Rossman-Prospect Avenue Historic District
The Rossman-Prospect Avenue Historic District is a landmarked district in a small, residential neighborhood on the east end of Hudson , New York in the United States . The houses were largely built in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It is the smaller of the two historic districts in the city.
The area was developed when the city built an aqueduct to a water reservoir over the Rossman family's land. It was the first planned residential area in the city outside the street grid in the center. The historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 .
geography
The district covers an area of two hectares along the two roads from which its name is derived. It is located on the slope of the Academy Hills, which is sometimes also called Prospect Hill, with 128 m the highest point in the city. From the houses on Rossman Avenue, which leads up the hill and ends at the water reservoir in a cul-de-sac , the view extends over the city to the Hudson River and the Catskill Escarpment in the southwest. To the north is the Columbia Memorial Hospital and beyond that is the larger Hudson Historic District . East of the district is the residential end of Hudson's main street, Warren Street.
Within the boundaries of the district, some of the houses are on the south side of Prospect Avenue south of Rossman Avenue and both sides of Rossman Avenue to the end of the development line, totaling 12 lots with 14 contributing structures. Two garages in the area are modern structures and are not considered contributing. The houses correspond to a variety of architectural styles that were popular before or after the beginning of the 20th century, such as the Queen Anne Style , the Colonial Revival and the Tudor Revival, and Craftsman Bungalows .
history
In the mid-19th century, the area was owned by Allen Rossman, a former county treasurer and director of a local bank. Hudson grew rapidly during this period and regularly suffered from lack of water. The city council therefore decided in 1874 to pump water from the river into a reservoir behind Prospect Hill and ordered the right of way for the construction of the aqueduct over the Rossman property.
Rossman provided additional land to build a 15-meter-wide road and planted trees when he divided the property into 13 lots. The first house, 11 Rossman Avenue, wasn't built until 1887. Rossman died a short time later and his bereaved relatives sold some of the parcels on the west side of the road in the 1890s. Most of the resulting houses were built in a somewhat reserved Queen Anne style, as was common elsewhere in Hudson.
The plots on the east side were not built on until the beginning of the 20th century. Most of these houses were built under the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement , especially the bungalows. These buildings differed somewhat from the style, as they have detail features of the Federal Style and Georgian architecture . The last two houses built in the district are 2 and 4 Rossman Avenue - the latter was built by the director of the hospital - more like the construction of English country houses, which is unusual for the Hudson Valley .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Shirley Dunn: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Rossman-Prospect Avenue Historic District ( English ) New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . October 1983. Retrieved July 10, 2009. Partly available from livingplaces.com where JavaScript is not required.
Coordinates: 42 ° 14 ′ 43 " N , 73 ° 46 ′ 44" W.