Author:
Tom Koulos (edited by Ned Depew)
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Date Posted: 11:04:53 06/24/05 Fri
Ned,Londa has their article web site if you should like to read the rest of the article.Tom
The night the red lights went out
55 years ago, a prostitution raid cleaned up Hudson, N.Y. Today, the city is thriving.
By Rich Azzopardi, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Berkshire Eagle
HUDSON, N.Y. -- Among the subdued painted shingles that line this picturesque street adorned with antiques shops and art galleries, it is the glowing red lantern on the sign of the box-car diner that stands out the most.
The logo on the Diamond Street Diner, and its name, serve as one of the few reminders in this well-manicured burg that points to a time when Hudson was filled each weekend with men drawn like mosquitoes to the city's red light district.
That era, which began early in the 19th century, ended 55 years ago today with a late-night prostitution raid by New York State Police in this old port town roughly 30 miles west of Great Barrington.
Far from the only town on the banks of the Hudson River with a bawdy reputation, Hudson -- and, more specifically, Diamond Street -- was particularly well-known among the soldiers, sailors and out-of-town businessmen of the day.
"If you were near or in New York state in those days, you found your way up to Hudson," Mayor Richard Scalera said. "The gambling, the red light district, and anything else like that -- Hudson, N.Y., was certainly plentiful of it."
The street's association with the city's sex trade, which began when the city was a popular stop for whaling ships, stuck, even after Diamond Street was renamed Columbia Street in 1926.
Thomas Koulos, who worked as a taxi driver in Hudson for several years before the raid, said he took his share of out-of-town guests to "The Block," as the brothels had become known because of Columbia/Diamond Street intersecting with Third and Fourth streets.
The guests also brought their wallets to other businesses in the city, especially to bars and restaurants.
"Of course, this was money they wouldn't get (from locals), but because of visitors they would make the extra dollar and consequently they would look the other way," Koulos said.
City officials during that era also were willing to turn a blind eye to prostitution and the equally vibrant gambling subculture, which most residents did not consider to be crime issues, Scalera said.
"It was understood that there were things that were taking place and the community as a whole tolerated (them) because they didn't know anything else," he said. "Most of the people were born into it and accepted it as a way of life."
Hot spot for antiques
Today, out-of-towners again fill the city's streets each weekend, but the tourists are drawn here for different reasons.
During the past decade, Hudson has become a hot spot for New York antiques dealers who "discovered" the 2.2-square-mile city.
The 19th-century architecture that dominates the city skyline survived urban renewal in the 1960s and '70s, while other communities knocked down their old buildings and replaced them with squarish, utilitarian structures.
Many of Hudson's buildings, which had fallen into a state of disrepair, have been restored. Meanwhile, occupied storefronts on the city's main drag on Warren Street now greatly outnumber vacant ones, and the price of real estate in the area has climbed.
One building in the city sold for $12,000 at a tax auction two years ago, was renovated and recently sold for $471,000, Scalera said.
The antiques stores have paved the way for an arts community, a handful of performance spaces and, most recently, a wave of restaurants.
It was during the latest phase that Jim Funk decided to get into the diner business. Looking to tell people that the Columbia Diner was under new management, Funk rechristened it the Diamond Street Diner and reopened it in March.
Funk said the reception to the name has been overwhelmingly positive.
"People just love it," he said. "It was a major part of Hudson history, good and bad."
Funk said business has boomed since the diner reopened. T-shirts with the diner's logo, which has the name surrounding the red-lit lantern, have become hot sellers, and the diner soon will be selling coffee mugs, he said.
Despite the name, the diner is situated at the end of the city's business district on Warren Street, one street and several blocks away from where the brothels operated until 55 years ago.
Governor ordered action
Complaints of the Diamond Street activity and the equally thriving gambling racket made their way to Albany in 1950 and got the attention of Gov. Thomas Dewey, who ordered that action be taken.
That order took the form of a late-night operation by state troopers on June 23. The raid targeted six houses on The Block and a home in another part of the city where police believed a high-stakes poker game was being played.
From the brothels, 23 women were arrested. Five, who were believed to be madams, were charged with "maintaining disorderly houses." The rest were charged with vagrancy.
Ten men who also were picked up in the houses were questioned and released without being charged, according to newspaper accounts.
Sorry to cut it off,But you can read the rest of the article that Londa can help you find.Tom Koulos
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