Rhinebeck's Montgomery Row
by Lynn Behrendt

During the cold days of this past winter, the skeleton of a new building was erected on the west side of Montgomery Street in downtown Rhinebeck. It was shocking, at first, to see the steel bones of the building begin to form what seemed would be an absolutely enormous structure right next to the historic Starr building. More recently, with the exterior walls up and the windows in place, one can begin to get a rough idea of what the new building will look like: the sharp gables, pronounced bay windows, and multi-paned glass accurately echo historic buildings in the area.

For the twenty-five years that I've lived in the Hudson Valley, the lot just north of the Starr building has been a car lot. Like the attractive Chevrolet dealership that used to be directly across the street, it was about as pretty as a car lot could be: it always seemed green, quiet, and shaded by trees. Now that it was gone, I talked to some long-time Rhinebeck residents to find out what had been there before.

Vernon Sipperly, whose family has lived in Rhinebeck for several generations, told me that the car lot had been there ever since the houses that had once been there were torn down, over seventy years ago. Vernon's uncle, John Fraleigh, lived in one of those -houses for several years with his wife Florence. Another house was owned by a man who owned a farm outside the village, and did dairy processing right behind his house on Montgomery Street. Another long-time Rhinebeckian informed me that William Carroll had once lived in one of the houses. Carroll was a furniture maker and coffin-builder who some historians claim was probably the mortician who repaired Lincoln's corpse before a viewing in Albany on the President's final journey home to Illinois.

The Hartshorn family has owned the property since 1927. When Piper Hartshorn's father died in 1998, the property on the east side of the street was transformed into the beginnings of Montgomery Row, a boutique-sized shopping center housing several locally owned businesses including Oblong Books and Gigi Trattoria. The second phase of Piper Hartshorn's vision is taking shape in the form of the new gabled building across the street, which will also house mostly locally-owned businesses.

The building's interior will contain 28,000 square feet and will have nine businesses on the first floor, and seven to nine on the second floor. There will be sidewalks on both the north and south sides of the building, as well as a promenade on the south side next to the Starr Building, and a one-way drive-through road to Garden Street on the north. Three entrances will provide access to the second story, including an elevator. Some of the businesses going in are a gift store called Periwinkles of Rhinebeck; a gourmet food store/specialty cheese shop; a branch of the brokerage/investment firm, A.G. Edwards, and a restaurant called Phoenix Rising that will serve "affordable American cuisine." There will be thirty-six parking spaces, not visible from Montgomery Street.

The new Montgomery Row building is being constructed by Rondack Construction of Red Hook and was designed by David Souers of Optimus Architecture in Rhinebeck. In addition to the second phase of Montgomery Row, Souers designed the pavilions at Poet's Walk Park, a number of additions to local historic houses including the Grants-Baden house on Wurtem-burg Road, and the recently renovated Rhinebeck Savings Bank on Montgomery Street, for which the Rhinebeck Historical Society is giving him an award. Souers pointed out that one interesting aspect of the new building is its geothermal heating and cooling system that uses water from the earth to provide heat or cooling. Geothermal systems are extremely energy efficient and environmentally sound.

Before deciding to go ahead with the current project, the Hartshorns turned down several offers from businesses such as Stewarts, Baskin Robbins, and assorted other drive-thru type establishments that seemed inappropriate for Rhinebeck. Still, there have been some criticisms of the new Montgomery Row building. Some residents are concerned that there won't be adequate parking, already an ongoing problem in Rhinebeck. Others feel that the building is situated too close to the street to be aesthetically pleasing and therefore will detract from the charm of Montgomery Street. In fact, the new building is set back from the road the same distance as the Starr Building, which is farther than Foster's.

At the point this article is being written, in the dreariest late-February-early-March part of winter when the street is lined with slushy brown snow and the unfinished Montgomery Row building is covered with some sort of very bright yellow construction siding, it's difficult to imagine what the finished building might look like in spring. Piper Hartshorn says that the siding will be an earthy, terracotta-red colored clapboard made out of hardy plank, with trim colors of linen white and a kind of pepperwood greyish taupe. Trees will be planted all along the front of the building.

For those who are concerned with how Rhinebeck is growing, it might be helpful to become involved in the town planning process. The current town plan is fourteen years old. This past December, a survey was mailed to residents, asking for input on town planning. The response rate was a strong twenty-five percent, indicating that many people in Rhinebeck are interested in having input into what should happen or not happen in Rhinebeck in the years to come. Though the data gathered from the survey has not yet been analyzed, it will eventually be used to formulate a new town plan, which the Rhinebeck Comprehensive Plan Committee hopes to have in place by the fall of 2004.

For some reason, certain landscapes, streets, and buildings become more deeply imprinted in our minds than others. I believe that these images, which are ingrained in our subconscious because we live with them daily and see them over and over, are a strong part of what deeply ties people together in a community. When one of the images changes, it feels as if something radical has happened, and its impact is strongly felt. The stroll southward on Montgomery Street into the center of Rhinebeck has undoubtedly been radically changed. I will miss the open, greener, quieter walk into town past the tree-shaded car lot. At the same time I know that change is usually neither completely good nor bad. So I look forward to taking a new stroll on the promenade on the south side of Montgomery Row this summer; and am hopeful that the new locally-owned businesses will help Rhinebeck continue to prosper.

Links for further information:
www.therhinebeckplan.org
www.montgomeryrow.com