More Comments- not sure if they had to be in by 4:00PM, I’m still here and working so ….

 

 

I am very concerned that the proposed  development planned for HRSH site, which was designated as a National Historic Landmark, will maintain the historic integrity of this site.  I agree wholeheartedly with the August 30 “Valley Views” article in the Poughkeepsie Journal, written by Strauber, Aldrich, Kowsky, Flad, as well as other groups entities devoted to preservation and conservation.  Not only is there historical precedence for such preservation, but similar National Landmark sites have been adapted for reuse in other localities, including the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. 

 

I am an English professor at Dutchess Community College, a life-long resident of the Hudson Valley, a former editor of the Dutchess County Annual Yearbook, and a writer.  I have a special connection to HRSH because I lived there as a very young child when my father was a dentist working at the hospital.  I have walked through the grounds, have marveled at the buildings, and have done research on the architecture of such institutions and their cultural significance and history.  I hate to think of this site destroyed , with roads cutting through an area that was given to the state and City of Poughkeepsie by FDR’s father, and while I realize it’s been in deplorable condition for many years, I fervently hope that developers will be sensitive to its importance.  The Hudson River Valley is rich in cultural and historical significance, which makes it attractive to visitors and scholars, and I hope developers will take this to heart and incorporate as much of the original building and lay-out of hospital grounds into its new use.  Preservation of the Olmstead landscape, the “Great Lawn,” the existing roads which were designed as a landscape feature, and the preservation (and not wanton destruction)  of the main administration building are all  important.  I would also urge developers to develop an interpretive center which could explain this site’s architectural, cultural, and historical significance to visitors.

 

Carol Scarvalone Kushner