Fulfill Your Hudson B&B Owning Dreams With This Second Empire Manse, Yours For $1.025 Million

If your daydreams have you graciously greeting guests into your own 19th century abode so they can enjoy the offerings of a Hudson River Valley spot rich with architecture, art and history, this Second Empire-style manse might fulfill your fantasy.

Sited within easy walking distance of Hudson’s main shopping and dining district on Warren Street, the house on the market at 326 Allen Street has been operated as a bed and breakfast but began life as a single-family home.

With a facade dominated by a tower, a patterned slate mansard roof, dormers and a deep porch, the house certainly has some picturesque curb appeal. The roof was likely originally ornamented with iron cresting and that tower may have had a topper, but it has the cornucopia of details often found the in the Second Empire style so popular in New York in the latter half of the 19th century

While the Union/Allen/South Front Street Historic District designation report assigns a circa 1865 construction date, digging through some historic newspaper accounts points to a circa 1872 construction date for the Allen Street manse. In December 1874 and into early 1875, Elisha P. H. Capron advertised his house at 138 Allen Street, “built two years ago,” for sale or let. Allen Street was renumbered in 1889 and overlaying historic maps from 1873, 1903 and 2022 shows that Mr. Capron’s house was indeed the current No. 326.

Capron, an inventor behind patents such as a clothes wringer and a turbine water wheel, and his wife, Elizabeth, purchased the property in 1872 from Joshua T. Waterman. That evidence comes from a March 1875 mortgage sale notice after Capron was apparently unable to sell or let the house to resolve his financial obligations. William Parmenter, in a property exchange with Capron, became the new owner of the then 138 Allen Street that same year.

The 1875 New York state census lists William, occupation “gentleman,” and Sarah Parmenter on Allen Street in a wood frame house valued at $10,000 along with a son, daughter and two servants. Sarah appears in city directories in the house until the late 1880s. Residents in the 20th century included the Daniel V. and Susan McNamee family who were in residence from about 1909 at least until the death of Justice McNamee in 1939.

There are only a handful of photos in the listing but it appears that many interior details have survived the centuries, including woodwork, an impressive mantel and an original stair and other details. More images of individual rooms can be spotted on the bed and breakfast website.

The interior looks in need of some TLC, but it certainly isn’t short of space for an old-house lover eager to tackle a large project. The just under 5,000 square feet expanse includes six bedrooms and 7.5 baths. A staircase with some exposed lathe leads up to the tower, which the listing claims has “the only accessible widow’s walk in the city of Hudson.”

Listed with Andrew Gates of Houlihan Lawrence, the house is priced at $1.025 million.

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