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.