January Newsletter

January 3, 2025

Happy New Year, HHA members and supporters. We hope you had a good holiday and were able to enjoy the many events and activities that make Hudson such a special place during this time of year!  

While we usually use our January newsletter to promote the first program of the New Year, we regret to announce that due to illness, we are cancelling the January 9 HHA general meeting that would have featured a presentation on Hudson’s Wood Hollow Metro Park. We hope to reschedule this program at some date in the future and apologize for the inconvenience.

In the meantime, we hope you will mark your calendar for the remaining programs that we have scheduled for this winter and spring. They will include a presentation on February 13 about piracy on the Great Lakes and on March 13, Gwen Myers, Archivist, Hudson Library & Historical Society, will speak about the history of maple sugar making in Hudson.  Below, we also provide a sneak preview of April’s program. You will see we have included a suggestion about preparing for that presentation, which will focus on John Brown. All programs will begin at 7 p.m. at the Barlow Community Center.

In May, we will hold our annual meeting for HHA members. This special event provides a wonderful opportunity to socialize with friends and neighbors who share a common interest in the preservation of historic Hudson and is open to all current members of Hudson Heritage Association. Planning for the evening’s festivities is already underway and it’s not too early to make sure your name is on the invitation list. Simply click here to join or renew your HHA membership.

In this month’s newsletter, we also are featuring a piece on the historic wooden block north of Clinton Street in downtown Hudson. The fire of 1892 destroyed the buildings south of Clinton Street, but those on Main Street to the north side of Clinton escaped destruction. The oldest of these is the Walter Wright building constructed in 1834. This block of buildings is thought to be one of the oldest wooden blocks still standing in Ohio and Hudson Heritage Association wants to do more to increase awareness for this unique collection of buildings. Like so many other parts of Hudson, this block is another contributor to our city’s rich heritage and we hope to share more soon about the work we are doing to help protect it.

Finally, we want to remind you that the deadline to be considered for this year’s Preservation Awards is January 31. Each year, Hudson Heritage Association recognizes and honors historic structures in Hudson that have been well preserved or restored within the last five years in a manner that maintains the historic integrity of the property. There is no maximum or minimum number of awards and we would love to recognize your property if you think it fits the requirements for this distinctive tribute. More information about the nomination process and the criteria considered by the judges can be found here.

As always, we appreciate your interest in all the work we are doing on behalf of historic Hudson. 

Susan Newman and Rebecca Leiter

Co-Presidents

Hudson Heritage Association 

Protecting Hudson's Downtown Commercial Legacy

If you spent some of your holiday time shopping and dining along Hudson’s Main Street, we hope you took a minute to appreciate the historic buildings that house some of the city’s shops and restaurants. As we wrote in the March 2024 HHA newsletter, a keen-eyed observer standing near the Clocktower and looking toward the strip of stores and businesses lining North Main Street will quickly notice significant differences between the structures located north of Clinton Street and those located to the south. The buildings to the north are all made of wood and reflect the classic Greek Revival style commonly found in Hudson. Those to the south are all brick or other types of stone construction, and the building styles are clearly from a later era.

The reason for this difference? On April 28, 1892, a cataclysmic fire destroyed half of Hudson’s business district after starting in a building at the south end of Main Street. A fortuitous rainstorm and the heroic efforts of the volunteer fire department stopped the conflagration from leaping over Clinton street and onto the row of wooden stores and houses on North Main, which still stand to this day.

Downtown Hudson in the aftermath of the 1892 fire. The fire caused an estimated $140,00 in damage (about $3 million in today’s dollars) and only a small portion – around $40,000 – was insured. Despite the loss, the downtown area was quickly rebuilt, creating the magnificent streetscape we know today.

In fact, the northern block of seven wood frame buildings represents the only intact group of wooden business structures in the state of Ohio in a downtown area. The buildings are protected from demolition and alteration by their inclusion in the Downtown Historic District, but they are not protected from another catastrophic fire. Some readers may recall the devastating fire that took place 10 years ago in historic downtown Garretsville, wiping out a dozen businesses and leaving large gaps in the town’s shopping district – gaps that still have not been filled.

The original northern block of Hudson’s Main Street commercial district as it looks today. Photo courtesty of Barbara VanBlarcum.

The threat that fire poses to Hudson’s original commercial block has long concerned Hudson Heritage Association and this coming year, HHA intends to actively work with the Hudson Fire Department on a solution that would provide both an early warning and fire suppression system for the entire block. These systems are expensive and beyond the scope of many of the buildings’ current owners. The City of Hudson is statutorily prevented from providing funding for these systems. In the coming months, Hudson Heritage Association hopes to put together a proposal for purchasing these systems to help keep this valuable Hudson asset around to enjoy for another 200 years.

Businesses have come and gone over the years, but some have a long track record of serving the community, the most notable of which is The Learned Owl bookstore, which has been a presence on North Main Street since 1968. Photo courtesy of Phil Leiter.

An excellent history of Hudson’s Main Street commercial district can be found in a book authored by HHA volunteers Patricia Eldredge and Priscilla Graham entitled Square Dealers: A Short History of Nineteenth Century Main Street and the Commercial Buildings on the Public Square, Hudson, Ohio. Copies of the book can be purchased at HHA’s monthly meetings by visiting the refreshment table following the evening’s program.

Constructed in 1837 at 230 North Main, the Austin-Lake House served as the residence for Lucy Hurn Lake until her death in 1877, and then became the home of the Walsh family. It is one of the five original existing homes on North Main Street built between 1832 and 1843. Photo courtesy of Barb VanBlarcum.

Looking for Some Winter Reading?

If you’re looking for a good book to settle in with this winter, you may want to consider purchasing a copy of the book by Hudson’s Joyce Dyer entitled Pursuing John Brown: On the Trail of a Radical Abolitionist. 

HHA will welcome Joyce Dyer as our featured speaker at our April 10 general meeting where she will discuss her travels and research. The book retraces John Brown’s journeys from Hudson across the nation and asks the essential questions about his life and his place in American history. Dyer taught literature at Western Reserve Academy for 12 years and is Professor Emerita of English at Hiram College. 

Board member Barb Van Blarcum comments that the book “ … is QUITE good and, frankly, fascinating - - it’s very readable and encourages reflection about our most famous or infamous Hudson resident, John Brown.” She adds that the book involved the research support of many Hudsonites including Tom Vince, Gwen Mayer, Joan Maher, Patricia Eldredge, Diccon Ong, Daniel Dyer, Tom Germaine, Nick Zaklanovich, Allyn Marzulla, Rick Hanna and Charles Schollenberger, among others, (along with historical societies and archives from coast to coast). Moreover, the book’s story actually begins in The Learned Owl Bookshop on Hudson’s historic Main Street!

Speaking of The Learned Owl, copies of Dyer’s book can be ordered from the store by clicking here.

Welcome New Board Member!

This month, we are pleased to introduce our fourth new board member -- one of five joining the HHA board for a three-year term that began in July.

Leslie (‘Timi”) Graham is a long-time Hudson resident, first arriving here in 1958. She lived in several historical houses in Hudson’s downtown while growing up and currently lives in the Porter-Holcomb House on North Main Street. After moving to Boston to earn a degree in interior design, Timi spent the next 25 years working in the textile and interior design business in Boston and New York. She returned to Ohio to manage the U.S. and international sales team and showrooms for a Cleveland-based wholesale textile company. Timi has a special connection to HHA and historic preservation: her mother Priscilla (“Pris”) was a long-standing member of HHA, served on Hudson’s Architectural and Historic Board of Review, taught Architectural History at Kent State University and co-authored Square Dealers, mentioned in the story above describing historic North Main Street. Timi is returning to the HHA board for a second term, after having first served from 2012 - 2015.

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