the Habirhsaw operations from 1930 to 1984, when the factory was sold to Cablec, which later became BICC Cables Corp. More recently Miramax and Robert DeNiro owned the site and planned to create a movie studio, but the partnership sold the 18-acre property  in February 2005 to Homes for America, a residential development firm. It appears that at least one building, the EPRI Laboratory building constructed ca. 1968 for cable testing, will remain standing for the time being.

January 1, 2006   

Stokes-Greene Mansion, Cortlandt, NY DEMOLISHED ~DECEMBER 2005~

The Stokes-Greene mansion burned in a midnight fire, December 30, 2005 into December 31. Westchester County has owned the house since 1991, during which time the former home of Shirley Stokes and Bob Greene has been vacant.  According to the Journal News, police investigators said an accelerant was found in the ruins, which led them to believe the fire was deliberately set.

Source Article: "Cortlandt mansion burns." By Keith Eddings, The Journal News. January 1, 2006.

Hudson Valley Ruins

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This page first posted to the internet on February 24, 2004.