Athens

Hudson Valley Architect Henry S. Moul

March 16, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

On July 13, 1905, the Columbia Weekly Republican reported that the prominent Hudson, NY architect Henry S. Moul (1857-1925) had prepared the plans and specifications for construction of the Railway Steel Spring Company’s new foundry building; he presumably also designed the sand house that supported its operations.

Moul was from a family with a long history in the Columbia County area. The son of a masonry contractor, Moul came to Hudson in 1875 and apprenticed with James E. McClure, a local carpenter and builder, while studying architecture in the evenings. He was subsequently employed by McClure and took over the latter’s business after McClure’s death in 1888. [Read more…] about Hudson Valley Architect Henry S. Moul

The Newburgh-Beacon Bridge: A History & Engineering Primer

November 10, 2025 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The most traveled of the New York State Bridge Authority’s bridges, the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge carries more than 25 million crossings a year on Interstate 84.

In February 1951, NYS Assembly Majority Leader Lee B. Mailler of Cornwall introduced a bill calling for test borings to be conducted for a bridge over the Hudson River between Beacon and Newburgh. [Read more…] about The Newburgh-Beacon Bridge: A History & Engineering Primer

Six Historic Preservation Projects Get Much-Needed Private Funding

April 27, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Six capital projects will receive funding from The Preservation League of NYS’s Preservation Opportunity Fund, which provides funding for urgent historic preservation projects. The creation of the Preservation Opportunity Fund in 2024 allows the League to have an immediate impact on historic sites in need of maintenance and repair. [Read more…] about Six Historic Preservation Projects Get Much-Needed Private Funding

19th Century Steamboat Memories From An Old Boatman

April 22, 2025 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

What follows is a letter to the New York Sun by John H. Hubbel from November 12, 1917.

To the Editor of the Sun — Sir: I have been reading the letters of the Mary Powell [built in 1861 and operated 55 years] and other boats on the Hudson River. I was born in Hudson, [Columbia County], NY in 1836, the son of Henry Hubbel of Hubbel, Clark & Co., owners of the steamer Fairfield. Later they bought a boat by the name of Columbia. She ran for a number of years and they bought the Oregon, which was sunk by the steamboat City of Boston [in 1863]. [Read more…] about 19th Century Steamboat Memories From An Old Boatman

Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Named to Most Endangered Historic Places List

May 2, 2024 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, in the Hudson River between Athens in Greene County and Hudson in Columbia County, has been named to The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of Most Endangered Historic Places in the United States.

Opened in 1874, the lighthouse was then one of several “middle-of-the-river” lighthouses on the Hudson River. Now, it’s one of only two left standing. However, due to erosion and other preservation challenges, engineering reports indicate the building is at risk of collapse within three years if no action is taken. [Read more…] about Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Named to Most Endangered Historic Places List

Open Burning Leads to Wildfire, Tickets Across Upstate NY

April 1, 2024 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

New York State Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) recently responded to illegal burns in several counties, including Greene, Erie, Sullivan and Orange Counties leading up to and after a statewide ban on residential brush burning took effect on March 16. [Read more…] about Open Burning Leads to Wildfire, Tickets Across Upstate NY

Hudson-Athens Lighthouse’s Once-in-a Century Renovation

January 13, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society (HALPS) has announced the award of a $500,000 grant by the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP). The grant will support work to restore and protect the infrastructure of the 147-year-old Hudson-Athens Lighthouse’s primary building.

Work includes replacing its flat roof, mansard slate side roofs, gutters, and downspouts, all designed to eliminate damaging, ongoing water intrusion. In addition, a new staircase from the dock up to the building’s deck will increase and expand access and safety. Installation of an upgraded marine toilet and cistern repairs are also part of plan. [Read more…] about Hudson-Athens Lighthouse’s Once-in-a Century Renovation

Suffrage Centennial Exhibit at Athens Cultural Center

June 29, 2017 by Carrie Feder 1 Comment

Women won the right to vote in New York State in 1917, but the story really began much earlier and with particular fervor in the mid 19th century.

In the 1840’s, upstate New York was a hotbed of radicalism. The “Second Great Awakening” brought with it spiritual revivalism, penal and education reforms, abolitionism and the temperance and women’s right movements. This turbulent atmosphere of ideas and events was not unlike the cultural upheaval of the 1960s.

In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Coffin Mott and several other women gathered around a tea table in Waterloo, New York and drafted the “Declaration of Sentiments” based upon the Declaration of Independence. By inserting into the text that women, as well as men, were created equal, they renewed the revolution that was started seventy two years earlier in 1776. The protracted and arduous road to women’s right to the elective franchise took until 1917 to be realized in New York State and not until 1920 in the entire United States. [Read more…] about Suffrage Centennial Exhibit at Athens Cultural Center

Caniskek: The Meeting of Worlds in Athens NY

July 21, 2015 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Imagine it is 1665. The place is the wilderness along the banks of the river whose “waters flow both ways.” The native inhabitants are the Mohicans, the newcomers wishing to settle and trade are the Dutch. Exactly 350 years ago a deed was signed for the land the Mohicans called Caniskek, a place that would change forever and evolve into the present day town called Athens, New York. [Read more…] about Caniskek: The Meeting of Worlds in Athens NY

Athens

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