Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District
The Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District (listed on the National Register in 1970) [1] included buildings on Warren Street between Second Street and Parade Hill, both sides of North and South Front Streets between Columbia Street (formerly Diamond) and Allan Street, both sides of Prison Alley between North Front Street and the edge of the bluff, and the north side of Fleet Street, as well as Parade Hill and Franklin Square. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document.
After the district was listed, the city of Hudson demolished major portions of it as part of its urban renewal program. Specifically, the entire west side of Front Street and a small portion of the east side within the district boundaries was demolished except for a firehouse located at Front and Warren and the park on Parade Hill. The south side of Warren Street between Front and First Streets was also demolished,, except for the building at 1 Warren Street.
On the west side of Front Street, the revised boundary was drawn to include only the surviving nineteenth-century firehouse and the park overlooking the Hudson River on Promenade, or Parade Hill, created when the city was established in 1783.
On the east side of Front Street, the revised boundary excludes modern construction north of Warren Street between Prison Alley and Columbia Street but includes surviving historic resources south of Warren Street to Cross Street. A modern, non-contributing, one-story commercial building on the south side of Warren Street between South Front and First Street was retained within the boundary because of its proximity to the adjacent historic resources on Warren and South Front Streets. In addition, surviving portions of the Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District were included within the Hudson Historic District, a large, comprehensive citywide district listed on the National Register October, 1985.
The Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District included intact historic resources in the portion of the area first settled by the Proprietors when the city of Hudson was established in 1783, the sites of some of the city's first buildings, portions of the city's original eighteenth-century plan, an intact two-block commercial streetscape, and open space designated for public use in 1785 and 1838. As a result of the city's urban renewal programs during the 1970's, a large portion of the listed district was razed and redeveloped with modern non-contributing housing. In this section of the district, primarily on North and South Front Streets, historic buildings were demolished, potential historic archeological sites were disturbed and the historic street pattern was altered. Thus, this section of the district no longer retains the integrity of location, design, setting, materials, feeling and association originally present, and the boundary of the Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District has been redrawn to exclude these areas from the National Register. The revised boundary was drawn to include a surviving historic firehouse on Warren and Front Streets, a historic open space on Parade Hill and surviving resources on South Front and Warren Streets. In addition, all of the intact portions of the Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District were included within the larger Hudson Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1985.
Significance
The Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District was the area first settled by the Proprietors when the City of Hudson was established as a commercial "New Town" of the eighteenth century. Because Hudson was settled by New Englanders, the planning and architecture of the new city contrasts with the older existing towns of the Hudson Valley which were settled by the Dutch primarily as agricultural and trade centers.
- Waite, Diana S., New York State Historic Trust, Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District, nomination document, 1969, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Front Street • Warren Street
