November 17, 2007

Putnam and Mellor Engine and Hose Companies Firehouse,  Port Chester DEMOLISHED ~November 17, 2007~   Photograph courtesy of Gray Williams. Originally published in his book Picturing Our Past, National Register Sites in Westchester County (Westchester County Historical Society, 2003).

The Queen Anne-style Putnam and Mellor Engine and Hose Companies Firehouse (also known as the South Main Street Firehouse) was demolished today.  The firehouse was built in 1888 and used until 1995 when a rockslide from the Metro North-New Haven railroad line caused the back wall of the firehouse to collapse. The building was soon stabilized but left vacant and later leased to G & S Investors, the developers who have been given carte blanch to rebuild downtown Port Chester. G & S took no further steps to to maintain the firehouse, and tore down the building to make way for new construction.


November 5, 2007

Theall & McCollum Mine Site (Croton Magnetic Mines) Brewster, NY DEMOLISHED ~2007~

The largely intact 19th-century iron works at the Theall & McCollum mine in Brewster (Putnam County) were recently destroyed. Making way for probable residential development were the ore storage bins/separators built in 1902 by Thomas Edison's New York Concentrating Works (shown above), the mill site foundations, World War II-era dynamite sheds, and two intact pieces of 19th-century mining equipment - a steam engine and an ore crusher. The mine shaft and adit were also filled in (killing off thousands of bats in the process). According to some who have studied the site, it was possibly the best-preserved mining site east of the Hudson River in New York and extending into Connecticut.

More Theall & McCollum Mine:
Hudson Valley Ruins --
IronMiners.Com Forum -- Another thread at IronMiners.Com Forum 
Northeast Mine Explorers --
UndergroundMiners.Com --
Site history on this blog , with more history in the blog comments --

Halcyon Hall, Millbrook, NY LAST UPDATED: November 5, 2007 View Original Alert - October 15, 2005

A 91-home subdivision planned for the remaining 28-acre campus of the Bennett School for Girls in Millbrook awaits village approval. The village planning board must decide first if the plan, eight single-family homes and 83 duplex units, requires an environmental impact statement. If the board finds there is no impact, then the developer, David Blumenthal of Blumenthal Brickman Associates can proceed. Halcyon Hall would be demolished under the plan.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 5, 2007: The developer now has a website with this illustration showing future plans for Halcyon Hall. The development proposal can be read here.


September 25, 2007

Terwilliger's Grist Mill Saugerties, NY COLLAPSED ~July 2007~   Terwilliger's Grist Mill, located adjacent to Saugerties' Seamon Park, collapsed at the end of July. The present building was reconstructed in the 1970s. Never completed, it was allowed to decay. As recently as June 2007, the Saugerties Village Board of Trustees voted against funding further renovation and repair work, despite dire warnings that structural failure was imminent. Photograph courtesy of Chester Hartwell. Source Article: "No Money Stream for Mill." Saugerties Times, August 9, 2007.

September 13, 2007

Dennings Point Brick Works, Machine Shop Beacon, NY DEMOLISHED ~2007~

One of the original structures of the Dennings Point Brick Works in Beacon was recently demolished. Built in 1881 as a blacksmith's or machine shop,  it was one of the very few brickyard buildings still standing in the entire Hudson Valley at the beginning of the 21st century. The future of this long abandoned and partially ruined structure was recently starting to look bright; in 2003 Dennings Point was selected as the site for the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. Another brickyard building has been undergoing reconstruction for the new research center and work will eventually continue with the adaptive reuse of at least one more structure, a building later occupied by a paper clip factory and a building materials factory. 

More Dennings Point Brick Works:
Hudson Valley Ruins - Tom Rinaldi's page.
BrickCollecting.com - Don Bayley's page.

August 11, 2007

Annie's Snack Shack Stony Point, NY DEMOLISHED ~October 4, 2007~

One of the last original 1950s roadside eateries in the Hudson Valley will serve meals for the last time on Wednesday August 15, 2007. Annie's Snack Shack on Route 9W in Stony Point, with open window service, outdoor seating and an indoor dining room, opened in 1951 and will be demolished and replaced by a CVS and a bank, no doubt bearing the look of generic corporate architecture. If you visit, be sure to head down the road and get some ice cream at Hoyer's in Haverstraw, another gem of an old-fashioned family-owned stand, which is still going strong these days.

Source Article:
"After 56 years, Annie shuts door on Snack Shack." - The Journal News, August 11, 2007, by Akiko Matsuda.

August 4, 2007

Carvel Ice Cream Bakery Hartsdale, NY

The first Carvel site in America is one step closer to demolition.  Owner Abdol Faghihi has partnered with Joe Shao of Fuji Mountain Restaurant and applied to demolish the 1950s ice cream stand, built on the spot of the original 1930s-building erected by Tom Carvel, and replace it with a Japanese steakhouse. Roark Capital Group, which owns the Carvel brand, gives franchise owners the right to close stores, but customer complaints to Roark regarding the pending demolition may prove influential.

Source Article:
"Hartsdale birthplace of Carvel brand may close" - The Journal News, August 1, 2007, by Nicole Neroulias.

Goodhue Memorial Hall, Hackley School Tarrytown, NY

Fire believed to have been caused by a lighting strike on the morning of August 4 destroyed the Goodhue Memorial Hall (Library) on the Hackley School's Tarrytown hilltop site. Goodhue Hall, built 1902-03, was completely gutted by the blaze. Contrary to an earlier report by the Journal News, the headmasters residence and the chapel were not damaged by the blaze. The firm of Wheelwright and Haven, a distinguished firm from Boston, MA, designed the early buildings on the Tarrytown campus in what could be called Tudor Renaissance style. 

More Photographs: Hudson Valley Ruins - Hackley School Fire
Source Article: "Lightning strike sparks fire at Tarrytown's Hackley School, destroys library" - The Journal News, August 4, 2007, by Rebecca Baker.

67 North Broadway Yonkers, NY DEMOLISHED ~July, 2007~

The City of Yonkers demolished one of the oldest commercial buildings in the City of Hills last week. Thought to have been constructed between 1840 and 1855, the brick building at 67 North Broadway had been vacant since 2002 and was determined to be structurally deficient by the Yonkers Building Inspector, due to cracks and bowing in the brick walls. The City took the initiative to tear down the structure after the owner could not arrange for immediate demolition.

Source Article: "Yonkers razing dangerous building." - The Journal News, July 27, 2007, by Ernie Garcia.

Other News: Playland, Rye, NY
Westchester County has announced its intention to close two rides at Playland, its National Register-listed amusement park. The two rides are the Zombie Castle and Flying Witch, and are expected to be replaced with "high tech" rides. The Zombie Castle, originally called "Laff In the Dark," has been at Playland since 1934, just 6 years after the park opened. Only seven original rides remain from that year. The Flying Witch dates to 1971. The ride are scheduled for removal by November 30.

Source Article: "Vintage Playland rides face scary future." - The Journal News, July 28, 2007, by Bruce Golding.
Offsite Links: Laff in the Dark - "Save the Rails," "Flying Witch Project," "Zombie Castle."

June 1, 2007

Hudson River State Hospital Poughkeepsie, NY

Fire consumed a substantial portion of the main "Kirkbride" building at the Hudson River State Hospital in Poughkeepsie. The wing shown here in a 2005 photograph, just south of the  main portion of the building, is largely destroyed, with damage to adjacent sections. Investigators are currently considering arson or an electrical storm that rolled through Dutchess County the evening of May 31. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990, the building was designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Withers and built between 1865-1898. Hudson Heritage acquired the site in 2005. Plans to redevelop the property have been on hold due to a building moratorium in the Town of Poughkeepsie. Representatives of Hudson Heritage stated that the fire will not deter redevelopment of the site.

Source Article:
"Fire devours Ex-Psych Site." - The Poughkeepsie Journal, June 1, 2007, by Christine Pizzuti.

Lafayette Paper Company New Windsor, NY

Although the Lafayette Paper Company mill in New Windsor (Orange County) is slated for demolition, an important piece of its history will be preserved. The Connecticut Antique Machinery Association (CAMA) has acquired the paper mill's ca. 1910, 150 horsepower, Nagle-Corliss Steam Engine with a 12-foot flywheel, which will be housed at CAMA's Industrial Hall in Kent, Connecticut. Many thanks to former plant employee Andy Sanchez, whose determination to preserve the history of the mill led to this success.

More Lafayette Paper Mill:
Connecticut Antique Machinery Association website - Website has photos of the steam engine's removal and relocation.
Hudson Valley Ruins: Lafayette Paper Company

May 19, 2007

Woodlands Lake Restaurant Irvington, NY (Saw Mill River Parkway)

Westchester County recently announced plans that the county would allow a catering business to demolish the Woodlands Lake restaurant and build a new catering hall on the site. The new building would be owned by Westchester County, as the land currently is; the property is part of V. E. Macy park and adjoins the South County Trailway (former Putnam Division railroad right-of-way.) The restaurant, built in the 1920s, is characteristic of early parkway architecture, quite similar to the abandoned service stations at Yonkers, including one designed by Clinton Lloyd. Landscape architect Gilmore Clarke was responsible for much of the early designs of the Westchester County parkways. The building last housed the restaurant La Cantina, which closed in the early-mid 1990s. In the late 1990s, Westchester County considered adaptively-reusing the building as a recreation center. Colonial Caterers hopes to open the new building in 2009.

Source Article:
"La Cantina in Irvington could be reborn as catering hall." The Journal News, May 15, 2007, by Liz Anderson.

Chester Hide and Skin Chester, NY DEMOLISHED ~SPRING 2007~

The Chester Hide and Skin rendering plant is in the process of being torn down for  a Lowe's Home Improvement store. Located prominently off to the side of Route 17 in Chester, NY (Orange County) the buildings were abandoned, it seems, between 1984-1990. The facility was part of the Frank J. Murray Company, a division of the Imperial Veal and Lamb Corporation. The blood ponds, across what is now Route 94, have been partially filled in by the roadway. 

Source Article:
"Old rendering plant, a longtime Chester landmark, may be demolished." The Chronicle, April 17, 2007 by Pamela Chergotis.
Information from Clifton Patrick, Town of Chester Historian.

February 21, 2007

Erie Railroad Station Harriman, NY DEMOLISHED ~MAY 2006~

One more ruin disappeared from the Hudson Valley in 2006. According to the Existing Stations in New York State website, the Erie Railroad Station in Harriman (Orange County) was demolished in May 2006. The Tudor-style station was built in 1911 on land donated by E. H. Harriman, a former director of the railroad, owner of a nearby estate, and village namesake. Earlier in 2006, Harriman village building inspector Ron Walker ordered the station's owner, Norfolk Southern, to "remedy" the long vacant structure; Norfolk Southern followed suit by applying for a demolition permit. Adjacent to the station site still stands a monument to Charles Minot, former General Superintendent, who sent the first train crew order by telegraph in 1851. A plaque on the monument was removed in 1979 by a railroad crew, but returned at the request of the community, until it was stolen in 1996.

February 13, 2007

Browning-Green Mansion, Gracemere Estate Tarrytown, NY DEMOLISHED

It recently came to our attention that the long-abandoned mansion built for Adelaide Browning and H. Stuart Green was demolished, probably sometime in 2006. The elegant home stood on the Gracemere estate, the Tarrytown hilltop home of  woolen goods magnate Henry King Browning from 1910 to 1938. He had four daughters; upon their marriages Browning built a home for each of the newlywed couples. Three of the houses still survive as residences today and Browning's own mansion, Gracemere Hall, is now an apartment building owned by the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (the "Unification Church"), the same organization that owned and demolished the Browning-Green residence. More photographs of this great little ruin can be found here.

February 10, 2007

Red Apple Rest Tuxedo, NY

The Town Board of the Town of Tuxedo (Orange County) condemned the famed Red Apple Rest, which has been closed since late summer of 2006. Reuben Freed opened the Red Apple Rest on Route 17 in 1931; before the opening of the New York State Thruway (which runs behind the Red Apple), it became a popular eatery for vacationers on their way to resorts in the southwestern Catskills. Vacationing celebrities who reportedly stopped in to eat include Jerry Lewis, Milton Berle, Jan Murray and New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto. Several movies have been filmed here, including the upcoming Russell Crowe film "Tenderness." Tuxedo Supervisor Peter Dolan referred to the "peeling paint" and "drafty windows" as justification for the decision to condemn the restaurant, as quoted in the Journal News. The article did not contain information regarding a demolition schedule.

Source Article:
"Landmark Red Apple Rest condemned by Town Board." The Journal News, February 9, 2007, by Hema Easley.
"Stopping at Red Apple was grand tradition." The Journal News, August 31, 2006 by Bob Baird.

U P D A T E S

Anaconda Wire and Cable, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY LAST UPDATED: JANUARY 20, 2007 View Original Alert - April 10, 2004

Plans for the cleanup of the Anaconda Wire and Cable Company factory are proceeding in early 2007. Community advocates have joined together as the "Committee to Preserve the Historic Waterfront" for the purpose of promoting the preservation and reuse of the historic factory buildings. The Village Board of Trustees, in authorizing the formation of the Committee, chose to recognize only Buildings 51 and 52 (the long, low brick buildings with sawtooth skylights as seen in the image above) as worthy of preservation. Preservation of the Research buildings has not been offered as an option to the community. 

The owner of the property, ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company, a subsidiary of oil giant BP), completed a review (prepared by Hutton Associates) of the site in May 2006. The study investigated the preservation potential of Buildings 51, 52 and the Water Tower. ARCO has placed a survey on its website soliciting the community's views on what should be done with the Hastings waterfront. The survey is very brief (3 questions) and very limited in scope. But please take it and ask your friends, family, and neighbors to take is as well. The historic building report and community survey can be found on ARCO's waterfront website: http://www.oneriverstreet.com/.

Hudson Valley Ruins

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