HUDSON — A historic Hudson house is set to undergo extensive renovations.
The Nantucket House, located on Union Street, is one of the area’s oldest and historically significant structures.
Many legends and fables surround the house. One of the most famous, described in “Hudson’s Merchants and Whalers: The Rise and Fall of a River Port 1783-1850,” author Margaret Schram identifies “great forests of hardwoods suitable for shipbuilding, something that Nantucket and the other highly populated New England towns lacked” as one of the things that attracted the proprietors to Claverack Landing.
The Nantucket House has been a Hudson institution for hundreds of years. Over the last few decades, there has been a heightened sense of responsibility to return the house to its original design.
The Galvan Foundation has owned the building since 2012, but in June 2022, Walter Chatham appeared before the Historic Preservation Commission to explain the reasons the house needs to be restored. He proposed some changes that included removing the existing siding and restoring the original clapboard beneath, and swapping out new replacement windows with wood windows.
Calls to Galvan requesting comment were not immediately returned.
Restoration projects can be challenging, especially with a house this old. In older homes such as this one some common problems are lead and asbestos, two hazardous materials.
Termite damage can also be a problem. Termites can devastate homes wooden and wood-like components, including floors, structural supports and drywall.
Mold and mildew damage can wreak havoc on old homes. Houses exposed to excessive moisture often develop mold and mildew. Though particularly common in basements and bathrooms of wet-climate homes, moisture-related microorganism growth can occur anywhere.
The problem is more likely to occur in old homes because moisture more readily seeps through cracked foundations and leaky pipes. However, since infestations can start inside walls, it’s possible to walk through a mold-infested older home for sale without realizing there’s a problem.
Older homes are prone to a variety of foundation and structural problems, such as: Major cracks or unevenness in the slab or perimeter foundation wall, corrosion, dry rot or moisture damage in pilings or concrete foundation supports and damaged piers or support footings, and dry rot or moisture damage in above-ground studs.
These issues are particularly-common and tend to occur sooner, in regions with abundant soil moisture, unstable bedrock, and seismic activity.