POUGHKEEPSIE'S UNION STREET An Historical Study of a Community by Cornelia Brooks* * Miss Brooks, a native of Leonx, Mass., now lives at Loudonville, N. Y. She was graduated from Vassar College in 1971, having spent her Junior year at Cambridge, England. Miss Brooks' paper, "Poughkeepsie's Union Street", was started for Landmarks submission to the New York State Historic Trust and, after rework was conplete, it was used for an Urban History Class. At present Miss Brooks is a Research Assistant with the New York State Historic Trust, Albany, N. Y.
PREFACE — THE QUIXOTIC PLAN The Union Street area of Poughkeepsie, New York, would never have been drawn to my attention if it had not been for Mrs. Opdycke and the Dutchess County Landmarks Association. This group of concerned men and women — lawyers, architects, and city planners — are trying to rebut the plans for wide-spread demolition of old Poughkeepsie. They have a creative and more economical approach to solving the city's housing problems without obliterating the atmosphere, intimacy and characteristic architecture of 19th century Poughkeepsie. Their goal to rehabilitate the old houses will minimize the relocation of families and make improvements on salvageable residences, which have become marginal only in recent years. Their proposals would only cost a fraction of the expense of razing the old houses and building new blocks of apartments. Not every section of Poughkeepsie would be suitable for this scheme. Some areas are clearly beyond repair and would really benefit by complete rebuilding, but Union Street and its side streets — Grand, South Bridge, South Perry and South Clover — are lined predominantly with brick structures which are still structurally sound. Most of the wooden houses there would be too expensive to bring up to standard and therefore would be replaced with "in-fill housing" of modern construction but in character with the older houses. Such a logical scheme of "renewal", in the truest sense of the word, apparently does not appeal to municipal authorities of the 1970's. The anti-historic vision of a sleek, updated city is devoid of any creative sense of the value of working with what is already there. In our wasteful age of disposable packaging and built-in obsolescence, it is more effort for the mid-20th Century mentality to repair than to replace completely. The heartening new interest in recycling of tin cans, newspapers and old cars is just gaining popularity. Perhaps it is a serious change of heart in America. In a decade, who knows, maybe the idea of recycling cities may have taken hold too. But by then it will be too late for Union Street. There will be nothing recognizable left. The whole area has been condemned. Just this week, a late Victorian corner grocery store with apartments above, abandoned but structurally sound, was reduced to a pathetic heap of brick and dust. The house-of-cards process has begun. It has been conjectured that Poughkeepsie's unusual name is derived from the Indian word for a safe harbor, "apokeepsing." Certainly, proximity 65
