City of Hudson's weighed voting system under scrutiny
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  City of Hudson's weighed voting system under scrutiny
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jimrtex
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« Reply #175 on: June 20, 2015, 05:20:40 PM »

Is the Torie plan still slated to go before the voters later this year? If it is and it is approved, does that force the BOE to make the requisite changes to the election districts?
The chair (John Friedman) of the Legal Committee (of the Common Council) circulated a memorandum suggesting either a one-step plan or a two-step plan.  At the next meeting of the committee, the members agreed that the two-step plan would be the best approach.  Friedman indicated that he would be preparing a resolution for the two-step approach:

(1) Voters would approve a plan for 5 equal population wards each electing two aldermen, plus the Council President, the same form as currently in use, without the weighting.  The charter amendment would also provide for a redistricting commission.
(2) In 2016, the redistricting commission would draft a plan which would be used for 2017.

The last referendum to switch to equal population districts had middling support (55%-ish) in most election districts, but was strongly opposed in two of them and lost.  Since two of the wards are less than half a quota, there will be significant sticker shock since the new plan would likely eliminate between 2 and 4 aldermen.  In a one-step process, the Common Council would also have to include the initial map in referendum.  This might be harder to get through the Council, as well as being approved by the voters.  There would still be an initiative option, but there is a risk that it would be voted down, the same as the previous efforts.

My understanding is that the committees in Hudson don't have legislative authority, but are more purposes of oversight, and allow more focused and informal discussion.

My understanding is that the BOE acts as the agent for the city in the conduct of elections.  The city must inform the BOE of which offices will be contested each year (city elections in Hudson are in the odd year). 

The city could simply inform the BOE that they are electing 2 alderman from Ward 4, and describe then go on to describe the boundaries of this area referred to as Ward 4, including clarification in areas that are more ambiguous.

It gets somewhat more complicated because of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors.  There is no requirement that the boundaries of the supervisor districts conform to city ward boundaries.  So they could argue for a different set of "districts".  But they might not want to push that position too far:

(1) They use weighted voting, and thus are using invalid weights because they used the same population numbers as the city.
(2) It is state law that areas of a city from which supervisors are elected have equal population.
(3) It is state law that members of county legislative bodies may not serve on the basis of their election to other bodies, though they may be elected separately.   In Columbia County, the town supervisors, who are elected to head their town board, are also members of the board of supervisors.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #176 on: June 20, 2015, 07:06:41 PM »

What is the relationship of Alderman Bartholomew Delaney to the following persons of the same name:

(1) Elected Alderman in 1900, and later City Assessor, and member of the GOP city committee from  Ward 4 early in the 20th Century.

(2) 45 years old in 1940 (born 1894/1895) married to Margaret and in 1940 living with 6 children the eldest of which is:

(3) 22 years old in 1940 (born 1917/1918)

I'm guessing that (3) is the father of the current Alderman.

If so, there is a truly remarkable coincidence.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #177 on: June 20, 2015, 07:21:57 PM »

Hey, Jimtex, that 1891 map you found actually erroneously marks the Columbia triangle in the 3rd ward. Virginia Martin pointed that out. Can you post that 1938 map to which you allude?


I found the descriptions of the enumeration districts, and where they are not bounded by visible features, they use "city limits" or "ward line" as if it was well known where these were.

Ward 4 had 3 enumeration districts:

11-32 was bounded by: State, N 5th, Warren, N 3rd.

11-33 was bounded by: N 3rd, Ward Line,
                                     City Limits
                                     Ward Line, N 5th
                                     State
and excluded the Firemen's Home.

11-34 was the Firemen's Home.

So even though 3 of the 3 limits of 11-32 were ward boundaries, they used the named streets,

But 11-33 includes the extensions of 3rd and 5th.   Note the reverse order of the ward lines, as the boundaries are traversed clockwise beginning at State and 3rd.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #178 on: June 20, 2015, 08:14:39 PM »

Hey, Jimtex, that 1891 map you found actually erroneously marks the Columbia triangle in the 3rd ward. Virginia Martin pointed that out.

I had noticed that.  The atlas is surely a treasure, covering the Hudson Valley from NYC to Troy at a large scale.  So the cartographer would have depended on local sources, notice that it not only includes street names, but property owners, etc.  I believe the plates are hand colored, rather than color printed.

So it is possible the cartographer made an error, or slipped when coloring it.  The version that is digitized is in Poughkeepsie.  I found another version that is part of the David Rumsey collection, and they are definitely different, though it also skips Columbia Turnpike.

The extensions of the 3rd street and 5th street that form ward boundaries are printed as dashed lines and then colored.

There is another slight error.  The ward boundary between the 3rd and 5th wards runs on a diagonal across what is now 7th Street Park, when it switches from Warren to Columbia (see city charter).  Notice how the atlas kind of fudges the boundary their, with the orange for Ward 5 kind of looping around, and the green for Ward 3 kind of skimming across leaving a gap.

The 1940 Census Map follows the boundary more accurately.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #179 on: June 20, 2015, 11:47:54 PM »

There were houses on the south side of Columbia Street, enumerated as part of Ward 5, in Enumeration District 11-37.

The enumerator was rather haphazard:

Aitken 1-29 (W Side)
Aitken 28-2 (E Side)
Columbia 958-916, 946-956 (N Side)
Aitken 10-6
Columbia 910-886 (N Side)
McKinstry 1-17 (W Side)
McKinstry 16-2 (E Side)
Fairview 6-48 (E Side)
Fairview 53-15 (W Side)
Bailey (sic) Blvd 5-15
Jenkins Parkway 2-24 (E Side)
Jenkins Parkway 23--3 (W Side)
Green St 23-165 (S Side)
Green St 162-26 (N Side)
Spring St 1-17 (S Side)
Spring St 26-18 (N Side)
Frederick St 3&4
Columbia St 923-951 (S Side) <== In Columbia Triangle
Columbia St 854-802 (N Side)
Columbia St 764 (N Side, just east of Columbia-State intersection.
State St 736-608 (N Side)
7th St 65-95 (W Side)
7th St 94-86 (E Side)
6th St 68-70 (E Side)
6th St 130 (E Side, almost to Oakdale Park).
Glenwood Blvd 91-3 (S Side)

Then there a bunch that appear to be addenda.  The last entry looks like "Turnpipe".  It was added from "Green Sheet")
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jimrtex
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« Reply #180 on: June 21, 2015, 12:25:36 AM »

One issue in all of this is the assignment of parcels and residences that are split by political lines. It happens frequently in IL. Consider this gem from the Chicago suburbs.



The orange line is a current boundary between state representative districts. The red line is a boundary between state representative, senate and congressional districts. The subdivision sits entirely within a single village, but spans a township line which was used as the red boundary line. Since election precincts are assigned by township, it might make some sense that a line follow the township line and not local streets.
The triple-split block with the pond is divided into 3 Census Blocks:

Kane County CT 8530.04, Block 1008 is the southern part in Aurora Township, pop. 25
Kane County CT 8528.08, Block 1074 is the northwestern part in Batavia Township, pop 11
Kane County CT 8528.08, Block 1008 is the northeastern part in Batavia Township, pop 26

Note the root census tract is different between the two townships.  Census tracts don't necessarily have to conform to townships, but they often do.  The Census Bureau doesn't like to modify census tract boundaries since that breaks continuity.  They much prefer to split them.  Since census blocks nest within census tracts, it is likely that the block would be split N/S even without the township or legislative district boundary.

Before development, the N/S section line might have been a block boundary, or perhaps the legislature defined the legislative district in terms of PLSS, rather than metes and bounds, or census blocks.  In any case, the census bureau holds legislative district boundaries as census block boundaries going forward.
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muon2
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« Reply #181 on: June 21, 2015, 08:25:26 AM »

The history you note is accurate for the Aurora/Batavia line, and since that line still has meaning for the elected township offices, I would expect it to remain as a division for Census blocks. It's the use of the section line and the difficulties associated with the assignment of residents along the line that I thought might have relevance here.

Counties have some say in the definitions of geography in IL, and I've notice that some eliminate the section lines when new subdivisions come in, but others don't bother. The section line could have been removed as a block splitter in 2006-7 as the geographies were formed since it wasn't a political boundary in that decade and the subdivision was well established. I presume the county didn't recommend changes so the line just hung on in the maps. In neighboring DuPage county there were locations where such lines were intentionally cleaned up during the phase where the Census defined its 2010 geography.

As I noted earlier, Census enumeration is prone to error in these split blocks as they may use a landmark like the driveway entrance instead of the door to assign residents to a block. In 2000 I was part of a petition to reassign about 100 people in an apartment building that was placed in the wrong parcel. It was relevant since it had been assigned to an unincorporated parcel and would cost the host city about $10K a year in lost state funds.

But back to Hudson, one possibility is that if a timely change is made to the Charter then the confusing invisible lines could be eliminated from 2020 geography. I would think that would help all parties in the coming decade.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #182 on: June 22, 2015, 11:29:15 AM »

The history you note is accurate for the Aurora/Batavia line, and since that line still has meaning for the elected township offices, I would expect it to remain as a division for Census blocks. It's the use of the section line and the difficulties associated with the assignment of residents along the line that I thought might have relevance here.

Counties have some say in the definitions of geography in IL, and I've notice that some eliminate the section lines when new subdivisions come in, but others don't bother. The section line could have been removed as a block splitter in 2006-7 as the geographies were formed since it wasn't a political boundary in that decade and the subdivision was well established. I presume the county didn't recommend changes so the line just hung on in the maps. In neighboring DuPage county there were locations where such lines were intentionally cleaned up during the phase where the Census defined its 2010 geography.

The reason that the census bureau won't do street extensions through to other streets is because

As I noted earlier, Census enumeration is prone to error in these split blocks as they may use a landmark like the driveway entrance instead of the door to assign residents to a block. In 2000 I was part of a petition to reassign about 100 people in an apartment building that was placed in the wrong parcel. It was relevant since it had been assigned to an unincorporated parcel and would cost the host city about $10K a year in lost state funds.

But back to Hudson, one possibility is that if a timely change is made to the Charter then the confusing invisible lines could be eliminated from 2020 geography. I would think that would help all parties in the coming decade.
It is ever curiouser.  The area between Birchwood and Pinewood has been developed for a long time, perhaps before 1980 (the Kane County assessor only shows the deed for the current owner, but I found a couple from Cherrywood that appear to be that old).  You can see the difference in the tree cover, and the whiteness of sidewalks.   If you have Google Earth, look at the area in the older images.  There is one stunning image from the spring with the suburban area, with the fields plowed up to their back fence lines.

In the 2000 Census, a stub of Sycamore extended north of Pinewood.  You can see by the whiteness of the sidewalks where the stub ended.   In the 2000 Census a road was shown along the township line, but only so far east as Maplewood.  Since the block with the pond was populated then, it could not have physically existed, but it did split the census block, with the Batavia part having 34 persons, and the Aurora part 41 persons (the whole block declined from 75 to 62 persons between 2000 and 2010).  Even if the road had not been there, the census blocks would have been divided because of the township boundary.  But there was no road there in old USGS topo sheets as far back as 1978.

To further complicate matters in 2000, the village limit of North Illinois was just north of the subdivided area, which caused a very irregular census block, with streets such as Pinewood on one side and the village limits on the other.  The undeveloped area was a very big block.

There was no block boundary on the section line in 2000.  This appears to the result of a creation of an election precinct split during the 2000s.  Further north the section line is coincident with Randall Road (Kane County Highway 34) and also the jog south of the Geneva-Batavia line.  But Randall Road in Aurora is on the half-section line further west, and Randall Road veers to the west about 2 miles north of the township boundary.  This alignment has been in place at least since 1978.

Randall Road does not have an interchange with I-88 in Aurora and kind of peters out as an arterial inside of Aurora, and the county highway designation now terminates at County Highway 71, north of the area of interest.

The old precinct stretched from the Fox River to the west boundary of Batavia Township, so there might have been a need to split because of population size, but it would have made more sense to follow Randall Road than to go careening through a neighborhood.

The new precinct became a VTD, and census block bound boundary in 2010 (taking advantage of the new census bureau of policy of permitting VTDs to be bounded by imaginary lines).  It is now also a county board boundary and a state representative board boundary.  The county board boundary looks like it chose the precinct to the west simply to balance populations.  The state representative district looks like part of a deliberate choice to use Randall Road for the east boundary of HD-50, but they would have done the same if the precinct boundary did follow Randall Road.  And in defining the boundary between HD-49/HD-65 west of the Fox River they did not follow the precinct boundaries.

I thought that it might have something to do with Mooseheart, but the Mooseheart is not laid out on a N-S/E-W alignment but rotated clockwise about 15 degrees, and the Moose owns land west of Randall Road, and quite a bit west of the section line.

So that leaves:

(1) Drunken GIS tech for the county clerk who imagined that he was dragging Randall and veered off the road, or forgot that he had clicked on "snap to section lines".

(2) Someone was looking at the county highway map, and got confused by Batavia'a annexation, which follows the Mooseheart grid.

(3) MALDEF was somehow involved.



The reason that the census bureau won't do street extensions into another street is the concern about misenumerating houses.   They do allow extensions to highways if there is no buildings.   Had the precinct along the section line been created before 2000, they would have forced the VTD boundary, to a street probably to Sycamore.

The split may be permanent.  There are still fossilized remains from the 1990s Frostrosity in Houston.

An advantage of a redistricting commission is that their map won't have to be embedded in the charter.  Instead it can be placed in a local law.

Does Illinois have a policy forcing election precincts boundaries to visible features?
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jimrtex
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« Reply #183 on: June 22, 2015, 08:57:24 PM »

Enumeration District 11-33 (1940) is the portion of the 4th Ward north of State St, excluding the Firemen's Home, which was its own enumeration district.  In addition, the Orphan Asylum was to be shown separately (but was part of the enumeration district).

The bounds of ED 11-33 were:
    N. 3rd, Ward line (west)
    City limits (north)
    Ward line, N. 5th (east)
    State St. (South)

Enumeration began at the NW corner:

N. 3rd St (east side) 96-62, 81 persons.   Note the enumerator explicitly indicated the side of the street, when that was a boundary of the enumeration district.

Rope Alley, 3?? and 333, 4 persons.

State St (north side) 302-358, 146 persons.

Carroll St, 424-444, 427-417, 56* persons (north side) and 15 persons (south side)

Note that the enumerator worked up one side of the street, and then back down the other side, but did not explicitly indicate the side of the street.  The split is inferred from the street address in the census enumeration.  *one additional person on the north side of Carroll St was an addenda.

State St (north side) 414-436, 39 persons.   These are between Carroll and Short St (the Hudson Armory is on State St, between Short St and 5th St)

Short St (east side) 59-85, 62, 80, 39 persons (west side), 5 persons (east side).  This is an exceptional enumeration, in that the two houses on the east side were enumerated as the enumerator headed north, crossing to the east side of the street to pick up those two.

Washington St 402, 4 person (402 Washington is west of Short St, on a stub of Washington)

Harry Howard 44-84, 59 person (these are on the south side of Harry Howard north of Underhill Pond.

Harry Howard (none), 4 persons it is not clear where this house is.  86 is the current highest street address along Harry Howard.  Though it was enumerated sequentially after 84, it was done at the start of the next day.  It is also possible that it was where Lucille and Mill St are now.

The residents were: Charles and Marguerite Hardy, 51 and 50; their daughter Dorothy, 16, and nephew William Hapeman, 18.  The parents were a checking clerk and clerk for the RR.  Dorothy had complete 1 year of HS, and William 2 years.  There are other Hapeman's associated with Hudson, but I don't know if they are closely related.

The FASNY Home Facebook page for April 12, told a story about people living at the Fireman's Home putting out a fire at the home of Mr.and Mrs. Charles Hardy on Harry Howard "this week" in 1914.

The November 17, 1917 edition noted a legal case before the Supreme Court (in NY a Supreme Court is not the supreme court, but more like a first level appeals court) of Charles Hardy v John Patterson regarding a partition of land.

N 5th St (west side), 63-119, 70 persons.

Immediately after enumerating 119 N. 5th St, which is just south of Clinton, the enumerator notes two houses on Harry Howard, with (None) for a house number, and includes the notation that they are in the 5th Ward.

The residents of the first house are Andrew and Sarah D'Inguillo, 37 and 31.  In 1930, they were living with her parents William and Mary Nabozny at 229 Allen St, with a slew of Sarah's younger siblings.

The residents of the second house were Bartholomew and Margaret Delaney, 45 and 48; children Bartholomew 22, C(K)atherine 20, John R 18, Thomas 16, Mary 13, Robert P 12; uncle Daniel Martin 71.

What is interesting about this family that I'm pretty sure that they are the grandfather and father of current 5th Ward Alderman; and also the son and grandson of a 4th Ward alderman in the late 19th century.

In 1930 Bartholomew and Margaret and the children lived at 613 5th St (5th Ward)
In 1920 Bartholomew and Margaret and the two eldest children (2-1/2 and 6 mo.) lived 419 Warren St (3rd Ward)
In 1910 Bartholomew then 15 lived with his parents at 331 State St (4th Ward)
In 1900 Bartholomew then 5 lived with his parents at 331 State St. (4th Ward)

This matches up with the father of the 1940 Harry Howard resident having been a 4th Ward alderman (he was also a city assessor).

If the current 5th Ward alderman is the grandson of the 1940 Harry Howard resident (and son of the 22 YO at that residence), he may be able to locate the house if his grandparents continued to live there.  Note that the 1900 Census spelled the name as De Laney, as if it were Norman Irish.  This may have been an affectation by the enumerator, the eldest Bartholomew Delaney had immigrated from Ireland in 1870 when he was 10.

Continuing with the enumeration.

Prospect St. 449-441 (south side) 29 persons, Prospect 442, 446 (north side) 5 persons.

This marks the "end of district".

Note that 3 houses in the 400 block on the north side of Clinton were enumerated in ED 11-35 (part of the 5th Ward).  These were enumerated east to west, and the enumerator might not have noticed that he passed 5th St, since he didn't cross it.

After a skipped page, the Orphanage Asylum at 400 State St was enumerated, with 1 supervisor, 2 matrons, and 25 inmates, for a total of 28.   400 State St. would be just west of Carroll.

After another skipped page there is a singe entry for 434 Carrol St with one person.  There are some initials NH which may indicate someone added these later.  During the initial enumeration, the addresses had skipped from 432 to 436  Carrol.



Summary

81   3rd St (East Side)
4     300 block Rope Alley
146 300 block State St (North Side)
57   400 block Carroll St (North Side)
15   400 block Carroll St (South Side)
39   400 block State St. (North Side)
39   Short St (West Side)
5     Short St (East Side)
4     400 block of Washington St (North Side, west of Short St.)
59   Harry Howard (east side, but actually south of roadway, north of Underhill Pond)
4     Harry Howard (address "(None)" but enumerated sequentially after 84 Harry Howard.
70   5th St (West Side)
11   Harry Howard (address "(None)", these were noted as being in "5th Ward".
29   Prospect St (South Side)
5     Prospect St (north Side)
28   Orphan Asylum

596 Total shown on enumeration sheets.

596 Number entered on summary sheet.

944 11-32 (3rd to 5th, Warren to State)
596 11-33 (3rd (extended) to 5th (extended), State to City limits, excluding Firemen's Home)
202 11-34 (Firemen's Home)

1742 Total for Ward 4.

1742 Published population for Ward 4.

Conclusion: Enumerator recognized that two unnumbered houses on Harry Howard were not in Ward 4, but this notation was ignored by person totalling results.  In addition, 8 residents of 498 and 496 Clinton were counted in the 5th Ward.  Is 500 Clinton considered to be in the 5th Ward?



Sequence of Harry Howard:

Houses with street numbers: April 25(after finishing Short St, and Washington), April 26
First "(None)": April 27th, and enumerator then went to 5th St.
April 28 was a Sunday.
April 29 last house on 5th St, then enumerator did two final "(None)" on Harry Howard (end of day)
April 30 Prospect St.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #184 on: June 24, 2015, 06:20:31 PM »

The 1930 census appears to have followed the charter ward boundaries even better than the 1940 census.

The enumeration districts for Ward 4 were the same as in 1940 (but they had different numbers).

ED 11-30 (1930) was from State St north between 3rd and 5th, excluding the Firemen's Home, which was its own enumeration district.

After enumerating up the west side of 5th Street, the enumerator included 498 and 496 Clinton, the two houses west of where 5th street deadends.  In 1940, the enumerator for ED 11-35 (1940) in the 5th Ward had included them as he enumerated east to west in the 500 block of Clinton (ie he enumerated ..., 504, 502, 500, 498, 496 Clinton).

In 1930, the enumerator for ED-30 (1930) enumerated up Harry Howard to street number 84.  He then enumerated a house but did not indicate its number, and finished with 87, which would have been on the opposite side of the street about where Harry Howard bends northeast.

There were two enumeration districts in Ward 5 in 1930, with the division along 6th street and Glenwood Blvd.

ED 11-32 (1930) was the area in Ward 5, west of 6th St or north of Glenwood.  The enumeration began in the northeast portion of the ED (Oakwood, Parkwood, Glenwood (north side), then went down the west of 6th St (ED boundary), 500 block of Warren (north side, ward boundary), and up the east side 5th street (ward boundary), and then east on Clinton beginning with number 500.  That is, the ward split on the north side of Clinton at 5th St was recognized by the enumerators from the different wards.

The enumerator then did the intervening streets between 5th and 6th (Columbia, State, Prospect, and Washington), and the short cross streets (Dodge, Franklin, and Lake).

He then finished up with 3 houses on Harry Howard, with no street address.

By 1930, the area north of Glenwood, including Parkwood, and Oakwood west of Fairview had been developed.  Further north along Fairview is in Greenport.   The areas along the south side of Harry Howard just north of Underhill Pond were developed.  But other than the Firemen's Home and a few isolate houses, there was nothing further out along Harry Howard.  Paddock Place, Riverledge Road, Michael Court, and Joslen Place were not developed at the time.  On the 1940 census map which was based on the 1932 city map, Paddock Place exists, but is unnamed, and also connected to what is now Charles Street in Greenport.  Note that the 1940 census map indicates the driveway to the Firemen's Home off the western end of Paddock Place at Harry Howard.

So the unnumbered houses on Harry Howard were quite isolated from the rest of the 5th Ward.  Their closest neighbors were the the numbered houses on Harry Howard, but those are in the 4th Ward.   They were not really close to the houses on Oakwood, Parkwood, and Glenwood.  Even today, I suspect if there were a hearing on new ward lines at city hall, residents who live on Oakwood, Parkwood, and Glenwood would drive in on Glenwood and 6th, while residents who live east of Harry Howard would drive in on Harry Howard and Short.

The houses on the east side of Harry Howard were the last enumerated in both 1930 and 1940, and they didn't have street numbers (they were out in the country).  In 1940, they were enumerated by a enumerator for Ward 4 - but he noted that they were in Ward 5.  And he didn't enumerate them immediately after the numbered houses.   It was if someone reminded him of those houses way out on Harry Howard, and he took the trip out there, but noted "5th Ward".

In 1930, an enumerator for Ward 5 enumerated the unnumbered houses on Harry Howard, but he did this at the very end.   He had started at Oakwood and then worked his way south covering everything between 5th and 6th down to Warren.   And then finally jumped out to finish up on Harry Howard.  Again as if someone had reminded him of those houses way out on Harry Howard.



In 1930, the Columbia triangle was enumerated with the 5th Ward.  The odd-numbered houses (south side) in the 900 hundred block of Columbia St were enumerated in Ward 5.  Those in the 700 and 800 blocks were enumerated in Ward 3, and those in the 500 and 600 blocks were enumerated in Ward 5.  Even numbered addresses from 500 upward were enumerated in Ward 5.  There were also a few houses on Columbia Turnpike enumerated in Ward 5.  They had low numbers since numbering begins for Columbia Turnpike begins at one where it splits off from Columbia St.
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« Reply #185 on: June 24, 2015, 10:15:21 PM »
« Edited: June 25, 2015, 10:49:20 AM by jimrtex »

In the 1920 Census, Ward 4 was in a single enumeration district, 31, north of Warren between 3rd St (extended) and 5th St (extended)

The enumerator began on Warren and began to work northward.  At the time of the 1920 Census, Columbia was still named Diamond, so the rename must have happened in the 1920.   But then the enumerator jumped out on Harry Howard did a farm with 8 persons, and then the Firemen's Home.  It is not specifically indicated as such but it had a Superintendent, his wife and son, 9 servants, 1 cook, and 96 inmates (inmate did not have the connotation its does now of a prisoner or someone in an insane asylum).   The inmates were male, mostly in their 60s and 70s, with a few in 80s, mostly widowers.

The enumerator then returned to Warren and Diamond and eventually State, while also doing houses lon 3rd, 4th, and 5th.   Later censuses tended to do the full length of the numbered streets,  In 1920, it appears that it was more doing the ends of each block.   The enumerator then went out Short Street and continued on to Harry Howard.   There were fewer houses then, with the highest house number, being 64.  So many of the Harry Howard houses north of Underhill Pond were built in the 1920s.  There was one unnumbered house.

Coming back into town, the enumerator did 402 Washington, which is west of Short and was enumerated in 1920, 1930, and 1940.   The enumerator then did 496 and 498 Clinton, the only two houses on Clinton within Ward 4.

The ward also contained the orphanage at 400 State, which was not specifically noted, but had 4 adults, and 39 inmates who were children.



In 1920, Ward 5 was divided in to two enumeration districts, 32 and 33, which corresponded to election districts 1 and 2 (of Ward 5).   The boundary between the two election districts (and enumeration districts) was 7th street and 7th street extended.  This suggests that the connection from 6th Street to Glenwood had not been made.  In later censuses, the boundary between enumeration districts moved to 6th street, continuing on to Glenwood.

The southern boundary of Ward 5, was clearly 5th and Warren along Warren to 7th Street, diagonally across Public Square (now 7th Street Park) to Columbia St, to Columbia Turnpike to the city limits.

Enumeration District 32 was fairly straightforward, working southward from Clinton between 5th and 6th streets.  As the enumerator moved southward, he would pick up the ends of the block (east side of 5th, west side of 6th), and also picking up the internal streets of Lake, Franklin, and Dodge.  It appears that in 1920, Columbia Street between 5th and 7th was Gifford Place.  To the west of 5th Street it was Diamond Street.

After completing the 500 block of Warren, the enumerator began on the 600 block of Warren.  Since 6th and 7th are fairly close together there are fewer houses.  After reaching Gifford Place (modern day Columbia Street), the enumeration jumped out to Harry Howard to record 16 persons.   Remember that the area just north of Underhill Pond, as well as the Firemen's Home was enumerated in Ward 4.  We can conclude that this area of unnumbered houses were on the east side of Harry Howard.

After leaping out to Harry Howard, the enumerator returned to finish up the area between 6th and 7th.

An addendum made by the Census Office added 498 Clinton to the end of the enumeration.  498 Clinton was also counted in Ward 4, and the same two persons were recorded in both places.  It appears that they were double counted.



In the other enumeration district in the 5th Ward, enumeration proceeded down 7th Street (east side), then did RR Avenue, the 700 block of State, and then did the entire north side of Columbia Street to the city limits.  The enumeration then did the south side of the 900 block of Columbia Street, followed by Paul Street.   There may have been one house on Columbia Turnpike, but the address of 961 is not consistent with modern practice.

After completing McKinstry and Frederick, the enumerator did 704 Gifford Place.  When enumerating Columbia Street he began with 720.  704 is north of Public Square (modern 7th Street Park), while 720 is where the street bends north to follow the path of Union Turnpike into the city.

So in 1920, current Columbia Street, was Diamond Street to 5th Street, where it then became Gifford Place, at the eastern edge of Public Square it became Columbia Street and continued to the eastern city limit, while Columbia Turnpike branched off to the south.

The enumeration of the remainder of Election district, included Green Street, Fairview, Aitkens, Spring, Glenwood, Parkwood and Oakwood.   Only a few houses on the latter three streets had house numbers.   Either they were quite new, or the Post Office had not extended delivery to those locations.  There were also houses on the extreme ends of Green, Columbia, and Fairview without addresses.  There were no enumeration on Bayley or Jenkins, indicating their development after 1920.
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« Reply #186 on: June 25, 2015, 11:47:14 AM »
« Edited: June 25, 2015, 08:41:29 PM by jimrtex »

In the 1910 Census Ward 4 was a single enumeration district, ED 23.

The Firemen's Home was simply listed as a location, with no notation that it was on Harry Howard.   The Orphanage was indicated as being on State Street, but without an address.   There were houses enumerated on Carroll and Short Street, but nothing further north.   There were no houses enumerated on Clinton.

Either the enumerator skipped the houses north of Underhill Pond even though he apparently made it out to the Firemen's Home, or they didn't exist.


Ward 5 was enumerated as two enumeration districts, with the dividing line being the railroad tracks from 7th and Warren heading northeast and then curving east.

In ED 24, enumeration proceeded northward from Warren, between 5th and 7th.  Columbia St between 5th and 7th was denoted as Gifford Place.   Only two houses, 512 and 518 were enumerated on the north side of Clinton.   This suggests that the reason that 496 and 498 were not enumerated in Ward 4, is because they had not been built before 1910.

4 unnumbered houses were enumerated on Howard Avenue.  Since the Firemen's Home was enumerated in Ward 4, this suggests that they were to the east of Harry Howard.

It appears that the division between the two Ward 5 enumeration districts, was not exactly the railroad tracts.  ED 25, includes houses on the east side of 7th as well as Railroad Avenue and Spring St, all of which were/are north of the railroad tracks.  Perhaps the intent was to avoid issues with the projection of 7th Street northward.  This let the Harry Howard farm houses be enumerated in the othe Ward 5 ED.

In 1910, there were no enumerations for Aitken or Frederick.  There were only a handful of houses on Fairview (all unnumbered).  The houses on McKinstry were also unnumbered.

Houses on the south side of Columbia in the 900 block were enumerated in the 5th ward, as were two houses on Paul Ave.
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« Reply #187 on: June 25, 2015, 11:50:55 PM »

In the 1900, each ward was enumerated as a single enumeration district.

Ward 4 was ED 21.  Residents were enumerated on Prisoner, Long, and Rope alleys.   In General, in later censuses fewer residents were recorded on the alleys.  There also residents recorded for Central Square (4th and Warren).  Later censuses may have switched to Warren St. addresses, or it might simply be the case of fewer persons living in the backs of stores.

Houses on Harry Howard were enumerated in 3 batches of 2 houses, 3 houses, and one house.  The last house was immediately after the Firemen's Home was recorded.  The Firemen's Home opened around 1895.  It is conceivable that resulted in a improvement of the road enough to permit ordinary houses to be built along the road, as opposed to farmhouses.


Ward 5 was ED 22.   Development north of State St. was somewhat sparse, just beginning to fill in.  Columbia Street was Diamond Street up to 7th Street.  It would become Gifford Place from 5th to just past 7th in the 1910 and 1920 censuses.  Columbia Street began at or near 7th.  A curiosity was that the area from aorun 850 Columbia Street to about 940 Street was apparently donated Academy Hill.  The Hudson Academy was at the intersection of Prospect Avenue and Columbia Turnpike before they both intersect Columbia Street.  The location of Academy Hill was inferred based on street addresses, which were enumerated as Columbia Street (848 or lower and 946 or higher).   Academy Hill included the intervening addresses.  There were odd-numbered addresses (927, 931, 939, 953, 963, and 967) on the south side of both Columbia Street and Academy Hill.   There were also 2 houses enumerated on Paul Avenue.

There was one house on Stockport Road, which was presumably Fairview.  There were also 4 houses on Spring Street.

There were two sets of houses (4 houses total) listed as Harry Howard.   So Houses on Harry Howard were included in both the 4th and 5th wards.
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« Reply #188 on: June 26, 2015, 08:42:52 AM »

The enumeration sheets for the 1890 Census were lost in a fire.   The 1880 Census was the last Census with 4 wards.  The 5th Ward was added in 1886, by dividing the 4th Ward.  Between 1870 and 1880, Ward 4 added 1346, while the city as a whole only added 55 persons.

Alternatively, Ward 4 added 1346 persons, while the other 3 wards lost 1291 persons.  Ward 4 went from 19.6% of the population to 35.0%.  Ward 4 was divided at 5th street.  The ward boundaries have not changed in the past 129 years,

Ward 4 was divided in two enumeration districts at 5th Street, which would become boundary between the 4th and 5th wards.  Between 1880 and 1900 there was street numbering reform in Hudson.  Addresses on Warren, Diamond, and State were about 1/2 of what they were now.  I don't know whether there were 50 units per numbered street, or the houses were just numbered consecutively.  Numbering on Prospect, Washington, and Clinton which begin in the 4th ward began with number 1.  Areas can only be clearly identified because houses on the numbered cross streets were also enumerated,

ED 20 was the portion of Ward 4 between 3rd and 5th streets.  There were houses on Carroll enumerated, but none on Short Street.  There were 3 houses identified as farms, but with no location shown.  One was the Byrne farm, which is shown on older maps as being northwest of Harry Howard.

ED 19 was the portion of Ward 4 east of 5th Street (5th Ward since 1886).  It is impossible to tell from the enumeration whether houses south of Columbia Street were included.   As in 1900, the area was enumerated as Academy Hill.
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« Reply #189 on: June 26, 2015, 12:03:21 PM »

This is the 1940 Census map.  Note the alignment between 11-33 and 11-35 (North 5th Street extended), and 11-37 and 11-39 along Columbia Turnpike.



The original is quite large, 3000x3000 pixels, and can be found at National Archives1940 Census website.

The following schedules show the definitions of the enumeration districts (ED) for Ward 4 and Ward 5.  Note the first column is the ED number for the 1930 Census, while the second column for the 1940 Census.  The typewritten population figure is for the 1930 Census, the handwritten total is the 1940 populations.  The population of 1742 for Ward 4, and 2936 for Ward 5 match the published totals in census reports.



For ED 11-33, note the reversed order for the east and west boundaries, as the bounds are given in clockwise order from 3rd and State St.   While the Firemen's Home is enumerated separately in ED 11-34 as part of Ward 4, the houses along the south side of Harry Howard with street addresses, just north of Underhill Pond, were enumerated in 11-33.   The enumerator at a later date recorded two houses without street number on Harry Howard, and explicitly noted that they were in Ward 5.  This note was apparently ignored by those who calculated the ward populations.



For 11-36, note that the definition of the southern boundary includes Columbia St, ward line, and Warren St.  The ward boundary diagonally traverses Public Square (modern 7th Street Park), from the the corner of Warren and 7th to Columbia Street.  While the RR tracks also cross the square, they are not on the diagonal.  A careful examination of the detailed maps will show this.  Note the 1891 Hudson River Atlas fudges this boundary a bit with the green tint for the 3rd Ward, and Orange tint for the 5th Ward separating.

11-37 shows that Columbia Turnpike is the boundary of Ward 5.  Houses with odd addresses (south side of street) in the 900 block of Columbia Street are included in the enumeration of 11;37.
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« Reply #190 on: June 26, 2015, 05:54:36 PM »

This is the 1940 Census map.  Note the alignment between 11-33 and 11-35 (North 5th Street extended), and 11-37 and 11-39 along Columbia Turnpike.



The original is quite large, 3000x3000 pixels, and can be found at National Archives1940 Census website.

The following schedules show the definitions of the enumeration districts (ED) for Ward 4 and Ward 5.  Note the first column is the ED number for the 1930 Census, while the second column for the 1940 Census.  The typewritten population figure is for the 1930 Census, the handwritten total is the 1940 populations.  The population of 1742 for Ward 4, and 2936 for Ward 5 match the published totals in census reports.



For ED 11-33, note the reversed order for the east and west boundaries, as the bounds are given in clockwise order from 3rd and State St.   While the Firemen's Home is enumerated separately in ED 11-34 as part of Ward 4, the houses along the south side of Harry Howard with street addresses, just north of Underhill Pond, were enumerated in 11-33.   The enumerator at a later date recorded two houses without street number on Harry Howard, and explicitly noted that they were in Ward 5.  This note was apparently ignored by those who calculated the ward populations.



For 11-36, note that the definition of the southern boundary includes Columbia St, ward line, and Warren St.  The ward boundary diagonally traverses Public Square (modern 7th Street Park), from the the corner of Warren and 7th to Columbia Street.  While the RR tracks also cross the square, they are not on the diagonal.  A careful examination of the detailed maps will show this.  Note the 1891 Hudson River Atlas fudges this boundary a bit with the green tint for the 3rd Ward, and Orange tint for the 5th Ward separating.

11-37 shows that Columbia Turnpike is the boundary of Ward 5.  Houses with odd addresses (south side of street) in the 900 block of Columbia Street are included in the enumeration of 11;37.


This is the map that I submitted to the Common Council as frosting on the cake. They vote on whether to proceed with an Article 78 action forcing the BOE to correct the ward voter rolls at the next Council meeting. The Legal Committee recommended proceeding with the lawsuit this last Wednesday. We are making a real difference out there Jimboy. Smiley
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« Reply #191 on: June 26, 2015, 08:38:15 PM »
« Edited: June 27, 2015, 04:30:04 PM by jimrtex »

This is the 1940 Census map.  Note the alignment between 11-33 and 11-35 (North 5th Street extended), and 11-37 and 11-39 along Columbia Turnpike.
This is the map that I submitted to the Common Council as frosting on the cake. They vote on whether to proceed with an Article 78 action forcing the BOE to correct the ward voter rolls at the next Council meeting. The Legal Committee recommended proceeding with the lawsuit this last Wednesday. We are making a real difference out there Jimboy. Smiley
Did you ever find out whether the tax maps show the wards?

Columbia County Real Property Tax Service Agency



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« Reply #192 on: June 27, 2015, 04:28:59 PM »

This is a from an 1829 map of Columbia County.



David Rumsey Map Collection Search: Columbia County 1829

New York Public Library Digital Collections Search Columbia County 1829

Note the left and right are revised editions after Greenport had been separated.  The middle image is the 1829 version.   

The cartographer, David H. Burr, is a distant cousin of Vice President Aaron Burr.  Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, and Martin Van Buren all tried cases in Claverack, before the county seat was moved to Hudson.  While he was Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton had an affair with Maria Reynolds, and was blackmailed by her husband.  When her husband was involved in a land speculation scandal, he implicated Hamilton.  Then-senator James Monroe investigated.  Hamilton admitted to adultery and blackmail, clearing himself from involvement in the land speculation, and gave Monroe the love letters.  Monroe passed the letter on to Thomas Jefferson.   Five years later they were leaked by Jefferson.  Maria Reynolds divorced her husband, with Aaron Burr her lawyer.  It is not true that Van Buren was Aaron Burr's illegitimate son.  Thomas Jefferson was elected president in Hudson.

When Hudson was set off from Claverack, it included what would become Greenport, as well part of Stockport.  Stockport was created in 1833, and Greenport was created in 1837.  The later versions of the map from 1841 thus was recolored to set Hudson off as being separate.

The four roads leading into Hudson were turnpikes.  A turnpike, is a pike mounted horizontally on a poll or log mounted vertically.  It could be rotated, permitting a wagon to pass after the toll had been paid.  In some instances, tollhouses were built alongside the roadway.  This widened the area around which someone evading the toll would have to drive (oxen are not fast), and where the tollkeeper could live.

Turnpikes were first chartered in New York around 1800.  The state didn't have any money for capital improvements, so they granted charters to private investors to build improved roads, with the investors recouping their money from tolls.  Farmers were responsible for maintaining free roads in their neighborhood, but were unlikely to have enough time maintain the roads much beyond widening a blazed path to 8 feet or so for a wagon.

The map shows four turnpikes coming into the eastern end of Hudson.

(1) The Columbia Turnpike which headed east to Claverack and Hillsdale and then tied into the system of turnpikes in Massachusetts.  New York 23B follows the route of Columbia Turnpike southeast of Hudson, except for the portion of 23B that has been realigned on Green Street.  The Columbia Turnpike was in service until 1907. 

The west tollhouse of the the turnpike is 0.9 miles from the intersection of Green and Fairview, immediately on the south side of the road.  West Tollgate - Collumbia Turnpike postcard

(2) The Union Turnpike which headed northeast to Ghent, Chatham, and Canaan where it intercepted the Albany and Eastern Turnpike which connected Albany to Massachusetts.  New York 66 follows the route of the Union Turnpike, and is still known as Union Turnpike except for the short portion on the eastern end of Columbia Street.

Hudson lawyer sues Unipn Turnpike 100 days to the day after they went out business.

(3) The Farmers Turnpike headed north parallel to the Hudson River to Troy.  US 9/Fairview follows the route of the Farmers Turnpike, except for the portion of Fairview between Green Street and Columbia Street.   That is, the Farmers Turnpike joined into the Union Turnpike just east of the junction of the Union and Columbia Turnpikes.   The Farmers Turnpike would have faced competition from the Hudson River, particularly after development of the steamboat.  So while the Columbia Turnpike provided a connection to a river port, the Farmers Turnpike was in essences competing with the river as a transportation route.

I did find a road named Farmers Turnpike in Stuyvesant.  I had speculated that the straightness of US 9 along Fairview represented a more modern alignment, as compared to Joslen Blvd.   This is true, but I was off by more than a century.  There is a farmhouse about 1/4 mile west of Joslen Blvd that was built in 1700.  The straighter route north happened about 100 years later.  US 9 simply adopted the more direct route north.

(4) The Hudson Branch Turnpike headed southeast from Hudson to the Ancram Turnpike, also known as the Ancram and Catskill Turnpike, or more ambitiously, the Ancram and Susquehanna Turnpike.  From Ancram you can continue southeast into Connecticut.  I think that the "branch" in the name may have simply referred to a branch into Hudson, from the main route to Catskill.  Catskill Station is on the east bank of the river, and there was a ferry to Catskill.  US 9/Worth Avenue follows the route of the Houston Branch Turnpike. 

Incidentally, Worth Avenue and Fort Worth are both named for General William Jenkins Worth, a native Hudsonian.   The Hamilton $10 bills are printed in Fort Worth.   When Hamilton is deprecated, some of the production will move to Washington, D.C.

The 1829 map shows the gridded portion of Hudson as being built up, as well as an extension of settlement along the Union Turnpike.  The map is inaccurate in that it shows Columbia Turnpike directly aligning with the main street grid.  The reason for the slight turn to the north is to avoid Reservoir Hill, which is an extension of the Becraft Hills south of Hudson.  Academy Hill was thus a less elevated route over the shoulder of the hill.   The Hudson Branch (Worth Avenue) runs along the west side of the Becraft Hills, while the other three turnpikes enter the city near Academy Hill.

It would be natural to have some settlement near this junction.  Drovers might want to pasture their livestock.  Hudson had both packing plants and tanneries.  A farmer might want to stay on the edge of city, and conduct his business, avoiding a more expensive hotel or inn, and there might have been some traffic between the turnpikes.

The division of the city into four wards occurred sometime before the 1870 census, and used Warren and 3rd streets to quarter the city.  While there was little north and south of the street grid so that the extension of the 3rd Street was reasonable.  There was development to the east of where Warren Street ended at Public Square.   The route along the Columbia Turnpike is the natural extension of Warren as a north-south dividing line between wards.  Not only is it the law, it made sense, at least when the ward lines were initially set.

The renaming of portions of the Columbia Turnpike and Union Turnpike to Columbia Street, and then the later application of the name "Columbia Street" to Diamond Street obscures that the Columbia Turnpike was the logical extension of Warren Street as a north-south divider. 

In addition, the routing of US 9 onto Green Street makes the relationship even less obvious.  When US 9 was first designated, it used Prospect Avenue from the intersection of Worth Avenue (Hudson Branch Turnpike) and Warren Street, to a quick jog on Columbia Street (Union Turnpike) and on to Fairview (Farmers Turnpike).   I suspect that the modern circuitous route had something to do with businesses wanting more traffic, rather than prosaic concerns such as traffic safety or land acquisition.
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« Reply #193 on: June 28, 2015, 04:19:00 AM »
« Edited: July 02, 2015, 01:00:48 PM by jimrtex »

This is from the 1873 Atlas of Columbia County, New York, published by D.G.Beers&Company.  The Atlas includes maps of each town, as well ward maps for Hudson.



New York Public Library Digital Collections Search Columbia County 1873

Historic Map WorksSearch Columbia County 1873

The Historic Map Works has more vibrant colors and higher resolution but there may be more copyright risk.  If you're just browsing, I'd choose it.

In 1873, Hudson had 4 wards, quartered by 3rd Street and Warren St plus Columbia Street and Columbia Turnpike.  Notice that the eastern city limits of Hudson were straighter in 1873.

The area of the Cedar Park Cemetery was annexed in 1897, after the land had been purchased by the city in 1895 (New York 1897 Session Laws, Chapter 133).   The statute explicitly placed the area in Ward 3.  Because the northern edge of the annexed area is along Columbia Turnpike, there may be a sliver of Columbia Turnpike in Ward 5 (the ward boundary between wards 3 and 5 is along the centerline of Columbia Turnpike).

The area along Union Turnpike up to Graham, and along Fairview up to past Oakwood was annexed in 1915 (New York 1915 Session Laws, Chapter 528).  The statute explicitly placed the area in Ward 5.  While the area appears to be two separate triangular areas, it was a single annexation.

If you read the City Charter carefully, Section C1-3 switches between two measurement systems where the annexed areas extended the city limits.  The older language is expressed in chains and links, and absolute bearings, while the newer language is in feet, and bearings are relative to the previous bearing.  The older city limits would date from 1837, when the town of Greenport was erected.  Previously, the City of Hudson had included the area of Greenport.

The map of Greenport provides more context.



North of the city, what is now Joslen Blvd. was clearly established with more farms indicated along that road, than the straighter Farmers Turnpike (modern US 9/Fairview).  Since there is a house built around 1700, Van Salsbergen House (page 5), about a 1/4 mile west of the road, this route is very old, with the Farmers Turnpike being established a century later.

The road that we currently call Harry Howard was the shortcut from the city to this road.

Tollhouses on the Union Turnpike and Columbia Turnpike are indicated just west of Claverack Creek. The West Gate on the Columbia Turnpike is still present.  The Union Turnpike had gone out of business in 1860, but it would still be a known location along the road.  Near a creek with a bridge would presumably be a good location for a tollhouse.  Using the turnpike bridge could be worth the cost, compared to fording a stream or a low bridge subject to washout or flooding.

Green Street had been extended past the Farmers Turnpike and Union Pike to join the Columbia Turnpike further southeast.  Perhaps this was an easier route than over Academy Hill.  If so, the routing of US 9 along Green Street may not be so circuitous after all.  The 1915 annexation refers to this road as the Hudson to Hollowville Road (the annexed area crosses this road).  

Worth Road was called Ancram Road in Greenport.  What is now Ten Broeck Lane, a more direct route to the junction of the turnpikes was in existence.   In 1873, it was along the eastern city limits.  It now goes between the two sections of cemetery.

The 1873 map of the built-up portion of Ward 2 has some interesting features.



The east-west streets passed through Front Street.   Warren Street ended at Promenade Hill.  The extension of Warren Street was across the railroad tracks and into the river.   When the apartments on Front Street were built, all the streets to the west of Front Street were removed.   A similar phenomena can be seen where Chapel Street has disappeared between Columbia Street and State Street.

Columbia Street was then Diamond Street.   Only the portion of modern Columbia Street between Public Square (now 7th Street Park) and Columbia Turnpike was known as Columbia Street.  The east-most portion was still considered to be Union Turnpike.   During an interim period, the portion of modern Columbia Street east of 5th Street was Gifford Place.   The ward boundaries in the city charter refer to the intersection of Gifford Place and Columbia Street.  A modern reference would be to where Columbia Street bends to the north.

New Road ran from State and Front to near 2nd St and Mill St.  The northern portion of New Road has been incorporated into Dock Street west of Mill Street and Second Street.  The original wharves on North Bay were at the foot of State Street, and fill has moved the edge of the bay northward.

It turns out that New Road still exists, at least on the New York State Department of Transportation Listing of Local Roads.  Dock Street runs from its end for 0.21 miles where it meets New Road, which runs 0.10 miles to 2nd Street (opposite Mill Street).

Mill St and 3rd Street intersect in this map.  In a sense they still do.  There are telephone polls northward along 3rd Street.  There appears to be a trail there, or perhaps it is just the tree cuts for the power line.   Since the grist mill was just below Underhill Pond, Mill Street continued eastward.

This is the western part of Ward 4 in 1873.  I've trimmed the area south of State Street, and the map did not show the undeveloped area to the north (that was shown on the map for the whole city).



What we now know as Harry Howard was known as Dugway Road at that time.   Mill Street is shown dead-ending near the mill stream.  Cross Street and Short Street and the connection to Harry Howard existed then, and in fact have existed at least since 1837.

When the proprietors established Hudson, one of the initial tasks was to build a road down from Front Street to the North Bay.  That is the bluff along the Hudson extended around to the east.  In addition, there was a deep ravine at Main St (Warren St since 1799) and 4th Street.  It not only required filling, but actually needed a bridge.

If you look at the back side of the school (John L. Edwards Primary School) behind the library, you will see that it is deeper than the front side, because it is built on a reverse hill.  It is a 85 foot drop from State and Carroll to the bottom of the hill.  

What is for now the library was built in 1818 as the Alms House.  It later served as the Insane Asylum (1830), Female Academy (1851), George Power (1865), Orphanage (1881), Library (1961).  In the 1873 map it was shown as belong to George Power.  This suggests that Cross Street was built along the edge of the develop-able ground.  It would not be unexpected that an Alms House, or Insane Asylum would be located on the edge of the city.

East of Short Street and west of 3rd Street, the streets and buildings expand northward where the terrain is flatter.

Dugway Road east of the end of Mill Street is still listed in the New York State inventory of local streets.  Quite recently there was a grant proposal from the city for improving bike access between downtown and Harry Howard.  It would add bike lanes and signage on Front and Dock streets, signage on Mill Street, rebuild the pavement on "Old Dugway", and widen sidewalks along Harry Howard.

Harry Howard was a legendary New York City firefighter in the mid-1800s, rising to the position of chief engineer, which was the top position.  Portrait of Harry Howard restored.  The Harry Howard Square mentioned in the article is at Canal-Walker-Baxter in Chinatown.  The square is much diminished due to street widening.  It is now occupied by a information kiosk with a dragon on top.  



It would be interesting to know whether they know how to get to Harry Howard Square.

This is the eastern portion of Ward 4 in 1873.  Ward 4 would be split into Ward 4 and Ward 5 in 1886.



The map is oriented to get the maximum area on the plate.  Notice that the border is broken to show the extreme southeastern tip at Columbia Turnpike and Paul Avenue.   The Cedar Park Cemetery was not annexed until 1898, and the area east of Fairview (eg Aitken Avenue) was not annexed until 1915.

In 1873, Columbia Street only encompassed short portion between Public Square and the top of Academy Hill.  Within the gridded area it was Diamond Street, and the eastern end it was still known as Union Turnpike.  Note that this map also shows the southern Fairview as still being known as the Farmers Turnpike.

In 1873, buildings were concentrated at the junction of the turnpikes.  Ward 3 was built up to 8th Street but no further.  In a sense it is somewhat odd that area was not also placed into the 4th Ward since it is north of Warren.  There were no people living (nor living people) south of Columbia Turnpike.
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« Reply #194 on: July 02, 2015, 01:35:31 PM »

This is from the Columbia County 1888 atlas, published by Beers, Ellis & Company.  Ward 4 was divided into wards 4 and 5, in 1886.



Historic Map WorksSearch Columbia County 1888

If the Board of Elections would like a print, they are available at the above site.

Harry Howard was still Dugway Road.  The renaming must have occurred soon after the the Firemen's Home was built, since it is used in the 1900 Census.   Note that the farm houses are mostly quite to the east of the road.

Spring Street had been developed at this point, but only the west end was inside the city.  The area along Fairview, including the eastern portions of Glenwood, Oakwood, and Parkwood was annexed in 1915.

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« Reply #195 on: July 03, 2015, 06:59:37 AM »

This is a map from 1835-1837.



It shows both Carroll Street and Short Street, but misplaces Short Street as being a continuation of Fifth Street, rather than being between Fourth and Fifth.   This likely results in misplacing of the location of the mill, which has to be below Underhill Pond.   While Dugway Road is shown connecting to Mill Street, there is a separate road connecting to Carroll Street.  This is likely just confusion.

There is a line denoted as "Compact Line".  Until 1837, the City of Hudson included Greensport, and before 1833, a portion of Stockport as well.  As early as 1811, there was a distinction made between the compact area of Hudson, and the city limits.  I don't know if there is a specific legal definition or not.

The map shows South Third Street as Highland Turnpike.  The Highland Turnpike was an ambitious project which ran from the King's Bridge (Kingsbridge) which spanned Spuyten Duyvil Creek at the northern tip of Manhattan linking the mainland and insular New York to Hudson.  Along with the Farmers Turnpike it would have linked the capital and New York City.  The turnpike ran into financial troubles, and cost overruns, such as occurred where it crossed the Croton River.  It kept asking for time extensions.  It lost its charter in 1833, after a remonstrance from the people of New York to make it a free road.  At the end of the 19th century, good roads and bicycling advocates published guides on how to ride to Hudson.

The maps shows Worth Avenue as the Branch Turnpike.  Native Hudsonian General Williams Jenkins Worth was most noted for his service in the Mexican War, which was a decade or so after this map was drawn.

The map shows the Farmers Turnpike as extending along modern Prospect Avenue.  The Farmers Turnpike ran from Troy to Hudson, entering Hudson along the modern Fairview Avenue.  Since Fairview Avenue is not aligned with Prospect Avenue, I'm a bit dubious of this claim.   

This map shows Columbia Turnpike as including the area between Public Square and the junction of Columbia Turnpike and Union Turnpike.  Given that this was the first part of the street to actually be known as Columbia Street, this is a reasonable possibility.  Note that the first part of Green Avenue at least had been developed at this time.  Warren Street had been extended to where it met the Branch Turnpike, but Eighth Street existed as being a half-block long extending only to Prison Alley.
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Torie
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« Reply #196 on: July 03, 2015, 09:32:51 AM »

I see my block, Robinson St., was named "Sepe Walk" back then. Robinson was a beer brewer.
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« Reply #197 on: July 03, 2015, 09:34:50 AM »

It is interesting to see all the growth they anticipated from the infill and development of North Bay.
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Torie
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« Reply #198 on: July 03, 2015, 09:46:46 AM »
« Edited: July 03, 2015, 09:51:36 AM by Torie »

The infill finally happened, but not most of the development of course. A bit north of Mill Street was where the garbage dump was. Today, that is in the process of being remediated with pipes sticking out releasing gases and so forth, and is a big mound covered with grass. Ultimately it will become park land. I walk over it en route to an abandoned road that goes through the woods to the High School. I call it my secret short cut. I discovered it looking closely at google earth. Of course the old time locals know about it, and some tell me they went there from the High School to smoke pot. Smiley

In other news, a couple of days ago, a movie was being filmed on Warren Street. It's a happening place, baby. I call it the biggest little city in America, supplanting Reno which had claimed that title, since Reno is no longer "little," but rather a sprawling urban-scape waste land.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #199 on: July 03, 2015, 02:26:27 PM »
« Edited: July 04, 2015, 07:20:18 PM by jimrtex »

The infill finally happened, but not most of the development of course. A bit north of Mill Street was where the garbage dump was. Today, that is in the process of being remediated with pipes sticking out releasing gases and so forth, and is a big mound covered with grass. Ultimately it will become park land. I walk over it en route to an abandoned road that goes through the woods to the High School. I call it my secret short cut. I discovered it looking closely at google earth. Of course the old time locals know about it, and some tell me they went there from the High School to smoke pot. Smiley
On the 1929 topo sheet there is a really huge structure right on the Hudson, just north of the city limits.  It had some sort of connection to the railroad.  Logically, it would have been a railroad spur.  If you look at aerial images you will see a strip of trees crossing the tidal flats perpendicular to the railroad.  Apparently this is elevated enough that tree roots can survive.   The spur, but no structure is present in the 1895 topo.

A 1995 DOT update of the USGS maps shows a trail vaguely connecting with the end of 2nd Street past the dump.

1929 (note Greenport-Hudson border is in error.  The northern limit of Hudson is pretty much east-west.  It is not parallel to the street grid).



1895



1995



The trails from the east possibly connect, making your trail a shortcut from Greenport.  The older images on Google Earth show enough of a cut to indicate that it was used for vehicles.  The northern branch has a turnaround loop, which might indicate an alternate unofficial dump site.

Ella Fitzgerald lived in Hudson (at the reform school) for a short while, but escaped.

Is the cemetery (Swartwout Memorial) between the Firemen's Home and the high school, Dutch or tied to the Firemen's Home.  There is another cemetery behind the Firemen's Home that is clearly associated with it, but this is off to the north almost to the school grounds.   I found some historical Swartwout's, but they are generally associated with further south in the Hudson Valley.
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