Hudson Stories

In the winter of 1970, Rex Weiner—then a 20-year old college dropout—discovered a bundle of letters in an attic he was renting in Westchester County. The letters were addressed to Faye Owens, an incarcerated resident at the NYS Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY. This is the story of what he did with those letters.

For nearly a century after its opening in 1871, the big prison in the small Central Illinois town of Pontiac operated a farm. This story by contributor William (Bill) Goold tells the history of how the prison farm evolved as the prison itself changed.

Prison Public Memory Project 2017 intern Sophia Burns takes a deep dive into a fascinating case file from the late 1800s, telling the story of Maud Veach (a.k.a. Sadie Roe), who was incarcerated at the House of Refuge for Women in Hudson, NY in the late 1800s.

Prison Public Memory Project intern Emma Friedlander reports on the remarkable story of a group of sisters and their effort to understand the complicated life of their grandmother, Hilda Cornell.

Prison Public Memory Project summer intern Emma Friedlander reports on the discovery of the 1896 case file for Lillie Patch, a prisoner at the House of Refuge for Women in Hudson, NY.

Intern Sarah Millender explores the 1978 riot at Pontiac Correctional Center from the perspective of Elizabeth Armstrong. Armstrong was a young girl living across the street from the prison at the time of the riot.

Former PPMP Hudson Site Coordinator Brian Buckley tells the story of the New York State Training School for Girls' closure using primary sources from the offices of Governors Nelson Rockefeller and Hugh Carey (1971-1975).

On May 16th, 2015, Brian Buckley interviewed Mabel Blanks in Hudson, NY. Mabel worked as a teacher at the New York State Training School for Girls in Hudson.

Frankie Bailey investigates the fascinating history of the first reformatory for women in New York, the House of Refuge for Women in Hudson, NY, and the main historical players behind it. 

The story of a reunion for former employees of the NYS Training School for Girls held in 1981 at a locally owned restaurant in Columbia County, NY and sponsored by the local branch of the NAACP.

Tobi Jacobi writes about girls at the Training School in the 1920’s caught  in “a tangle of circumstance” as they navigated the everyday challenges of adolescence and the pressures of emerging adulthood alongside charges of incorrigibility and immorality.

Excerpt from an oral history with Gale Smith, who worked as the assistant superintendent at the NYS Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY.

Excerpt from an oral history with Jennifer Vinson, who was incarcerated at the New York State Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY in the 1970s.

Excerpt from an oral history with Sylvia Honig, who worked as a social worker at the New York State Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY in the 1960s and 1970s.

John Mason reports on the history of the gatehouse that sits on the edge of the prison grounds in Hudson, NY. 

Excerpt from an oral history with Mary Hughes, who worked as a 'cottage mother' at the NY Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY for over 25 years.

The stories of some of the residents at the New York State Training School for Girls during the 1920s as told by the letters they wrote and received.

Excerpt from an oral history with Cedrick Fulton, a resident of Hudson, NY who was incarcerated at the Hudson Correctional Facility in the early 1990s.

New York Times reporter Nina Bernstein talks about discovering Ella Fitzgerald's hidden past at the Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY.

Excerpt from an oral history with Alice Green, Executive Director of the Center for Law & Justice and former employee at the Hudson Girls' Training School.

The story of how Jane Bolin and the NAACP fought in the 1940s to prohibit public funding of charitable institutions that practiced racial discrimination.

A note and poem from Frances Drabick, a writer whose mother worked at the New York State Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY in the 1960s.

Margo Bake was five months pregnant when she arrived at the Hudson Girls' Training School. She ran away in 1949, and now her son is trying to find her.

Excerpt from an oral history with David Kinlock, a resident of Albany who was formerly incarcerated at the Hudson Correctional Facility in Hudson, NY.

A parole agent's presentation at a New York conference in 1905 stirs a debate about the Hudson Training School for Girls: Punishment or Protection?

Superintendent Fannie French Morse wrote in 1924 that the girls at Hudson should be able to farm. The training school boys do it, she said—why not girls?

On April 10, 1933, a fifteen-year-old “colored” girl named Ella Fitzgerald was sentenced to the New York State Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY.

In the 1950s, Marion Palfi, an immigrant photographer and member of the New York Photo League, took photographs of girls at the Hudson Training School.

In 2012, an envelope addressed to the Prison Public Memory Project was delivered to the Hudson Area Library. Inside were the memories of Gloria Hollenbeck.

Excerpt from an oral history with Mary Hughes, who worked as a 'cottage mother' at the NY Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY for over 25 years.

The stories of some of the residents at the New York State Training School for Girls during the 1920s as told by the letters they wrote and received.

Excerpt from an oral history with Cedrick Fulton, a resident of Hudson, NY who was incarcerated at the Hudson Correctional Facility in the early 1990s.

New York Times reporter Nina Bernstein talks about discovering Ella Fitzgerald's hidden past at the Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY.

Excerpt from an oral history with Alice Green, Executive Director of the Center for Law & Justice and former employee at the Hudson Girls' Training School.

The story of how Jane Bolin and the NAACP fought in the 1940s to prohibit public funding of charitable institutions that practiced racial discrimination.

A note and poem from Frances Drabick, a writer whose mother worked at the New York State Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY in the 1960s.

Margo Bake was five months pregnant when she arrived at the Hudson Girls' Training School. She ran away in 1949, and now her son is trying to find her.

Excerpt from an oral history with David Kinlock, a resident of Albany who was formerly incarcerated at the Hudson Correctional Facility in Hudson, NY.

A parole agent's presentation at a New York conference in 1905 stirs a debate about the Hudson Training School for Girls: Punishment or Protection?

Superintendent Fannie French Morse wrote in 1924 that the girls at Hudson should be able to farm. The training school boys do it, she said—why not girls?

On April 10, 1933, a fifteen-year-old “colored” girl named Ella Fitzgerald was sentenced to the New York State Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY.

In the 1950s, Marion Palfi, an immigrant photographer and member of the New York Photo League, took photographs of girls at the Hudson Training School.

In 2012, an envelope addressed to the Prison Public Memory Project was delivered to the Hudson Area Library. Inside were the memories of Gloria Hollenbeck.

Excerpt from our oral history with Thomas Tunney, Superintendent of the New York State Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY from 1964 to 1972.

"Dear Mother," begins Gladys Case's "first letter home," postmarked from the Hudson Girls' Training School three days after Christmas, December 28, 1930.  

In May of 2011, a box of documents from the New York State Training School for Girls was discovered by Lisa Durfee at a garage sale in Hudson, NY.

An excerpt from our oral history with the late Timothy Dunleavy, former owner of the Hudson business Rural Residence and co-founder of Historic Hudson.

In 1912, a granite fountain designed by artist Charles Platt was dedicated in New York City’s Bryant Park to the memory of Josephine Shaw Lowell.

Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald kept secret the cruelest chapter of her own history: her confinement for over a year in a reformatory as an orphaned teenager.

In the few months before its closing in 1975, Hudson, NY residents, Training School employees, and elected officials waged a campaign to stop the closure.

The story of how Jan Kerouac, daughter of legendary Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac's daughter, escaped the Hudson Training School for Girls.

In 1915, Commissioner of the NY Department of Efficiency and Economy John Delaney released a report condemning the Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY.

Excerpt from our oral history with Karen DePyster, who taught recreation at the New York State Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY.

Echoing a century-old trend, today’s reformers’ are critical of large juvenile prisons and aim to create small, ‘home-like’ environments for confined youth.

Lisa Durfee found these photos, documents, and other 1920s ephemera from the New York State Training School For Girls at a garage sale in Hudson, NY.

Excerpt from our oral history with Peter Tenerowicz, lifelong resident of Hudson, NY and a former correctional officer at the Hudson Correctional Facility.

Excerpt from our oral history with Mary Allen, who remembers teaching at the Girls' Training School in Hudson, NY and the Brookwood Annex in Claverack, NY.

The conditions at the New York House of Refuge for Women as told by an Annual Report filed for the State Legislature by the reformatory's Board of Managers.