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Greetings! Spring is upon us, and Hudson Heritage Association continues its work to protect and promote the historic character and aesthetic of our town. Each year at HHA’s General Meeting in May, the Preservation Awards are presented to honor those individuals and organizations who have made notable contributions to restore buildings that adhere to high preservation standards and honor the historical integrity of the property such as The Big Red Barn at Case-Barlow Farm and the Chapel at Western Reserve Academy. Periodically, HHA also recognizes individuals by presenting the Distinguished Contribution to Historic Preservation Award. Past recipients include Ginger Rogers, Tom Vince, and Pat Eldredge. We look forward to recognizing the new award recipients at this year’s meeting.
HHA Monthly Program
This month HHA is honored to host students from Western Reserve Academy as they discuss “The Slavery Controversy of 1831-33 at Western Reserve College: Idyllic Academia vs. Social Activism.” The Reserve students will describe the slavery controversy of the early 1830s that caused quite an uproar in the town of Hudson and its prized recently founded college. The HHA program will be held at the Barlow Community Center on Thursday, April 13th at 7:30 p.m. More details can be found below.
1978 Hudson Comprehensive Plan
As noted in previous newsletters, the City of Hudson has embarked on its latest Comprehensive Plan – a document designed to guide land use and development in the city for the next 10 to 20 years. To gain a perspective on how Hudson has grown and changed over the last 45 years, one need only review Hudson’s 1978 Continuing Comprehensive Plan. Compiled on the heels of Hudson’s National Register nomination and with the fight to stop the widening of SR 91 looming, the document provides an informative snapshot of Hudson four decades ago, the challenges it faced, and the priorities established. The Municipal Planning Commission in its opening paragraph states “we hope (the document) will stimulate debate and action rather than placid acceptance and cataloging.”
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Population growth, housing diversity, available land, and green space were of concern along with future traffic solutions to alleviate congestion. Renewed emphasis on maintaining and promoting the Village Center as the nucleus of the town’s commercial and cultural activity was viewed as vital to keeping the historic character and integrity of the town. To facilitate this goal, a theatre, recreational center, more restaurants, and specialty shops were suggested at the time. Strip malls and convenience shopping centers were openly disparaged as a threat to the plan. Walkability and bicycle and pedestrian ways were considered a priority. The need to screen parking lots from public view was also stressed.
Since the report was published, Hudson has doubled in size. “While some growth began during the Ellsworth era, it was not until the late 1950s that Hudson began to see enormous growth. During that time, industry began moving into the area, with a General Motors Terex plant in Hudson and a Chrysler plant in nearby Twinsburg. Many people moved here to be close to work. The population of Hudson went from 2,877 in 1950 to 4,977 in 1960, 8,395 in 1970, 12,643 in 1980 and 17,128 in 1990.”[1] Today, the population of Hudson is approximately 23,000.
Many of the same goals continue to drive the Comprehensive Plan. Then, as today, priorities included health and safety, education, and retention of Hudson’s unique “small town” atmosphere and charm, while balancing these needs and desires with fiscal responsibility. As the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee continues its deliberation and recommendations for the future, it is helpful to reflect on the progress made through a historical lens.
The full 1978 report can be accessed by clicking here. Visit the Hudson Heritage Association Links and Resources page to view the comprehensive plans from 1995, 2004, and 2015. Or go directly to the City of Hudson’s website by clicking here.
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Demographics from the 1978 report.
Historical Shutters
Today, shutters are viewed as aesthetically pleasing and desirable. However, at one time their primary purpose was functional. They were used to provide security, insulation, and protection from sun, wind, and rain. Originally, shutters may have been a single board or made from board and batten. Gradually, solid raised panels were introduced providing a more pleasing and sophisticated look to the exteriors of buildings. Fixed louvered shutters came into use during the first half of the 18th century and are the dominant form seen today. Operable louvered shutters that are regulated by a tilt rod began to be manufactured around 1830-1840. Before this period, the louvers were fixed in an open position.[2]
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Did you ever wonder how to correctly measure and hang a shutter? Below are recommendations for your consideration.
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Shutters should be sized and shaped to cover the window completely when closed. To accomplish this, the width of the shutter should be determined by measuring the window from inside the casing and dividing by two. The shutter height should be calculated by measuring the inside of the window frame, with the bottom of the shutter installed even with the top of the windowsill and extending to just below the top window casing.
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Louvered shutters are designed to shed water away from the house when closed. To do this, the louvers should be sloped towards the outside of the house when they are pulled shut. By inference, this means that when in the open position, the leading edge is pointing up.
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Shutters, when closed, are meant to fit inside the exterior window casing. They should be attached to the trim (casing), not outside the trim. In other words, when installed with operable hardware shutters overlap the window trim instead of sitting next to it.
- If you want your shutters to appear authentic, use authentic shutter hardware such as hinges, tiebacks or “shutter dogs,” slide bolts and hook-and-eye closures to secure your shutters.
- Shutters should not be omitted due to interference with nearby objects (such as a chimney) just because they won’t fold flat. Or consider using a bifold shutter. Half a pair of shutters does not do a window justice.
- It is recommended that shutters only be used for single windows. Grouped windows in banks of two or more do not typically receive shutters. If there is a single narrow window, a single shutter the same width as the window should be used and placed on either side at the owner’s discretion.
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Baldwin-Buss House
Work continues on the Baldwin-Buss House. The two additions on the west side of the house and the front porch addition on the east elevation of the main block were removed last year restoring the house to its original footprint. The south wing and its rehabilitation proved to be more challenging. Although largely reconstructed, work on the “ell” was guided by the need for structural reinforcement and the desire to transition the wing into a viable adaptive reuse space that will serve both the needs of the public and Peg’s Foundation in the future. The exterior of the ell and its window placement will closely match that of the drawings and photographs from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). However, the floor plan of the ell has been significantly modified. The floor plan of the main block remains unchanged.
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Following are some key points about other work done or planned in the weeks ahead:
- Preservation architect Mark Gilles (former Director of Historic Preservation at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens) was retained by BBHF to provide technical assistance and restoration advice and works closely with the architect and general contractor.
- The siding on the north, west and south elevations will be replaced due to extensive rot and deterioration. The need was substantiated by two historic preservation consulting firms and approved by the AHBR in January. The siding will be replaced with similar materials. The flush board siding on the east primary elevation will remain.
- The foundation repair work, including waterproofing, downspout drains and backfill has largely been completed.
- New steel beams installed in the basement will structurally reinforce the house. The original wood beams dating back to 1825 remain.
- The rot-damaged pilaster bases on the front elevation will replicate the originals. The pilaster columns that exhibited rot on the bottom portion will be dutchman-repaired. Oversight for the repairs and replacement of these important architectural features is being provided by both John Milner Architects and historic preservation consultant and architect Mark Gilles.
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- Rotted sill plates are being replaced.
- Missing window push-button sash stops will be replicated.
- Coon Restoration will begin restoration of the chimney on the main block retaining the original brick. The south wing’s chimney will be reconstructed, maintaining the historical dimensions and mortar color and using new brick to match the old.
- Additional paint analysis is being performed to determine the historical color palette, finishes, and any decorative painting that may have been used.
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Be well and stay healthy.
Kathy Russell & Diccon Ong
Co-Presidents
Hudson Heritage Association
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April Program
The Slavery Controversy of 1831-33 at Western Reserve College
Thursday, April 13, 2023
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Hudson Heritage Association is honored to be hosting a group of students from Western Reserve Academy for our April monthly meeting to be held at the Barlow Community Center on Thursday, April 13th at 7:30 p.m. These students are currently enrolled in a course called “History of Hudson & WRC/A.” In addition to learning about the history of the Connecticut Western Reserve, the founding and settlement of Hudson, and the establishment and subsequent development of Western Reserve College (and its preparatory school, later to become known as WRA), students have had the opportunity to research historically significant topics of their own choosing. In a presentation entitled, “The Slavery Controversy of 1831-33 at Western Reserve College: Idyllic Academia vs. Social Activism,” these Reserve students will describe the slavery dispute of the early 1830s that caused quite an uproar in the town of Hudson and its prized nascent college. While popular understanding of the Antebellum era often focuses on the divide between those who either supported or denounced the institution of slavery, this presentation is designed to demonstrate the deep divide that once existed even among those who otherwise agreed that the nation must rid itself of its “original sin.”
The two groups to collide in Hudson at this time were known colloquially as the “colonizationists” and the “abolitionists.” The former group was the first formally to organize nationally. The American Colonization Society was established in 1816, and advocated for voluntary emancipation accompanied by the gradual deportation of free blacks and former enslaved persons “back” to Africa. This plan appealed to many pious Northerners, and even some more liberally-minded southerners, who were decidedly uncomfortable with the hideous nature of slavery but who were equally indisposed towards contemplating a future in which former enslaved persons might be more fully integrated into American society. Others, much smaller in number at first, saw the implausibility of such a plan and, in any event, equated it with moral cowardice. These “abolitionists” called instead for immediate emancipation and the crafting of political protections for former enslaved persons. This movement gained national notoriety when a fiery anti-slavery advocate, William Lloyd Garrison, announced his conversion to abolitionism in the first issue of his journal, The Liberator, published in Boston in 1831.
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Isaac Bigelow, a student at Western Reserve College, arrived back at campus after a brief school recess spent in New England with a copy of The Liberator, which he soon shared with his classmates. Bigelow went so far as to speak with Charles Backus Storrs, President of the College and Professor of Sacred Theology, on the subject, noting that the man already had his own copy of Garrison’s manifesto. In the coming year, President Storrs, along with his colleagues, Beriah Green, Professor of Sacred Literature, and Elizur Wright, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, all became outspoken critics of both slavery as well as those who would compromise with such evil by endorsing a ridiculous colonization scheme. Such zealotry obviously appealed to a significant segment of the student body, many of whom became active advocates for abolition. A handful of them began traveling to neighboring towns to preach this new gospel, leading to their absence from the classroom and the academic work expected of them there. This uninvited interruption of town’s traditional tranquility struck some of Hudson’s leaders, a few of whom also served as college trustees, as most unbecoming. They were eager to reassert their more staid control. The visiting Western Reserve Academy students will recount this history in greater detail, with further information on events such as the threatened tar and feathering of a college student speaking in Aurora, President Storrs becoming a martyr to abolitionism, and how the early activists finally won a symbolic victory when famed abolitionist, Frederick Douglas, was the invited to speak at the college’s commencement celebrations in 1854.
The presentation is free and open to the public and will be followed by light refreshments.
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PO Box 2218 - Hudson, OH 44236
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