Popular Searches
Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
Share
Residents remember Nutten Hook past
By Bob Green
For Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
"When I walked in here I didn't know where it went" said Sally Jung at the site of what was once a sprawling warehouse for ice harvested from the Hudson River. She hadn't been there for decades, and all that remains now is a partially restored 19th century brick powerhouse.
She and a number of other residents shared first-hand memories, oft-told stories, and a trove of photos and documents about Nutten Hook during the Stuyvesant/Stockport Old Anchorage Weekend. The Department Of Environmental Conservation invited the public to the site Sunday, opening a normally closed road to give the public a more convenient look at one of Stuyvesant's most stunning natural assets.
Nutten Hook, just across from Coxsackie at a narrow spot in the river, once included both ferry and railroad stops. It was a busy early-industrial crossroads, with ice and brick works employing hundreds, a hotel, three bars and a post office.
On this sparkling fall day, the stories involved men working dangerous difficult jobs, mostly farmers who needed work in the winter. "My family were all farmers" said Michael Day of Stockport. His great-great grandfather was a supervisor at the ice house, and a number of his great-great uncles were also employed there, though one fell in the river and drowned.
Day has an original payroll document from 1909. "What amazed me was the pay. It wasn't much." he said.
Jung said her father didn't often discuss his icehouse days, but she knew they were "exhausting." The company sent a sleigh around to pick workers up before dawn. Bill Gumaer, a farmer in Stuyvesant Falls, said other farmers in those days also used horse-drawn sleighs to organize routes of "men who needed work" and to deliver them to Nutten Hook. Times were tough in the 'teens and twenties, he said, and people "worked hard just to rub two cents together."
Gumaer said most men who fell into the water were rescued and warmed by fire and liquid spirits. Horses who slipped usually weren't so lucky, as they panicked in the water and couldn't be helped.
Jean McAvoy, Education Coordinator of DEC's Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, said the Nutten Hook icehouse was the sixth largest of 130 that once lined both banks of the Hudson. In those days, large blocks of ice were cut from the river's surface, hoisted, stored in sawdust, and eventually barged downriver to urban consumers.
The ice houses are all gone, but with federal funds acquired in the 1990s, the DEC restored part of the powerhouse which once lifted ice uphill for storage, and it is now the best preserved example of an entirely extinct industry. "This is all that's left" she said. Community volunteers also played a role in clearing the site at the time.
John Hutchinson lives in the former Lynch Hotel, a short distance to the south of the icehouse. As part of his successful effort to list the structure in the National Register Of Historic Places in 2005, he learned much from former residents of the immediate vicinity.
One told him how boys would cross the river ice in winter to attend movies in Coxsackie. If an ice breaker was coming up the river, the film would be stopped to warn those from the east to get back across while they still could, and credit was given to see the rest of the film at a later date.
Hutchinson said that at his real estate closing, the former owner took him aside and warned that there had once been a murder at the hotel, and the resulting ghost was now included at no extra charge. He says he has yet to meet anyone of that description on the premises.
Jung confronted a real ghost when DEC's McAvoy pulled out some old snapshots taken in the area. In a shot from 1957, a not-yet-married Mrs. Jung appears a fetching young woman, with an equally handsome young man she described only as a "boyfriend".
Hutchinson and his neighbors have put plenty of time and money into the recognition and preservation of their historic properties in the vicinity. He says he would "love" to see the whole area designated as a Historic District.
Access to the area is now limited. The ice house can usually be reached only with a moderate hike, while the remains of the old ferry stop are accessed by an "at-grade" railroad crossing at Ferry Rd. The crossing is on an incline, and is considered unsafe by the state, but residents have been assured that it will remain open until a bypass road is constructed, though that effort has long been stalled due to complications involving wetlands and the possible siting of a boat launch.
Unsuccessful efforts to locate a boat launch in town, either at Nutten Hook or at Stuyvesant Landing to the north, go back well over a decade.
According to McAvoy the first written deeds to land on Nutten Hook were acquired by Dutch settlers in the second half of the 17th century. Before that, evidence suggests that Native Americans used the site for at least three thousand years, she said.
She and a number of other residents shared first-hand memories, oft-told stories, and a trove of photos and documents about Nutten Hook during the Stuyvesant/Stockport Old Anchorage Weekend. The Department Of Environmental Conservation invited the public to the site Sunday, opening a normally closed road to give the public a more convenient look at one of Stuyvesant's most stunning natural assets.
Nutten Hook, just across from Coxsackie at a narrow spot in the river, once included both ferry and railroad stops. It was a busy early-industrial crossroads, with ice and brick works employing hundreds, a hotel, three bars and a post office.
On this sparkling fall day, the stories involved men working dangerous difficult jobs, mostly farmers who needed work in the winter. "My family were all farmers" said Michael Day of Stockport. His great-great grandfather was a supervisor at the ice house, and a number of his great-great uncles were also employed there, though one fell in the river and drowned.
Day has an original payroll document from 1909. "What amazed me was the pay. It wasn't much." he said.
Jung said her father didn't often discuss his icehouse days, but she knew they were "exhausting." The company sent a sleigh around to pick workers up before dawn. Bill Gumaer, a farmer in Stuyvesant Falls, said other farmers in those days also used horse-drawn sleighs to organize routes of "men who needed work" and to deliver them to Nutten Hook. Times were tough in the 'teens and twenties, he said, and people "worked hard just to rub two cents together."
Gumaer said most men who fell into the water were rescued and warmed by fire and liquid spirits. Horses who slipped usually weren't so lucky, as they panicked in the water and couldn't be helped.
Jean McAvoy, Education Coordinator of DEC's Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, said the Nutten Hook icehouse was the sixth largest of 130 that once lined both banks of the Hudson. In those days, large blocks of ice were cut from the river's surface, hoisted, stored in sawdust, and eventually barged downriver to urban consumers.
The ice houses are all gone, but with federal funds acquired in the 1990s, the DEC restored part of the powerhouse which once lifted ice uphill for storage, and it is now the best preserved example of an entirely extinct industry. "This is all that's left" she said. Community volunteers also played a role in clearing the site at the time.
John Hutchinson lives in the former Lynch Hotel, a short distance to the south of the icehouse. As part of his successful effort to list the structure in the National Register Of Historic Places in 2005, he learned much from former residents of the immediate vicinity.
One told him how boys would cross the river ice in winter to attend movies in Coxsackie. If an ice breaker was coming up the river, the film would be stopped to warn those from the east to get back across while they still could, and credit was given to see the rest of the film at a later date.
Hutchinson said that at his real estate closing, the former owner took him aside and warned that there had once been a murder at the hotel, and the resulting ghost was now included at no extra charge. He says he has yet to meet anyone of that description on the premises.
Jung confronted a real ghost when DEC's McAvoy pulled out some old snapshots taken in the area. In a shot from 1957, a not-yet-married Mrs. Jung appears a fetching young woman, with an equally handsome young man she described only as a "boyfriend".
Hutchinson and his neighbors have put plenty of time and money into the recognition and preservation of their historic properties in the vicinity. He says he would "love" to see the whole area designated as a Historic District.
Access to the area is now limited. The ice house can usually be reached only with a moderate hike, while the remains of the old ferry stop are accessed by an "at-grade" railroad crossing at Ferry Rd. The crossing is on an incline, and is considered unsafe by the state, but residents have been assured that it will remain open until a bypass road is constructed, though that effort has long been stalled due to complications involving wetlands and the possible siting of a boat launch.
Unsuccessful efforts to locate a boat launch in town, either at Nutten Hook or at Stuyvesant Landing to the north, go back well over a decade.
According to McAvoy the first written deeds to land on Nutten Hook were acquired by Dutch settlers in the second half of the 17th century. Before that, evidence suggests that Native Americans used the site for at least three thousand years, she said.
Share this Article
 |
 |
|
| Play Ball! | Payroll sends officials into executive session |
Article Rating
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of registerstar.com.
You must register with a valid email to post comments. Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here: |
Become a Registered User |
