Saturday, September 3, 2011

A Hundred Years Ago in Hudson

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend in 1911, this self-promoting statement of civic pride appeared in the Hudson Evening Register.  

ABOUT HUDSON
  • Hudson is a good place to live in.
  • Hudson is the county seat of Columbia county.
  • Hudson is a clean city.
  • Hudson's population is growing.
  • Hudson is on the Hudson, with the Atlantic at one end and the river and barge canal at the other.
  • Hudson's knit goods go to China, England and all over the United States.
  • Hudson has one of the biggest cement plants in the world now building on its outskirts.
  • Hudson's advantages for manufacturing and excellent shipping facilities are not excelled anywhere.
  • Hudson's banks are sound, its manufactories are staple, its citizens are progressive and generous.
  • Hudson is on the line of railroads to the north, west, south, and east.
  • Hudson is the centre of a rich and fertile farming section.
HUDSON HAS.
  • Banks for saving.
  • Three National banks.
  • Efficient police force.
  • Several public squares and parks.
  • Hudson, Elks and Masonic clubs.
  • Up-to-date fire companies.
  • Street railway.
  • Good public schools.
  • Two daily and two weekly newspapers.
  • Railroad connecting with State capital and metropolis; another line connecting with the east; electric road thirty-eight miles in length.
  • Telegraph and express companies.
  • State Training School for Girls.
  • Home for Veteran Volunteer Firemen of the State.
  • A well-equipped public hospital.
  • An excellent orphan asylum.
  • Many miles of macadamized pavement.
  • Many fraternal organizations.
  • A gravity system of spring water.
  • Progressive manufacturing concerns.
  • Enterprising stores.
  • Two telephone companies.
  • Churches representing almost every denomination.
  • A handsome county building.
  • A free library.
  • A Chamber of Commerce.
The "free library" listed--far down on the inventory of Hudson's assets--must have been the library maintained by the DAR at their Chapter House on Warren Street, because the current institution, the Hudson Area Association Library, was not established until 1959. 

3 comments:

  1. Macadam (named for late 18th-, early 19th-century Scottish civil engineer John Louden McAdam)--not to be confused with macadamia nuts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ah! (actually I looked it up but just couldn't resist)

    ReplyDelete