Propst Horseshoeing

Kind of a sad story about this old photograph:
I  found it in the Watnot Shop about 8+ years ago, when I was making my living selling collectibles on ebay, (and saving my pennies to buy a house here in Hudson.)  Subject-specific antique photos, such as this one of an old horse-shoeing shop--had the potential to bring hefty profits.  This one, however, only brought about ten bucks.

That's not the sad part though.
The sad part is that about a month or two after I sold it, I bought my house here on 5th Street, and, after studying the leftover jpeg some more, realized that Propst Horseshoeing had been located directly across the street from my new home (a fact I confirmed by researching old directories in the history room at the library.)

 

So, I sold a piece of Hudson history on ebay for ten bucks--- big ouch.

The good news is that the buyer was someone named Propst, so it's hopefully stored safely away in a genealogical archive somewhere, not my messy cigar box filing system...

Five and Dime

617 Warren Street, Hudson, NY

they paved paradise

View from Long Alley, 2004:
View from Long Alley, 2005:
View from Prison Alley 2004:
View from Prison Alley 2005:
(former location of Gold's Scrapyard, mid- 300 block of Columbia Street)

neighbors.

Recognize this place?

I'll give you a hint:

Old walls, new life

This is the old dance hall that used to be on Robinson Street.

More specifically, it was tucked in the back, speakeasy style, on Rope Alley, near the intersection of 2nd Street.
I took these pictures 6 years ago, when the Housing Resources people let Alan and I go in and rummage around before they rehabbed. They were about to gut it and turn it and the adjacent 2-story apartment building into new housing.

I grabbed the piano stool with glass ball feet, some loose ivory piano keys, and some beautiful wallpaper samples from the upstairs apartment (which I later used in a collage.)




Alan salvaged a heaping truckload of beadboard from the dance hall walls, and stored it away.

Not too long after, the whole building burned down.

Last week Alan  pulled out some of the beadboard and installed a 20+ foot span of wall in his workshop (partially shown here). He also devised some secret method of removing spraypaint graffiti without ruining the original finish.

Now and Then: Columbia and First streets, Hudson, NY

Columbia and first sts, hudson, NY. now and then (1953 and 2008)
Originally uploaded by fiveanddiamond

Special Thanks to Alex Brown and Paula Mickle (the girl in photos) for letting me use their vintage photos for my ongoing Now and Then project. (Dis-honorable mention to urban renewal for tearing down all the old buildings).
Below is my photoshop collage.

Found

8x10" photo stuck to glass.
Found at a yard sale in Claverack a couple months ago (the seller gave it to me).

It reminded me of a scene in one of my favorite movies, Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World.  In it, Max von Sydow's character has invented a ground-breaking device that can record the visual experiences of one person and then transfer them to the brain of a blind person, in this case his wife.  The technology is still rough though, so the imagery the woman experiences, of her children and grandchildren, are quite blurry and broken.