By: Thomas E. Rinaldi and Robert J. Yasinsac (Hanover, N.H.: Univ. Press of New England, 2006. xiii+337 pp., around 250 illus., map, appens., notes, bibl., index. $34.95 hb (ISBN 1-58465-598-4))
| Thomas Rinaldi and Robert Yasinsac have a passion for photography and for history that led, initially, to a successful website <www.hudsonvalleyruins.org>. This reader was thrilled to find that they had authored a text to elaborate on their remarkable photographs and detailed histories of the Hudson River Valley sites. In Hudson Valley Ruins, Rinaldi and Yasinsac detail 28 sites in the Hudson River Valley and include an additional 53 sites in photographs with brief captions. Their text is an outstanding attempt to survey the ruins of the entire valley, including everything from abandoned automobiles to churches, train stations, estates, institutions, boats, and—of keen interest to this readership—past industries. According to the book’s jacket, the authors chose ruins for their “general historical and architectural significance, their relationship for important themes in the region’s history, their physical condition or ‘rustic’ character, and their ability to demonstrate a particular threat still faced by historic buildings in the region.” | 1 |
| The authors provide an introduction that links the nature of ruins to a picturesque ideal initially captured by Dutch artists of the 1600s and highlighted by the Hudson River School of painters in the 1800s. Having grown up in the Hudson River Valley, both Rinaldi and Yasinsac recognized that the ruins, which were fascinating to them, were threatened by modern population and development pressures. Only 19% of the 90 national heritage sites within the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area are ruins, a statistic that illustrates the typical value of ruins in America’s national heritage. Their advocacy for protecting such places has culminated in this book, which is based on their website. Their photographs are supplemented with documentary history to flesh out the stories behind ruins up and down the Hudson River Valley. | 2 |
| The text is divided into four geographic sections: the Upper Hudson, the Middle Hudson, the Maritime Hudson, and the Lower Hudson. Within each of these sections, individual or pairs of counties are explored in each chapter, which begins with a general settlement history of the area, followed by a photographic survey of interesting sites with captions of 5 to 10 sentences that provide temporal and historic context. Sources are chiefly secondary or newspaper, in keeping with the overall survey objective of the book. Notes and bibliographic information are organized along the same lines as the text. The authors use individual sites to provide contextual information about the Hudson River in general, rather than summarizing its entire history in one chapter. All of the 213 black and white and 16 color photographs in the book are well framed and artistically illustrate the inherent value of each ruin—minimizing obstructions and maximizing detail. The authors also provide a number of historic reproductions of sites, created during their heights of occupation. When the authors detail an industrial site, they begin by providing the context of the industry within the river valley and then move into the particular details of the company that operated there and the history of the location. | 3 |
| Many of the 80+ sites deserve mention, but those highlighted here were chosen as examples of the industrial heritage of the Hudson River Valley. In the Upper Hudson, Rinaldi and Yasinsac highlight the ruins of several once-thriving industries: Powell and Minnock Brick Company, Fort Orange Paper Company, Alsen’s American Portland Cement Works, New York Central Railroad Station at Stuyvesant, R & W Scott Ice Company, and Stott Wollen Mills. In the Middle Hudson, one can read about the Delaware and Hudson Canal, Rosendale Natural Cement Industry, and the West Shore Railroad Station in Newburgh. Maritime ruins include sloops, schooners, barges, scows, ferries, and flagships that ran up and down this watercourse. Finally, in the Lower Hudson are the West Point Foundry, Dunderberg Spiral Railway, and the Yonkers Power Station. Many more industrial examples exist in photographs with enough information to point an interested reader in the right direction. | 4 |
| Rinaldi and Yasinsac went off the typical beaten path to include sites traditionally not considered important. Only 35% of the total ruins within the book are included on the National Register of Historic Places. These 28 ruins (22 simply listed and 6 listed as landmark status) are found in one of the two appendixes and covered in more detail or seen simply in a photograph with a long caption. Although in some ways this book is a travel guide, it lacks explicit directions to any of the sites, with only a general map of the Hudson River included in the introduction. Another appendix lists by county the ruins that are accessible to the public, providing the reader with additional information. | 5 |
| With a camera and imagination as their guides, Rinaldi and Yasinsac have documented ruins of which most people remain unaware and to which they are consequently unattached. This lack of awareness has already allowed part of the history of the Hudson River Valley to succumb to development unexamined. Many ruins have been destroyed since the authors’ initial visit. Their website remains an active list of threatened ruins, while their book is full of amazing photographs and histories of the ruins within the Hudson Valley. | 6 |
| Typically, books are not targeted at an audience of industrial archaeologists or those interested in industrial preservation, but Rinaldi and Yasinsac have penned a text that speaks directly to industrial archaeologists and the vanishing industrial heritage of this nation. Hudson Valley Ruins is more than a list of places long forgotten. It documents places that can inherently tie Americans to everything between their national and local histories. The text is very appropriate for a general audience, but it is an absolute must for anyone who lives in or visits the Hudson Valley. | 7 |
| Elizabeth Norris | |
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