A Chance to Take Up the Life of an Innkeeper in Hudson, Yours for $1.7 Million

In a town packed with the full gamut of 19th century architectural styles, here’s a grand manse on a Hudson, N.Y. block that is flush with houses from the 1840s to the 1900s.

The house on the market at 339 Allen Street, now operated as an inn, is one of three built on this stretch of the street in the late 19th and early 20th century, making them “modern” by the standards of their Gothic and Italianate neighbors.

Located within the Union/Allen/South Front Street Historic District, 339 Allen Street is a stately Queen Anne with Colonial Revival details. There’s the asymmetrical massing and mix of features typical of Queen Anne, including bays, dormers and grand porches mixed with Colonial Revival Palladian windows, swan’s neck pediments, swag ornamentation and an ionic columned porch.

The designation report doesn’t identify an architect but dates the house to circa 1890, which seems to align with historic maps. A Sanborn map of 1889 shows a different building on the lot, but by the 1895 map, the current house had been constructed. The renumbering of the houses in 1889 makes tracking exactly what happened on the block even trickier, but in the 1890s both 339 Allen Street and its neighbor at 345 were constructed.

One of the earlier owners of 339 was Caroline L Hoysradt, widow of General Jacob Hoysradt, former mayor of Hudson and local business leader. Both Caroline and Jacob were active in local charities and civic organizations. Jacob died in 1890 and the 1900 census listed Caroline as living at 339 Allen Street with her daughters Florence and Jessie, boarder Dr. Clark G Rossman and Rose Cunningham, a servant. That same year, the boarder became a son-in-law when Florence and Clark married. The New York Herald reported that the “pretty wedding” was to take place at the home of the bride’s mother, 339 Allen Street.

After Caroline’s death in 1903, the couple returned to 339 Allen Street. Local papers reported on musical and literary evenings hosted in the house by the couple and in 1918 they hosted a luncheon for participants in Hudson’s Liberty Day festivities, a nation-wide holiday declared by President Wilson. By the late 1930s they moved out of the house and in the early 1940s it was converted to apartments.

Today it’s operated as an inn, with five en-suite rooms. Whether you choose to continue to host guests or take over the house for yourself is up to you.

Fortunately, it seems much of the rich woodwork on the first floor has survived. The grand entry has wainscoting, parquet floors and a staircase made for a sweeping entrance.

Most of the rooms on the first floor are currently in use as gathering and dining spaces for the inn, taking advantage of the pocket doors, picture rails and wood trim to provide a cozy feel.

A grand Colonial Revival mantel with a mirrored overmantel topped by a swan’s neck pediment dominates the parlor. The listing describes the four fireplaces in the house as decorative, so no curling up in front of a fire.

The formal dining room has a coffered ceiling and a bay window framed with garland-trimmed woodwork.

The kitchen is not period, but is scaled for cooking for a crew. If you want to try a recipe that would have pleased owner Caroline Hoysradt, you can try her recipe for a mountain cake, published in an 1893 charity cookbook in support of the Home for the Aged in Hudson.

Upstairs there’s a Palladian window at the staircase landing and room for a small seating area at the second floor.

The second floor has five bedrooms, all converted to include en suite baths. Some of the bedrooms have those additional decorative mantels.

The photos only provided small glimpses of two of the bathrooms, but they look to be period-inspired.

There’s a back staircase that was once perhaps the domain of servants but now leads to additional rooms.

The third floor has another bedroom with en suite bath as well as two, one-bedroom apartments.

One of the units is currently used as the owners suite.

According to the listing the lower level is finished, although pictures aren’t included. Outside there’s a garage, a workshop and solar panels.

If you want to stretch your legs the house is just around the corner from the green space of Court House Square and a few blocks from the main town drag of Warren Street.

The property is listed for $1.7 million by Nancy Felcetto of Halstead.

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