Hudson Valley Demolition Alert

As the Hudson Valley region undergoes its most massive physical transformation since Urban Renewal, we are losing historic sites at an alarming pace. Call it suburbanization, sprawl, whatever you like. We are losing the places that gave the Hudson Valley its identity in the first place. 

Know of an historic building scheduled for demolition? 
Email yasinsac@hudsonvalleyruins.org, with a name, location, description of building and scheduled date of demolition. Please keep photos relatively small - 400 pixels wide is fine. We will add new sites as notified.

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On December 22, 2021, the c. 1897 Balmville School on Route 9W was demolished by the Newburgh Board of Education. The building appeared to be in good condition when we photographed it in 2003. The school district ceased to use or maintain the building and did not entertain offers by concerned citizens to acquire and preserve the school building. The property appears destined to become a parking lot for the adjacent, in-use, Balmville Elementary School.

Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2021.html#balmville

The Rockland Drive-In Theatre screen was torn down in early December. A 5-1/2 story office building is planned to take the place of the 1,800-car capacity drive-in theater, which opened in 1955 and closed in 1987. Rockland Drive-In was one of two Rockland County screens still standing in 2006 when it appeared in the Hudson Valley Ruins book. The Nyack Drive-In screen in Blauvelt came down in the early 2010s.

Source article:
"Monsey's longtime drive-in movie screen is gone. See what will be taking its place." By Steve Lieberman. Rockland/Westchester Journal News. December 9 2021. 

Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2021.html#rockland

Demolition work began on the abandoned buildings of the Bennett School campus in Millbrook. Several buildings have been completely demolished already. Halcyon Hall, the centerpiece of the campus, remains standing as of December 2021, but likely sometime in January will come down in a giant pile of timber, stone, and slate. The 20 million dollar project will turn the Bennett school property into a village park.

Source article:
"Work proceeds to create park at site of former college in Millbrook." By Mid-Hudson News. October 1, 2021..

Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2021.html#bennett

Sometime in summer 2021, Scenic Hudson quietly demolished the Hudson Cement Company silos as part of their plan to turn a 520-acre former industrial site into a park to be called Hudson Cliffs Park.  It was exciting to think that the 300-foot tall cylinders would become the focal point of the new park, repurposed and reclaimed from industrial artifact to cultural monument, in line with the industrial chic reclamation of the Hutton Brickyards just to south, and in the spirit of the exciting and imaginative reinvention that is occurring at the even more colossal Silo City location in Buffalo, New York. Curiously, only the Albany Times Union reported on the demise of the silos. However, the Times Union article emphasized more the graffiti at the site than the silos themselves. 

Source article:
"Deciding fate of graffiti art at new Hudson Cliffs State Park." By Carol Reif, Tap Into Somers. April 16, 2021.
 
Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2021.html#hudcement

ISt. Joseph's CHurch, School, and rectory weer demolished in April 2021. In 2018, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church sold this property to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The church, by then, built a larger house of worship in Goldens Bridge with room for 800 worshippers – the increased capacity meant that fewer services could be held, in comparison with the number of masses at the 200-person capacity Croton Falls church. The MTA will create a 450-space permit-only commuter parking lot at the site of the old church, right at a time when office workers have not yet returned to Manhattan in anywhere near pre-pandemic numbers

Source article:
"Community Remembers St. Joseph's." By Carol Reif, Tap Into Somers. April 16, 2021.
 
Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2021.html#crotonfalls

The Hyde Park Motor Company building, undoubtedly was one of the earliest automobile showrooms built in the Hudson Valley, was demolished this winter. Situated at the southeast corner of the main four-corners intersection in Hyde Park, the old car dealership seemed to be a perfect candidate for adaptive reuse – a restaurant or cafe perhaps. It was demolished instead, and the corner was still a vacant lot in late 2021.

Source article:
"Demolition of the Old Hyde Park Motors." Minuteman Press video on Facebook. March 3, 2021.
 
Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2021.html#hydepark

February 24, 2021

The Farrand house in Greenport (just outside of Hudson, NY) was demolished yesterday February 23. Photograph by David Sacco whose grandparents operated the Hotel Glendale out of the house in the late 1930s. Thanks to our friend Paul Barrett for the alert. Paul advocated for the preservation of the Farrand house and thoroughly researched its history. He believes that the house was probably made by joining two houses built in the mid-1800s and that it attained its Gothic revival appearance in the 1860s or later. After its short stint as a hotel, the house was converted to apartments in the 1940s. The last tenants were moved out in 2009 in anticipation of redevelopment of the site. An Aldi's supermarket and shopping center is proposed for the Farrand House site and adjoining property. A Gothic revival cottage behind the existing McDonald's will also be demolished. The Gothic revival trim on the house was not even salvaged.

Source articles:
"Historian describes historic home likely to disappear." By Jeanette Wolfberg. The Columbia Paper, May 7, 2019.
"Just Beyond Our Borders." Carole Osterink. Gossips of Rivertown, February 28, 2018.

Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2021.html#farrand

Two historic buildings in the center of Ancram (Columbia County) demolished in summer 2020, including Porter's Store. As written in our book Hudson Valley Ruins: "Built in the 1840's, this building originally housed a hotel and general store. Later its upper floors were converted to apartments. The Ancram Post Office occupied the building until 1995. It has stood vacant since then." These photographs are from our last visit, February 20, 2017. Porter's Store was demolished about June 2020. The other building that was demolished was the 19th-century Stiehle House, which was damaged after an intoxicated driver drove into the house which stood right up against the shoulder of Route 82.

Source articles:
"Ancram logs its rickety structures." By Diane Valden. The Columbia Paper, June 25, 2020.
"Ancram’s Stiehle House comes tumbling down." By Diane Valden. The Columbia Paper, August 9, 2020.

Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2021.html#porters