Towns in our Neighborhood
Hudson
FOUNDED: 1746
CURRENT POPULATION: 24568
POPULATION AT FOUNDING: 1,064 residents in 1790
TOWN ZIP CODES: 03051
DESCRIPTION: Hudson is a town of approximately 24,000 on the Massachusetts border. It features a mix of residential neighborhoods alongside commercial and industrial development, with some small retail plazas, and high tech companies.
Nashuaâs neighbor on the East side of the Merrimack River, the town was once famous for Bensonâs Wild Animal Farm, which closed in the 1980s.
Today, Hudson is governed by a five-member Board of Selectmen and an annual Town Meeting and annual School District Meeting.
HISTORY: The town was incorporated in 1733 as Nottingham. Like most of the surrounding area, it was part of the original Dunstable Grant of 1673. Nottingham included Litchfield and one-third of Pelham. Litchfield was separated from it in 1734. The town of Hudson was chartered in 1746.
The Merrimack River has been important to the town since the beginning. The Taylorâs Falls Bridge, which connects Hudson with Nashua, was opened as a toll bridge in 1826. In 1855, the county laid out a highway across the bridge and it became free. It was originally a lattice-type covered bridge, replaced with an iron bridge in 1861.
Lacking a good source of waterpower, the town did not develop manufacturing industries, and only one railroad crossed though it. Farming and logging were the main pursuits before the turn of the century.
|
|
