Hudson, Massachusetts

Indigenous people lived in what became central Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European settlement. Indigenous oral histories, archaeological evidence,[3] and European settler documents attest to historic settlements of the Nipmuc people in present-day Hudson and the surrounding area.[4] Nipmuc settlements along the Assabet River intersected with the territories of three other related Algonquian-speaking peoples: the Massachusett, Pennacook, and Wampanoag.[5]

In 1650, the area that would become Hudson and Marlborough was part of the Ockookangansett Indian Plantation for the Praying Indians. During King Philip's War, English settlers forcibly evicted the Indians from their plantation, imprisoning and killing many of them; most survivors did not return after the conflict.[2][5] The first recorded European settlement of the Hudson area occurred in 1698 or 1699 when settler John Barnes was granted 1 acre (0.40 ha) of Indian lands straddling both banks of the Assabet River.[4][6] Barnes built a gristmill on the Assabet River's north bank on land that would one day be part of Hudson.[1][6] In 1699 or 1700 Barnes sold his gristmill to Joseph Howe, who built a sawmill and bridge across the Assabet.[6] Other early settlers include Jeremiah Barstow, who built a house near today's Wood Square in central Hudson, and Robert Barnard, who purchased the house from Barstow.[6] The area became known as Howe's Mills, Barnard's Mills, or simply The Mills throughout the 1700s.[4][6]

The settlement was originally part of the town of Marlborough.[6][7] In June 1743, area residents Samuel Witt, John Hapgood, and others petitioned to break away from Marlborough and become a separate town, claiming the journey to attend Marlborough's town meeting was "vastly fatiguing."[1][2] Their petition was denied by the Massachusetts General Court. Samuel Witt later served on committees of correspondence during the 1760s.[4] At least nine men[4] from the area fought with the Minutemen on April 19, 1775, as they harassed British troops along the route to Boston.[1][2]

The area established itself as an early industrial center. Business partners Phineas Sawyer and Jedediah Wood built a sawmill on Tannery Brook, a tributary stream of the Assabet River today crossed by Main Street, in the mid-1700s.[6] This was followed by another mill on the Assabet in 1788 and a blacksmith's forge in 1790.[6] Joel Cranston opened a pub and general store—the settlement's first—in 1794.[6] Silas Felton (1776–1828) arrived in the settlement in 1799, joining Cranston in business: it was not long before the area became known as Feltonville.[6]

Feltonville's—and later Hudson's—significant role in the shoe industry may trace its origins to Daniel Stratton. A shoemaker, Stratton opened his Feltonville shop in 1816, expanding it to a small factory on Washington Street in 1821.[6]

In the 1850s, Feltonville received its first railroads.[1][2] There were two Feltonville train stations, originally operated by the Central Massachusetts Railroad Company and later by Boston & Maine, until both were closed in 1965. Railroads allowed the development of larger factories, some of the first in the country to use steam power and sewing machines. By 1860, Feltonville had 17 shoe and shoe-related factories, which attracted Irish and French Canadian immigrants.[4]

Feltonville residents fought for the Union during the American Civil War.[6] Twenty-five of those men died doing so. Two existing houses—the Goodale Homestead on Chestnut Street (Hudson's oldest building, dating from 1702) and the Curley home on Brigham Street (formerly known as the Rice Farm)—have been cited as waystations on the Underground Railroad.[2][8]

On May 16, 1865, Feltonville residents once again petitioned to become a separate town.[6] They cited the difficulty of attending town meeting,[6] as their predecessors had in 1743, and also noted that Marlborough's high school was too far for most Feltonville children to practicably attend. This petition was approved by the Massachusetts General Court on March 16, 1866.[6] A committee suggested naming the new town Hudson after Congressman Charles Hudson, who was born and raised in the Feltonville neighborhood.[2][8] By his own account, in response to this honor, Charles Hudson offered to donate $500 towards establishing a free public library. Town citizens gratefully voted to accept Congressman Hudson's gift.[9]

Wood Square in 1907

Over the next twenty years, Hudson grew as several industries settled in town. Two woolen mills, an elastic-webbing plant, a piano case factory, and a factory for waterproofing fabrics by rubber coating were constructed. Private banks, five schools, a poor farm, and the current town hall were also built during this time.[2][8] The population hovered around 4,000 residents, most of whom lived in modest houses with small backyard gardens. Some of Hudson's wealthier citizens built elaborate Queen Anne Victorian mansions, and many of them still exist. One of the finest is the 1895 Colonel Adelbert Mossman House on Park Street, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Colonel Adelbert Mossman House

The town maintained five volunteer fire companies during the 1880s and 1890s, one of which manned the Eureka Hand Pump, a record-setting pump that could shoot a 1.5-inch (38 mm) stream of water 229 feet (70 m).[2][6][8] Despite this glut of fire companies, on July 4, 1894, two boys playing with firecrackers started a fire that burned down 40 buildings and 5 acres (20,000 m²) of central Hudson.[6] Nobody was hurt, but the damages were estimated at $400,000 in 1894 (the equivalent of approximately $11.1 million in 2018).[2][8] The town was substantially rebuilt within a year or two.

By 1900, Hudson's population reached about 5,500 residents and the town had built a power plant on Cherry Street.[6] Many houses were wired for electricity, and to this day Hudson produces its own power under the auspices of the Hudson Light and Power Department, a non-profit municipal utility owned by the town. The brick Hudson Armory building accommodating local Massachusetts militia, and later units of the Massachusetts National Guard, opened in 1910.[10] Electric trolley lines were built connecting Hudson with the towns of Leominster, Concord, and Marlborough, though these only remained in existence until the late 1920s.[2][8] The factories in town continued to grow, attracting immigrants from England, Germany, Portugal, Lithuania, Poland, Greece, Albania, and Italy. These immigrants usually lived in boarding houses near their places of employment. In 1928, nineteen languages were spoken by the workers of the Firestone-Apsley Rubber Company.[1]

Apsley Rubber Company in 1911

Today, the majority of Hudson residents are of Irish or Portuguese descent, with lesser populations of Brazilian, Italian, French, French Canadian, English, Scotch-Irish, Greek, and Polish descent. About one-third of Hudson residents are of Portuguese descent or birth.[2] Most people of Portuguese descent in Hudson are from the Azorean island of Santa Maria, with a smaller amount from the island of São Miguel, the Madeira islands, or from the Trás-os-Montes region of mainland Portugal.[2] The Portuguese community in Hudson maintains the Hudson Portuguese Club, which was established in 1919.[11] It has outlived Hudson's other ethnic clubs, including the Buonovia Club (Italian American), the Lithuanian Citizens' Club, a Polish American club, and other Portuguese American clubs.[2] In 2003 the Hudson Portuguese Club replaced its original Port Street clubhouse with a function hall and restaurant built on the same site.

The Portuguese American community in Hudson traces its history to at least 1886, when a certain José Maria Tavares arrived in town.[2] José's brothers João "John" and Manuel joined him the following year.[2][11] In 1888 three more Portuguese immigrants reached Hudson: eighteen-year-old José "Joseph" Braga, and António Chaves and his sister Maria. In 1889 the six-person Garcia family arrived.[2][11] The 1890s saw the addition of the Bairos, Camara, Correia, and Luz families.[2][11] In 1900 Mr. and Mrs. José "Joseph" Almada and Mrs. Almada's brother Manuel Silva settled in Hudson.[2] By 1910 eleven more Portuguese families resided in Hudson: the Coito, Costa, Furtado, Grillo, Mello, Pereira, Pimentel, Rainha, Resendes, Ribeiro, and Sousa families.[2][11] This initial group of Portuguese immigrants all hailed from the Azorean islands of Santa Maria or São Miguel.[2]

By 1916 immigrants from mainland Portugal reached Hudson, including a certain João "John" Rio and family.[2] As early as the 1920s, Hudson's Portuguese population exceeded 1000 individuals—more than 10% of Hudson's total population at the time.[2] Some were employed as factory workers, though many also owned small businesses.[2]

Hudson also welcomed a small but well-documented Lithuanian American community. This community originated in 1897, when Anthony Markunas arrived in Hudson.[2] Another early Lithuanian immigrant was Michael Rimkus, who owned and operated a grocery store on the corner of Loring and Broad streets from 1908 to 1950.[2] It appears Lithuanians came to Hudson from larger communities located in Nashua, Worcester, and Boston.[2] Apparently Hudson's Lithuanians were known for their herb gardens—where they grew rue, chamomile, and mint—and beekeeping.[2] For many years Mr. Karol Baranowski maintained on apiary on Lois Street (now Mason Street).[2] His next-door neighbor Dominic Janciauskas, a fellow Lithuanian American, operated a silver fox farm.[2] The community was large and active enough to support the social and recreational Lithuanian Citizens' Club, located on School Street from 1926 to 1960.[2]

Hudson's population hovered around 8,000 from the 1920s to the 1950s, when developers purchased some farms surrounding the town center. The new houses built on this land helped double Hudson's population to 16,000 by 1970.[8]

During the 1990s high-technology companies built plants in Hudson, most notably the semiconductor factory built by Digital Equipment Corporation. Just before Digital folded in 1998, Intel bought this facility.[12] Under Intel's ownership, the plant continued producing silicon chips and wafers.

At the height of the Great Recession in the late 2000s, Hudson lost many local businesses. Particularly affected were the downtown commercial district and industrial establishments. Further bad news came in 2013 when Intel, Hudson's largest employer and charitable donor, announced it would close its Hudson semiconductor factory and layoff 700 employees by 2014.[13][14] Initially Intel tried to find a buyer for the facility, but when none came forward by 2015, Intel announced it would demolish the plant.[15][16] However, Intel's campus in Hudson includes an 850-person microprocessor research and development facility that did not close, and remains operational as of 2020.[12]

Since the mid-2010s Hudson's commercial downtown has witnessed an economic revitalization, with previously empty storefronts finding tenants. This is partly thanks to the town's increasing role as a regional culinary destination, including for craft beer.[17][18][19] Hudson's craft beer scene arguably began in 1980 when the Horseshoe Pub & Restaurant opened.[20] Horseshoe established itself as a beer lovers' haven with an 80-beer tap line and Oktoberfest celebrations.[21] In 2012, the Hudson Rotary Club, Horseshoe Pub, and other local businesses organized the first Spirit of Hudson Food and Brewfest to showcase local restaurants and breweries. Since then, the event has evolved into a large food and beer fest featuring dozens of restaurants and breweries, from tiny local producers to internationally known craft beer stalwarts such as Harpoon and Stone Brewing.[22] The first microbrewery in Hudson, Medusa Brewing Company, opened downtown in 2015.[20] A second – Ground Effect Brewing Company – followed in 2018.[23]

Although Hudson's population is now about 20,000, the town maintains the traditional town meeting form of government.[2] Some light manufacturing and agricultural uses remain in the eastern end of town, a vestige of Hudson's dual agrarian and industrial history. However, today Hudson is a mostly suburban bedroom community with many residents commuting to Boston or Worcester.

Before becoming a separate incorporated town in 1866, Hudson was a neighborhood and unincorporated village within the town – now city – of Marlborough, and had various names during that time.

From 1656 until 1700, present-day Hudson and the surrounding area was known as the Indian Plantation or the Cow Commons.[4] From 1700 to 1800,[4] the settlement was known as Howe's Mills, Barnard's Mills, or The Mills, evidencing its early industrial history.[2][6] From 1800 to 1828,[4] the settlement was called New City, for reasons not entirely clear but perhaps related to increased population and industrialization. From 1828 until incorporation in 1866,[4] the village was called Feltonville. The name Feltonville derives from that of Silas Felton, who operated a dry goods store in the hamlet from 1799 onward and served many years as a Marlborough selectman, town clerk, town assessor, and postmaster.[2][8] Today, Felton remains immortalized in the Silas Felton Hudson Historic District and two Hudson street names: Felton Street and Feltonville Road.

Hudson is bordered by four towns and one city: Bolton and Stow on the north, the city of Marlborough on the south, Sudbury on the east, and Berlin on the west.

The neighborhood and unincorporated village of Gleasondale straddles Hudson and Stow.

According to 2017 Census Bureau estimates, 90.3% of Hudson residents graduated high school or higher, while 39.8% have a bachelor's degree or higher. The Census Bureau estimated that in the five-year period between 2013 and 2017, 86.3% of Hudson households had a broadband internet subscription.[34]

Hudson Town Hall, built in 1872

The Town of Hudson has an open town meeting form of government, like most New England towns. The current executive assistant, who is an official appointed by the board of selectmen responsible for the day-to-day administrative affairs of the town and who functions with authority delegated to the office by the town charter and bylaws, is Thomas Moses.[35] The Board of Selectmen is a group of publicly elected officials who are the executive authority of the town. There are five positions on the Hudson Board of Selectmen, currently filled by Joseph Durant, Scott R. Duplisea, John M. Parent, Fred P. Lucy II, and James D. Quinn.[36] The selectmen elect from among their membership the positions of chairman, vice-chairman, and clerk of the board.

The Massachusetts legislature abolished the Middlesex County government in 1997. Former county agencies and institutions reverted to the control of the state government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Certain county government positions, such as District Attorney and Sheriff, still function under the state government instead of a county government.

• Camela A. Farley Elementary School
• Forest Avenue Elementary School
• Joseph L. Mulready Elementary School
• David J. Quinn Middle School
• Hudson High School

• Saint Michael's School was a private Catholic primary school that served grades 1 through 8 as well as kindergarten. The original building was built in 1918,[7] when the school was founded, and the school was administered by Saint Michael's Catholic Parish. When Hudson Catholic High School closed in 2009, Saint Michael's School moved to the former HCHS building. In May 2011 the parish announced the school would close at the end of the school year.[38] The original St. Michael's School building stood empty for a few years before the parish demolished it to expand its existing parking lot.
• Hudson Catholic High School (HCHS) was a private Catholic high school that served grades 9 through 12. It was completed in 1959[7] and was administered by Saint Michael's Catholic Parish. The principal was Caroline Flynn and the assistant principal was Mark Wentworth at the school's closure. The parish announced only about a month before the end of the 2008–09 school year that the school would be closed by the Boston Archdiocese due to lack of enrollment—and, as a consequence, funds—for the 2009–2010 school year.[39] The HCHS building was then used as the Saint Michael's School building, which itself closed in May 2011, and has since been demolished. The parish sold the former HCHS lot, on which now stands a Rite Aid pharmacy.[40]
• A former private Catholic school district known as Saint Michael's Schools and administered by Saint Michael's Catholic Parish closed in 2011.

Carmel Marthoma Church on River Road is the newest church building in Hudson, constructed in 2001.[46][47] The congregation traces its beginnings to the early 1970s as a prayer fellowship that met in the greater Boston area.[46][47] In 1981 the parent Mar Thoma Syrian Church officially recognized this gathering as a congregation and part of its Diocese of North America and Europe.[47] In 1984 the congregation registered as a legal entity in Massachusetts, with nine families becoming members.[47] As of 2018 the congregation numbered 120 families residing throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.[47] The current vicar is Rev. Thomas John.[48]

The First Federated Church on Central Street was built between 1967 and 1968.[49][50] It is a Baptist–Congregational church associated with American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ.[50] The Baptist portion of the federated congregation traces its origins to 1844, when Feltonville residents invited a revivalist preacher to hold services for them.[50] This Baptist community grew large enough to build and open their own Feltonville Baptist Church building in 1851; it was located on Church Street behind the Unitarian Church, where the Hudson Boys and Girls Club stands today.[50] A rapidly growing congregation necessitated a larger church built on the same site in 1877.[50] The Congregational side of the church traces its origins to at least 1889, when Congregationalists from Hudson held meetings in downtown's Chase Block building.[50] In 1902 they built their own church at the corner of Green and Central streets.[50] In 1918, after some time of combined worship, the Congregational and Baptist churches decided to merge into one congregation—the First Federated Church—and worship at the Baptists' Church Street building.[50] The Congregational church building became a community hall with bowling alleys until it was sold to a French Catholic congregation in 1927: this church would become Christ the King Roman Catholic Church (see below).[50] On the morning of September 23, 1965, a fire severely damaged the 1877 Baptist church, which had to be demolished.[50] After fundraising for a new structure, the First Federated Church broke ground at Central Street on Palm Sunday, March 19, 1967, and opened the new church on Palm Sunday one year later, April 7, 1968.[50] The church's current pastor is Rev. Yvonne Miloyevich.[51]

The First United Methodist Church of Hudson on Felton Street was completed in 1912[52] or 1913[6][49] after the previous one, which was located across the street from the Unitarian Church in central Hudson, burned in a 1911 fire.[49][52] The congregation traces its origins back to early settler Phineas Sawyer, who converted to Methodism in 1789 and opened his home to Methodist meetings in 1800.[52] In 1828 Feltonville's Methodists built a brick meetinghouse on Gospel Hill in what would be become eastern Hudson.[52] This structure burned on December 28, 1852, after which the congregation worshiped at the Methodist church in Gleasondale (then known as Rock Bottom), until 1863.[52] Sometime in the succeeding decades the congregation built an ornate wood-framed church on Main Street, which they lost in the 1911 fire.[52] The current pastor is Rev. Rosanne Roberts.[53]

Grace Church (formerly called Grace Baptist Church)[49] on River Road is a Southern Baptist congregation founded in 1986 and moved to its current location in 1996. The congregation has grown from an original 25 to a current 1,200 members. The current lead pastor is Marc Peña.[54]

The Hudson Seventh-day Adventist Church on Marlboro Street[55] was built in the 1960s.

Saint Luke's Episcopal Church on Washington Street was built in 1913.[6][49] The brick church building boasts a 1930 Møller pipe organ.[56] The current rector is Rev. James T. Kodera.[57]

Saint Michael's Roman Catholic Church—also known as St. Mike's—is a Roman Catholic congregation and parish located on Manning Street.[58] It has existed as a congregation since 1869,[6][49][58] though the first recorded Catholic resident of Feltonville was a certain James Wilson, who arrived in 1834.[58] The present Gothic Revival church was designed by architect P. C. Kelly of New York City[58] and built in 1889.[6][49][58] In 1996 the building underwent a major renovation funded by parishioners.[58] In 2000 neighboring Catholic parish Christ the King Parish was suppressed and merged with Saint Michael Parish.[58] The current pastor is Rev. Laurence "Ren" Tocci and the current Xaverian assistant is Rev. Anthony Lalli.[58][59]

The Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson is a Unitarian Universalist congregation associated with the Unitarian Universalist Association.[60] Anti-slavery abolitionists founded the congregation.[60] The Unitarian Church building located on the corner of Main and Church streets in downtown Hudson is older than the town itself, as it was built in 1861.[6][49] The church hosts a Buddhist meeting group.[61] The current minister is Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann.[60]

Christ the King Roman Catholic Church and Parish was located on the corner of Central and Green streets. It was built in 1902 as a Congregational church, became a community hall in 1918, and was purchased by a French Catholic congregation in 1927.[50] In 2000 Christ the King Parish was suppressed and merged with neighboring Saint Michael Parish.[58] In 2004 then pastor Fr. Walter A. Carreiro and the Parish Pastoral Council decided to suspend the church building's use for worship.[58] At the same time the St. Michael Early Childhood Center, located in a building on the same property, was relocated to Saint Michael School. The church was closed at the same time as other churches in the Boston Archdiocese were being closed to respond to the shortage of vocations and not to help pay sex abuse lawsuits, as is sometimes misreported. Christ the King was not closed by the Archdiocese and proceeds of its subsequent sale to the Tighe-Hamilton Funeral Home reverted directly to Saint Michael Parish.[62] The building still exists as a memorial service chapel for Tighe Hamilton Funeral Home.[63]

The Union Church of All Faiths, also known as the United Memorial Chapel for All Faiths, is a 5-foot (1.5 m) by 11-foot (3.4 m) wood frame building located in Hudson. It is occasionally cited as the smallest church in the United States.[49][64] However, smaller and older "tiny churches" exist in the United States.[65] Retired clergyman Rev. Louis Winthrop West built the chapel in 1953 on the grounds of the First Federated Church of Hudson, where it was located for many years. The building's interior fits four people, although 100 people sometimes gathered outside for religious services, including weddings.[49] In 2003 former Hudson resident Vic Petkauskos bought the chapel, relocated it to Hyannis, and renovated it. He planned to place it on a barge and hold wedding ceremonies off the coast of Cape Cod, although whether he ever did so is unclear.[66] The church still exists: at some point it made its way back to Hudson from Hyannis. It is currently located on private property on Causeway Street in Hudson, where it is visible from the road.