The New International Encyclopædia/Hudson (New York)

HUDSON. A city and the county-seat of Columbia County, N. Y., 28 miles south of Albany; on the east bank of the Hudson River, and on the New York Central and Hudson River, the Boston and Albany, and other railroads (Map: New York, G 3). It is finely situated on the slope of Prospect Hill, and has a number of noteworthy buildings, the State House of Refuge for Women, State Volunteer Firemen's Home, Hudson Orphan Asylum, State Armory, and the court-house, city hall, and city hospital. Public Square and Franklin Square parks, and Promenade and Reservoir hills are also of interest. There are extensive manufactures of knit goods, car-wheels, ale, lumber, tobacco, iron, machinery, stoves, furnaces, etc. Under a charter of 1895, the government is administered by a mayor, elected biennially, and a city council. The water-works are owned and operated by the municipality. Population, in 1890, 9970; in 1900, 9528. Hudson was settled as Claverack Landing by New Englanders in 1783; its present name was adopted in 1784, and a city charter was received in 1785. For some years the city carried on an extensive foreign trade, and was an important whaling port, but its shipping was almost completely destroyed in the War of 1812.