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Hudson, Massachusetts

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Hudson, Massachusetts
Town
Hudson's Location in Massachusetts
Hudson's Location in Massachusetts
CountryUnited States
StateMassachusetts
CountyMiddlesex County
Settled1699
Incorporated1866
Government
 • TypeOpen town meeting
 • Executive AssistantPaul Blazar
 • Board of SelectmenJoseph Durant
Carl Leeber
Antonio Loura
Fred Lucy II
Santino Parente
Elevation
263 ft (80 m)
Population
 (2000)
 • Total18,113
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (Eastern)
ZIP code
01749
Area code351 / 978
Websitehttp://www.townofhudson.org/Home/

Hudson is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,113 at the 2000 census.

For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Hudson, please see the article Hudson (CDP), Massachusetts.

History

In 1650, the area that would become Hudson was part of the Indian Plantation for the Praying Indians. The Praying Indians were evicted from their plantation during King Philip's War, and most did not return even after the war ended.

The first European settlement of the Hudson area occurred in 1699 when settler John Barnes, who had been granted an acre of the Ockookangansett Indian Plantation the year before, built a gristmill on the Assabet River on land that would one day be part of Hudson. By 1701, Barnes had also built a sawmill on the river and had built a bridge across it. Over the next century, Hudson grew slowly.

Hudson was part of Marlborough, and was known as Feltonville for part of that time, until its incorporation in 1866.

As early as June 1743 Hudson-area residents petitioned to break away from Marlborough and become a separate town, but this petition was denied by the Massachusetts General Court.

Men from the present Hudson area fought with the minutemen on April 19, 1775.

In 1859, Feltonville (as Hudson was then called), received its first railroads. This 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 immigrants from Ireland and French Canada.

Feltonville residents fought during the Civil War for the Union side. Twenty-five men died doing so. Many houses, including the Goodale House on Chestnut Street (Hudson's oldest building, dating from 1702) and the Curley home on Brigham Street (now known as the Rice Farm), were stations on the Underground Railroad.

In 1865, Hudson-area residents again petitioned for Feltonville to become a separate town. This petition was approved by the Massachusetts General Court on March 19, 1866. The new town was named Hudson in honor of childhood resident Charles Hudson, who donated $500 to the new town for it to build a library.

Over the next twenty years, Hudson grew exponentially. Two woolen mills, an elastic-webbing plant, a piano case factory, and a factory for waterproofing fabrics by rubber coating were built, as well as banks, five schools, a poor farm, and the town hall that is still in use today. The population hovered around 5,500 residents, most of whom lived in small homes with little backyard garden plots. The town maintained five volunteer fire companies, one of which manned the Eureka Hand Pump, a record-setting pump that could shoot a 1.5-inch stream of water 229 feet.

Then, disaster struck on July 4, 1894, when a fire started by two boys playing with firecrackers burnt down 40 buildings and 5 acres of central Hudson. The cost of damages done was estimated at $400,000. However, the courageous and willing Hudson residents rebuilt the town within a year or so.

By 1900, Hudson's population had reached about 7,500 residents, and the town had built its own power plant, so some homes were wired for electricity. Electric trolley lines were built that connected Hudson with the towns of Leominster, Concord, and Marlborough. The factories in town continued to grow, attracting immigrants from England, Germany, Portugal, Lithuania, Poland, Greece, Albania, and Italy. These immigrants usually lived in boardinghouses near their places of employment. By 1928, 19 languages were spoken by the workers of the Firestone-Apsley Rubber Company. Today, the only major ethnic group left in Hudson (besides Irish) is the Portuguese. About one-third of Hudson residents are Portuguese or are of Portuguese descent. The Portuguese community in Hudson maintains the Hudson Portuguese Club[1], which now has a newly-rebuilt, state-of-the-art clubhouse. The Hudson Portuguese Club was established in the mid-1910s, and has outlived other ethnic clubs, such as the town's long gone Italian Club.

Hudson's population remained about the same until after World War II, when developers started to buy out some farms that rimmed and still do rim the town. The new houses that were built on this land more than doubled Hudson's population. Recently, high-technology companies have sprung up around Hudson. Although the population of Hudson is now about 20,000, the town still maintains the traditional town meeting form of government.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 30.7 km² (11.8 mi²). 29.8 km² (11.5 mi²) of it is land and 0.9 km² (0.3 mi²) of it (2.87%) is water.

Adjacent Towns

Hudson is bordered by five other towns:

Bolton and Stow on the north, Marlborough on the south, Sudbury on the east, and Berlin on the west.

Demographics

As of the census2 of 2000, there were 18,113 people, 6,990 households, and 4,844 families residing in the town. The population density was 608.1/km² (1,574.4/mi²). There were 7,168 housing units at an average density of 240.7/km² (623.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 94.12% White, 0.91% Black or African American, 0.13% Native American, 1.40% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 1.40% from other races, and 1.98% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.06% of the population.

There were 6,990 households out of which 32.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.7% were married couples living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.7% were non-families. 25.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.11.

In the town the population was spread out with 24.0% under the age of 18, 6.7% from 18 to 24, 33.5% from 25 to 44, 23.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 97.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.6 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $58,549, and the median income for a family was $70,145. Males had a median income of $45,504 versus $35,207 for females. The per capita income for the town was $26,679. About 2.7% of families and 4.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.8% of those under age 18 and 8.7% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Hudson students have the choice of three school districts they can attend, two public and one private. The two public school districts are Hudson Public Schools, a district open to any Hudson residents, and Assabet Valley Regional Vocational School District, which is open to students from the 11 towns of Marlborough, Hudson, Maynard, Berlin, Boylston, West Boylston, Clinton, Shrewsbury, Westborough, Northborough, and Southborough. The private school district is Saint Michael's Schools, a Catholic district run by Saint Michael's Parish. The superintendent of Hudson Public Schools is Nina Shialkin, who was elected superintendent by the school committee this June. She replaced interim superintendent Madeline Brick, who was interim superintendent until the successor of former superintendent Sheldon Berman, who became superintendent of the Louisville, Kentucky school district, was chosen. The superintendent of Assabet Valley Regional Vocational School District is Eugene Carlo. The Saint Michael's Schools district does not have a set superintendent. Instead, Saint Michael's Parish pastor Rev. Walter Carreiro (who is leaving to be pastor of St. Anthony's Church in Cambridge) serves as administrator for the two schools under the district.

Public schools

  • John F. Kennedy Middle School is a public middle (or junior high) school that serves grades 6 through 7. It was built in the early 1960s and was named after then recently assassinated President John F. Kennedy. The principal is Madeline Brick and the vice principal is Matthew Gaffny.[2]
  • Carmela A. Farley Elementary School is a public elementary school that serves grades 1 through 5 (Farley also has a kindergarten class and used to have a preschool class). It was built in the 1950s and was named after long-time Hudson educator Carmela A. Farley. The building has also served as the high school and the middle school. The principal is George Calnan, who is retiring after this school year, and will be replaced by MacDonald.[3]
  • Joseph L. Mulready Elementary School is a public elementary school that serves grades 1 through 5 (Mulready also has a kindergarten class). It was originally named the Cox Street School after the street it is located on, but was renamed after former Hudson superintendent Joseph L. Mulready. The principal is Charlene Cooke.[4]
  • Forest Avenue Elementary School is a public elementary school that serves grades 1 through 5 (Forest Ave also has a preschool class and a kindergarten class). It was completed in 1975 and is named after Forest Avenue, the street it is located on. The principal is Nancy Dahlstrom.[5]
  • Hudson High School, or HHS, is a public high school that serves grades 8 through 12 (HHS also has two preschool classes). The new multi-million-dollar building was finished in 2004, the same year the old building, which was built in the early 1970s, was demolished. The prinicipal is John Stapelfeld and the assistant principals are Dan McAnespie and David Champigny.[6]
  • Cora Hubert Kindergarten Center is a public kindergarten center. It occupies the former New Broad Street School building, which was built in 1924, and it is now named after Hudson educator Cora Hubert. The principal is Linda Corbin.[7]
  • Note: Some Hudson students attend Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School, a public regional vocational high school that serves grades 9 through 12. The school was opened in 1973, and was named after the Assabet Valley that was formed by the Assabet River, as it is where the district's towns are located in. The principal of the school is Mary Jo Nawrocki.[8]

Private schools

  • Saint Michael's School is a private Catholic primary school that serves grades 1 through 8 as well as kindergarten. It was built in the late 1910s/early 1920s and is administered by Saint Michael's Catholic Parish. The principal is Patricia Delaney.[9]
  • Hudson Catholic High School, or HCHS, is a private Catholic high school that serves grades 9 through 12. It was completed in 1959 and is administered by Saint Michael's Catholic Parish. The principal is Caroline Flynn and the assistant principal is Mark Wentworth.[10]

Religion

Houses of Worship

Churches no longer in use

  • Christ the King Roman Catholic Church (merged with Saint Michael's Church in 1994 to form one parish) This Church was closed due to financial hardship of the local parish. This church closed at the same time as the Archbishop of Boston was closing churches to help pay the sex abuse lawsuits. However, Christ the King was not closed by the Archdiocese, it was closed locally. http://www.rcab.org/Parish_Reconfiguration/closures.html/
  • Union Church of All Faiths, possibly the smallest church in the US, built by the Rev. Louis W. West

A very small fraction of the town's population is Jewish and Orthodox, but there is not yet a synagogue or an Orthodox church in Hudson.

Youth Sports

Notable residents

References

*Halprin, Lewis, and the Hudson Historical Society. (2001). Images of America: Hudson. Charleston, SC: Acadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-0073-9.
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