New Blog Site!

Hello all!

I am excited to announce to my readers that I have upgraded to a new domain and blog interface. WordPress is my new interface, and the new blog domiain is...

http://www.hiddenhudson.com/

All future posts will be at my new domian. I hope to see you there!

The Highway to Hell - A Lost Road in the Woods

Other ruins and foundations from Bradywine's past include the following pictures of a curiously hidden track of road in the middle of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This stretch once united Brandywine Village with nearby Boston and Peninsula by serving as a direct connect between Brandwine and Stanford Roads. After the creation of the CVNP in the mid 1970's, this track of road took on a different name - The Highway to Hell - after a cloud of rumours and mystery followed a forced abandonment of the once bustling town. (This is my teaser for Halloween. More to come on Hell Town, OH)

Ominous signs block any vehicle entry to the road. Notice the bridge in the photo to the right, situated just before the barrier and marked by guardrails on each side.

 The photo on the left is a prospective of the bridge and abandoned road from the trail surrounding Brandywine Falls. The photo on the right is of a curious fixture seen protruding from the creek-bed. Notice the three large iron pipes that mysteriously stop half way across the water. My belief is that these are remnants of utility pipes or some other form of infrastructure precariously built for growth that never happened.

 These final four pictures attempt to illustrate the eeriness of the abandoned road in its entirety. What is particularly interesting is that the guardrails were all in near perfect condition - no signs of rust or decay at all. The road, although in terrible shape, is very navigable and can serve as a great change of pace to the normal, cookie-cutter, over-populated paths to which the CVNP will typically direct park visitors.

The Forgotten Village of Brandywine

Over the weekend I had a chance to explore some lesser-known areas of Brandywine Falls and the forgotten village of Brandywine - a once bustling community that thrived off the natural power of the falls. The foundations of the village were laid in 1814 with the construction of a meager but productive sawmill that harnessed the power of the flowing water. Grist and woolen mills followed their bold predecessor, and in a short period of time the village came to be known as 'Brandywine Mills'. What remains is a modest tribute to the resolve and dedication of Northeast Ohio's industrial beginnings.



CVNP sign that greets visitors to the Falls. Notice the bridge and gristmill at the forefront of the picture. 





Photo of old gristmill on Brandywine Falls c. mid-1800's.

This photo is of the Champion Electric Company ruins at the top of the falls. Built near the ruins of the old gristmill in 1920, Champion Electric manufactured restaurant appliances here until 1937 when the building suffered catastrophic damage from a lightening strike. As the CVNP duly notes, "These cinder block ruins are from this last industry in Brandywine Falls."

The two pictures above show hidden remnants of Brandywine's forgotten industry. One can easily notice two parallel lines running across the creek, and two rusted iron eye hooks still embedded in the rock. For a great comparrison, scroll up and compare these clues to the old photos of the mill atop the falls.

Exposed brick from Brandywine's past on the bridge that spans the creek. This is what the simple bridge in the top picture evolved into as the community grew throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Ship that Built Cleveland

Below are pictures from inside and around the 'William Mather', Cleveland's iconic steamship that rests adjacent to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland Browns Stadium, and the Great Lakes Science Center. I recently had a chance to tour the freighter and immediately felt obliged to share such a cool Cleveland monument with my readers. Clearly this is not intimately connected with Hudson, however it is nonetheless a vital chapter in the story of Northeast Ohio's history and development. The 618' ship was built in 1925 as served as the flagship to the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company, now simply Cleveland Cliffs. All of the pictures were taken by me, with the exception of the first, listed below.

ABOVE: The Mather in action - loading in the late 1920's

ABOVE: Picture from inside the hull - storage area for cargo. Capacity = 14,000 tons

ABOVE: Picture of Captain's Lounge. Notice the brass and oak decor. These living quarters were the most spacious and luxurious of all Great Lakes freighters when she was built.

ABOVE: View from inside the main cabin.

Great view of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Old nautical map of downtown Cleveland and the Cuyahoga.

Picture of the Captain's living quarters. Not very spacious but very accomodating and comfortable.

Windlass Room - The windlass, or winch, was used for raising and lowering the anchors. Weight of each anchor = 4 tons 

A shot down the belly of the Mather, looking northward across Lake Erie.

Old Maps

Included here are four old maps, one of which is an aerial image of Western Reserve Academy before extensive construction and expansion programs of the past several decades forever changed it's historic campus. See below:

The change from then to now is night and day. Notice the number of buildings that don't exist in this photo...No Ong Library, no Murdough Athletic Center, no turf field, no Morgan Hall, no Wilson Hall, no Metcalf Center, no maintenence garages, no Woodhouse, no Knight Fine Arts Center, and no Longhouse. This is WRA at it's core, as it's true self, before the modern day.

My intent in posting the following three maps is to emphasize the importance of trains and the railroad industry to the growth and development of Hudson. Keep in mind that today, only one line remains in service. That line is marked the "Pittsburg" line on the map below:

I thought I had seen every picture of Hudson's old railroad lines until I stumbled upon the following two maps. With such volume of railways and railcars, one can imagine how loud life in Hudson must have been.

Retro Souvenir Postcards

The header picture is only a tease! Here are more retro souvenir postcards from Hudson's past:

Facing N/NW from SE corner of the Village Green. Notice the Main St. merchants through the trees. 

Clocktower at corner of North Main and Aurora Streets

View of WRA's grounds and brickrow facing N/NE. Notice Middle College, in between the Chapel and the Observatory, which was torn down to make room for the current Seymour Hall.

Old bank adjacent to Clocktower. This is one of the oldest commercial buildings still in continuous use in the entire state of Ohio.

Old Seminary House. I need to do more research on this, but I had to include it here.

All pictures are courtesy of the Summit Memory, an online scrapbook archive of Summit County history. Please frequent the website http://www.summitmemory.org/ in support of this wonderful project.

Map of David Hudson's Arrival

I stumbled upon this map while reading Grace Goulder Izant's classic, Hudson's Heritage. It's details are intricate and reveal the difficult route and nature of Hudson's first journey to his land claims. The outlined 'David Hudson Trail' in the picture is literally the first route David Hudson and crew took to the town that would soon bear his name. In the text below the picture one will notice a cut-off sentance describing the savage wilderness through which they trudged. "A crude road soon was hacked out through the marsh, a rough landsled fashioned, and the oxen..."

In all liklihood, David Hudson and crew would have been some of the first white settlers to ever step foot in this area. Not the first, certainly, as the land had been surveyed and appropriately portioned by land crews in the years leading up to and immediately following the passage of the Northwest Ordinance by Congress in 1787. Other potential white settlers or Europeans who could have passed through the area before Hudson may include French fur traders and British scouts during the Seven Years War (French/Indian War).

Notice the whole route of Hudson's journey. The smaller map at the top-left provides a view of his total trek from Goshen, CT across upstate New York and Lake Erie, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. Keep in mind that when Hudson and crew passed Cleveland at the mouth of the river the city consisted of little more than a handful of timber houses, some perhaps mud-thatched, and a few farm fields to help sustain the small but growing population. With the lake and rivers providing such bountiful life resources, early settlers did not need to rely as much on land to sustain life and build for the future.

Winter Hiatus

New posts will soon blossom as the snow melts and the ground begins to thaw. I have several projects in line for spring postings...

•  James Ellsworth's Evamere Estate:
• Pond built for his daughter
• Stone Gatehouse
• Other remnants of the estate (pump-house, brick walls, foundations, fencing, etc...)
• Hudson Station (old train station behind Chipotle)
• Old John Brown Tannery House (on Hines Hill Rd, near intersection with Valley View)
• Map of Hudson's Underground Railroad routes

Stay tuned, spring looms...