Ok, I guess I’m easy… but give me a town that’s just “off” enough that it doesn’t attract every Tom, Dick and hairy, black-socked tourist … That has no Starbucks, no chain restaurant… no chain anything, and no souvenir-hocking vendors. — Fill it with artists, eccentrics, washed-up rock stars, “townies” — including the toothless, and the sidewalk philosophers. Add water views, amazing landscape vistas, a hodgepodge of architecture with a history, a personality and a craftsman behind it. And then load the main street with shops owned by displaced, independent merchants from Manhattan … stocked with fabulous finds of no particular vintage, and artists’ creations of no definitive use. Heaven!
When I rolled into Hudson, NY around noon with my favorite extant architect and friend, Michael Glynn, we hit the ground running… these stores close at 5! Here’s what we saw.
The whole town is a great mix of architecture
Even the back alleys are beautiful
…Here’s a home at the end of Warren Street (the main drag)
A repurposed printer’s store complete with the original RGB colors in glass — the 1800’s method of color matching
More “texture” on Warren Street
The owner of Skalar, a contemporary furnishings store… and one of the many NYC transplants
Ken: artist and owner of Kendon Antiques (more pictures below of Ken’s studio)
A street artist — hand crafter of mini silhouette scenes
Diner who dresses like his dog
Local bakery and local color
Store chocked full of great stuff…all the way through the back door
More random great stuff
Love this planter!
There’s plenty of nice modern furniture
…And antique toys
The window of Vincent Mumford’s store.. he has wonderful things… most sport “sold” tags
Science lab lighting
A mini “stage” light shot against a vintage set mural
Chandelier made from cardboard product boxes
Hudson’s answer to Stop & Shop
One of Ken’s illustrations
We got an impromptu tour of his studio
One of his dog illustrations
He makes his own paper in his studio
We left Hudson and grabbed a milkshake for the road. We used to always stop here on the way home from skiing growing up… not much is lit up here anymore
One of my three Hudson purchases