Back in early August I met up with my friend and former colleague Robert Cohen for lunch at Harvest on Hudson, a very pleasant restaurant right on the river in Hastings-on-Hudson. I arrived early and decided to have a coffee while waiting at “The Good Witch” right by the station in Hastings (in fact it looks like it was once the actual station building). It’s an interesting place – I’d never seen kimchi bagels before.


View from the overpass at Hastings station. In between the two buildings is the iconic water tower.


Another view of the water tower with the Palisades in the background. The Palisades are anywhere from 300 to 540 feet high depending on where you are. The water tower is about all that remains of the former Anaconda Wire and Cable (AWC) works. The site is heavily polluted and is in the process of being remediated by the current owner prior to re-development. All the other buildings have been demolished, but the tower has become a symbol of Hastings-on-Hudson and a majority of the residents do not want it to be demolished.


Old paving stones. In 1880, the Hastings Pavement Company began making hexagonal pavers, still visible in the sidewalks along the west and east sides of Manhattan’s Central Park and in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. The “fog works,” so nicknamed because of the smoke the paving company generated, would remain on the Hastings waterfront until 1936. During World War One, the waterfront industries geared up to support the war effort. Hastings Pavement supplied pavers for the Great Army Supply Base in Brooklyn and Navy yards in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Hampton Roads. These pavers look quite old. I wonder if they date back to this period.


A sunflower by the entrance to Harvest on Hudson.


Losts of flowers in and around the restaurant.




Robert waiting for our table to be ready.


At the restaurant.




Robert waiting for his train back to The Big Apple.

Taken with a Sony RX100 III.

Leave a Reply