God bless the grass that grows through cement
It’s green and it’s tender and it’s easily bent
But after a while it lifts up its head
For the grass is living and the stone is dead
— Malvina Reynolds
As this year began, a new waterfront promenade called the Hudson River Brickyard Trail made its debut on the border of the City of Kingston and the Town of Ulster: Phase One in the introduction of what is to become a state park. At the time we wrote about it in January (https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2021/01/15/a-link-to-the-past-hudson-river-brickyard-trail-opens-in-kingston), Scenic Hudson, the environmental organization that has spearheaded the protection of the 520-acre former industrial property, was beta-testing the name Quarry Waters Park. But now that New York State has agreed to acquire it, it gets the naming rights, and we all have to get used to a new handle: Hudson Cliffs State Park.
Considering that the first location the name “Hudson Cliffs” will likely evoke in many people is the Palisades, we can’t help wondering what the thinking was behind the change. Is this a tease that the new park will someday become a rock-climbi ang destination? Scenic Hudson and its planning team won’t commit to that, although it’s one of many suggestions for outdoor activities that are being urged by the public during this early visioning phase of the park’s development.
Perhaps more of a consideration was a wish to deemphasize the Quarry Waters. One of the property’s several lakes – created by many decades of mining aggregate rock for cement and clay for brickmaking – used to have a reputation as a magnet for cliff-divers, the thought of whose continuing presence must conjure nightmares of costly personal injury lawsuits for the landowners.
Like the Mad Max wannabes who tore up some of the flatter areas in their off-road vehicles during the years of neglect since the land’s industrial uses were abandoned in the 1970s, those divers aren’t the future audience that Scenic Hudson or the state have in mind. The emphasis now is on stabilizing and reclaiming the landscape from the ravages of a couple of centuries of human exploitation. It’s a fragile site, prone to erosion due to all that excavation, not to mention the Hudson estuary’s wild tides during storm events.
According to Heather Blaikie, senior park planner at Scenic Hudson and project manager for Hudson Cliffs, there are parts of the park that will likely remain off-limits to the public for the foreseeable future. In a recent public presentation viewable on YouTube (https://youtu.be/9dMWWTgwHEc), she reports that stabilization work has already begun on some storm-sensitive areas, which largely involves replanting native vegetation and allowing it time to establish new root networks. She describes the site’s lakes as “small systems” in terms of their hydrology, “very delicate” as habitat and unsafe for swimming – though the latter hasn’t been entirely ruled out as a long-term goal for the largest and flattest, known as Lost Lake.
Richard Roark, a partner at the landscape architecture firm Olin Partnership Limited, which is taking the lead in conducting research at the Hudson Cliffs site, is our guide to the future park’s regions and points of interest in the YouTube presentation. (A rough map can be seen at about the 30-minute mark in the video.) He repeatedly emphasizes that the “renderings” of possible future uses onscreen are very much conjectural and in flux at this point in the visioning process. According to Roark, the area around Lost Lake is already “rewilding in a quite beautiful way,” as is the artificial canyon in the center of the park called Steep Rocks Valley, which is reverting to “open meadow barrens” – great habitat for songbirds and butterflies.
Meanwhile, Lost Lake is being envisioned as a stop on the trail up to the top of the cliffs that form the most striking feature of the southern portion of the park. The destination here, being called Steep Rocks Overlook, commands a sweeping river view and offers the added attraction of a fossil deposit in a rock outcrop that was once an ancient seabed. Park planners are envisioning a viewing platform that can also serve as an outdoor classroom in this prime spot.
Farther north and lower down, the planning team wants to make use of the educational and interpretive opportunities offered by the ruins of industrial structures. Concerns about public safety may mean the dismantling of a few of these – notably the tall concrete silos in an area called the Cement Terrace. Some of the graffiti on the adjacent walls might be salvaged. This spot, already paved with concrete slabs, seems amenable to reclamation as a public gathering space with an event courtyard, and perhaps even parking space for food trucks.
Several other former industrial sites on the property also lend themselves to heavier public use, including the Stoneyard, featuring the ruins of an old aggregate crusher; the Shultz Mule Barn, close to the northern gateway of the Brickyard Trail, a large (and largely intact) 19th-century brick building that Roark says might be used for community gatherings; and the former Tilcon Barge Dock right on the Hudson waterfront, which could become a fishing access point with a picnic pavilion.
The Barge Dock seems the likeliest site for a future kayak put-in, or even a kayak rental facility, which many community members have already suggested as a desired activity at the park. Mountain bikers have also been making their wishes known, and Roark acknowledges that development of a system of cycling trails – “first family-friendly, and then more challenging” – is being given serious consideration.
But to haul bikes to the trailheads, kayaks to the shoreline or food trucks to a plaza, visitors will need closer automobile access and parking than is currently available at either end of the Brickyard Trail. While acknowledging that internal parking areas are high on their wish list, planners are playing their cards close to their vests with regard to where these access points might be.
The obvious way in is from Main Street/First Avenue, which bisects the park at its narrowest point, connecting East Kingston in the north with Ponckhockie in the south. However, residents of these neighborhoods will likely push back against the prospect of greatly increased traffic on this narrow road, once Hudson Cliffs becomes a state park and a major tourist draw. An access road coming in from Route 32 is another long-term option under consideration, according to Roark.
Steve Rosenberg, senior vice president of Scenic Hudson and executive director of the Scenic Hudson Land Trust, says that the transfer of ownership of Hudson Cliffs to New York State could occur as early as this summer, but that the environmental organization will continue to manage the park for at least the first few years of its transition. It’s taking a “phased approach,” with much of the park’s future development to be determined by the community feedback currently being solicited via Zoom meetings, focus groups, stakeholder interviews, site walks and a survey of potential users’ priorities. A new website has been created, https://hudsoncliffsparkinfo.org, where you can fill out the survey or “share your story” about what the site means to you.
What does Scenic Hudson most want Hudson Valley One readers to know about this work-in-progress? Says Rosenberg, “That it’s a really important time to share their ideas.” Duly noted. And we’ll be keeping tabs on this new park’s progress as it unfolds.
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