History of Urban Planning and Design of Hudson, Ohio

by M.A. Hoque


Introduction

Hudson, Ohio, a suburb of Akron and Cleveland is considered as rich-people area, with the median home value of $250,000 way above Ohio's average. This rich-people area with calm and quite environment, full of greenery still reminds, even in today's motorist and busy life, that it was once built as an "altar to God in Wilderness". The city was a part of area named the Connecticut Western Reserve. Today's northeast Ohio was a section of the old frontier of the United States, which was settled by people from Connecticut. Preservation of the old heritage and architecture is the high priority and formalized. All the new developments maintains the standards recommended by the City and the Historical Society to keep the city proud of its old heritage, to give a feelings of pedestrian neighborhood and to keep it economically sustainable as well for the next generations.




Brief History of Hudson

The dream of founding an "altar to God in Wilderness" led David Hudson of Goshen, Connecticut and a group of settlers to this township in 1799. The land was purchased from the Connecticut Land Company. In 1802, Mr. Hudson founded a Congregational Church in town and then Western Reserve College, referred to as "the Yale of the West" in 1826. That is the beginning of Hudson, and since then it has been gone through raises and falls like any other city in the world.
Hudson blossomed during the 1840s with intellectual fervor and railroad fever. In the last half of the century a series of hard times - the failure of railroad investments, the 1882 departure of the college to Cleveland, and terrible fire on Main Street in 1892 - sent the town into economic decline.
David Hudson is called the father of Hudson while James W. Ellsworth gave the rebirth of the city in early 1900s. Millionaire landowner and railroad pioneer J. W. Ellsworth revitalized Hudson after a mild depression hit the Western Reserve. Returning to his hometown in 1907, he planned a model community with electric, water, and wastewater plants, paved streets lined with elm trees, and underground utility lines. He also restored the derelict College buildings, reopening them as Western Reserve Academy.

Hudson's development slowed down during the Depression and Hudson remained a small village and rural township until construction of the Ohio Turnpike in the 1950s that made it more accessible.


Growth of Hudson over the Periods

Hudson is a square shaped township whose boundary follows US land subdivision boundary (5x5 sq. mi.) and it is in Range Ten and Town Four (Figure 1) (Caccamo, 1995). Since 1837, Hudson's government had been divided between a village and a township. In November of 1993, the voters of Hudson chose to merge all of the residents of the old village and the township into one city. Even with the change in government, Hudson is a place that remembers its history and the people that made it a great town (Caccamo, 1995).

Figure 2 shows the growth of the Hudson over the period. From early 1800s, Hudson is following the same street pattern - Main street and Route 303 divided it into four quadrants, two others radiated from the downtown and the rest more or less followed the classical gridiron pattern. Railways were introduced in 1840s which gone through the downtown of the city.
Like other cities, there have been many fires and other disasters in Hudson's history, but the most memorable fire was the one, which burnt most of downtown Hudson in the spring of 1892. This fire, failure of railroad investments and move of the Western Reserve College to Cleveland put it to its major crisis era.
After the depression, Mr. Ellsworth started implementing his envision of a model community. Over the six years he developed electric, water and wastewater treatment plants, paved streets and lined them with elm trees and buried utility lines. In 1912 he renovated and reopened the derelict college buildings as Western Reserve Academy. While some growth began during the Ellsworth era, it was not until the late 1950's 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 (Caccamo, 1995). Even though there were some industries established here, it remained mainly single family residential area and the road pattern have changed to curvilinear in the newly developed areas - to give it a residential neighborhood feelings and keep children away from major roads (Figure 1).




Hudson's Architecture

The city of Hudson Village is a special place. Hudson is a place where one can find a mixture of a historically preserved New England style village and a high growth residential development market (Klausmeier & Gehrum, 1995). The first settlers replicated the architecture of New England in early stage. But by the 1820s, the Greek Revival style began to gain popularity, and it continues to dominate to these days. In addition to Greek Revival, Victorian, Federal, Gothic Revival and Neo-Classical Revival architecture are visible in many old buildings (Vince, 1992) and some of their architectural elements in new buildings.

The first buildings in Hudson went up around 1800, but most of Main Street architecture date back only to 1892. A devastating fire in April of that year destroyed most of the wooden shops, offices and surrounding homes in the central district in less than an hour. When the city rebuilt, the buildings were the brick and stone structures still standing today.

After 1950, builders and developers discovered Hudson, and the village and township grew. Hudson residents first got interested in preserving the town's character in the early 1960s when a developer wanted to demolish the historic 1839 Brewester Store on Aurora Street. For the first time, citizens got together in an organized fashion to rally for historic Hudson.
Today, preservation is a formalized effort in Hudson. The city's architectural review committee and the Hudson Association, supported by strong building and zoning codes, ensure that nothing disturbs the city's architecture and ambiance. When appropriate, the Heritage Association acts in an advisory capacity.



Urban Planning in Hudson

After several unsuccessful attempts at annexation and consolidation, Hudson Township and Hudson Village merged in 1994 to form one government for the area David Hudson purchased nearly two centuries earlier.

The combination of old village historical integrity and high growth presents the community with a wide spectrum of issues. These issue range from maintaining historic character to attracting new business to support the tax base and quality schools. A survey conducted in 1990 revealed that the rural/small town charm and the quality schools were the top responses to questions regarding reasons for moving to Hudson and the most appealing aspects of the community (Klausmeier & Gehrum). And the city is concerned about maintaining that town charm and the school quality.



In 1995, the management controls were realized to prevent Hudson from turning into another over-built suburb. Fifty building permits are awarded twice a year by lottery since then. This system lets the city keep growth in control and keep working towards our vision of where the city wants to go. But building restrictions have not diminished Hudson's appeal.


The city has prepared a comprehensive plan for the entire city. Overall Goal of the comprehensive plan was: "To create a comprehensive growth management plan that protects and enhances Hudson's unique historic character and promotes community vitality."

Thomas E. King, planning director of the city says, "The comprehensive plan determines exactly where that growth will take place. Two of the ten zoning districts - District 6: Western Hudson Gateway and District 8: (Figure 6) Industrial/Business Park - provide key development opportunities and future employment potential for the city. In District 6, permitted uses include high-quality planned office and industrial business park development. Heightened landscaping standards and architectural guidelines will create an attractive entryway to the city."

District 8 (Figure 6) contains office and light industrial parks and will accommodate the majority of future job growth in Hudson. Prime development areas have good highway and rail access. Easy access to Route 8 via Terex Road and to the Ohio Turnpike eliminates the need for traffic through the downtown district.

In District 7 (Figure 6), the outer district commercial corridor, the development of small retail and service establishments to serve the local community will be encouraged. Large national chain stores that would create more traffic in Hudson are not permitted.

The community now has grown to more than 22,000 people. In an effort to curb the city's growth and maintain its quaint character, the Hudson City Council in 1996 enacted a growth cap, limiting new home building to 100 a year. Citizen commissions, including the Municipal Planning Commission, keep a close watch on development and new home construction. Alterations or demolitions of existing homes require approval of the city's Architectural and Historic Review Board. And though there is no requirement to do so, builders of new developments frequently design their homes to mesh with the Greek Revival tradition (Lin-fisher, 1999).

So dedicated is the city to preserving its retail character that a recent ordinance prohibits service businesses from occupying first-floor space on Main Street. Retail space in the main shopping district commands a premium but occupancy is virtually 100%, and turnover is extremely low (Northern Ohio Live Magazine, March, 1998 by Lynn Novelli). Several strip shopping centers away from the downtown area service the needs of Hudson residents with grocery stores, drug stores, dry cleaners and the like. But Earl Watson, Chamber of Commerce executive director, makes no bones about the fact that big retailers are not desirable. "The right kind of retail is an important part of our economic base. Visitors come to Hudson for the charm of our specialty stores", he says. "This is not a community that would welcome a mass merchandiser."


The City of Hudson has also taken a Downtown Redevelopment Project that is an important community project with the goal of restoring Hudson's downtown area to the vibrancy of its past. It is a mixed-use project that includes offices, restaurants, small upscale shops, our community library and people can interact. In a way the Hudson Redevelopment Project is a return to the historic nature of our past - when downtown was a "gathering place" and a vital community resource.

Hudson's Downtown Redevelopment has been the vision of City leaders - and residents - for many years. Everyone seems to understand the importance of revitalizing our downtown. Indeed, the Comprehensive Plan, approved by the Municipal Planning Commission and City Council in 1995, mandated that the City create a plan precisely for this purpose - to revitalize downtown. As a result outlying retail projects were discouraged in order to bring shops, businesses and other services to the center of town.


Image of Hudson

Looking at cities can give a special pleasure, however commonplace the sight may. Like a piece of architecture, the city is a construction is space, but one of vast scale, a thing perceived only in the course of long spans of time. City design is therefore a temporal art, but it can rarely use the controlled and limited sequences of other temporal arts like music. On different occasions and for different people, the sequences are reversed, interrupted, abandoned, cut across. It is seen in all lights and all weathers (Lynch, 1985).

Not only is the city an object which is perceived (and perhaps enjoyed) by millions of people of widely diverse class and character, but it is the product of many builders who are constantly modifying the structure for reasons of their own. While it may be stable in general outlines for some time, it is ever changing in detail. There is no final result, on a continuous succession of phases.

Environmental images are the result of a two-way process between the observer and his environment. The environment suggests distinctions and relations, and the observer - with great adaptability and in the light of his won purposes - selects, organizes and endows with meaning what he sees. The image, so developed now limits and emphasizes what is seen, while the image itself it being tested against the filtered perceptual input in a constant interacting process. Thus the image of a given reality may vary significantly between different observers (Lynch, 1985).


The image of Hudson was derived by interviewing 2 persons who live in Hudson and by field trip. Guidelines from Kevin Lynch were followed here to produce the image of the city. Analysis of city elements are described below.

Paths: are the predominant city elements, although their importance varied according to the degree of familiarity with the city. Particular paths may become important features in a number of ways. Customary travel will of course be one of the strongest influences, so that major access lines (Lynch, 1985).




According to the survey, the prominent paths are Main Street (Route 91) and Streetboro Street (Route 303) which experience the most traffic. These two intersect downtown and divide the city into four quadrants. Stow Street in the East plays a vital role as well as Aurora Street and Ravenna Street Figure 9 also shows some minor streets including I-80 and I-480 which passed through Hudson but do no have any interchange within Hudson, even though these Interstates boosted up the growth of Hudson during 50s.

Edges: are the linear elements not considered as paths: they are usually, but not quite always, the boundaries between two kinds of areas. They act as lateral references (Lynch, 1985).

There is no distinct edge of the city. Stow Street acts as an edge in the East by separating old houses in the East from the relatively new houses in the West (Figure 9). To the south Terex road is believed as an edge between residential zone and commercial growth. On the way to downtown from south and west via respectively Route 91 and Route 303, the railroad passing over the streets gives a distinct feelings that the passengers are approaching towards the downtown - this is an important and visible edge of the downtown.


Districts: are the relatively large city areas which the observer can mentally go inside of, and which have some common character. They can be recognized internally, and occasionally can be used as external reference as a person goes by or toward them (Lynch, 1985).

There are two main districts in Hudson - one is the downtown itself and another is the Western Reserve Academy (Figure 9). Downtown, with its old but renovated architecture, park, clock tower and retail business gives an instant feelings that the passerby are in a different place - in a downtown but built at pedestrian scale. Western Reserve Academy has most of the building in the same style along the road with open spaces and dressed up students indicates an academic districts.

There are some minor districts like two commercial areas just outside of downtown in the West and one near the southern border along Route 91.


Nodes: are the strategic foci, into which the observer can enter, typically a junctions of paths, or concentrations of some characteristics. But although conceptually they are small points in the city image, they may in reality be large squares, or some what extended linear shapes, or even entire central districts when the city is being considered at a large enough level. Indeed, when conceiving the environment at a national or international level, the whole city itself may become a node (Lynch, 1985).

The important node of the city is the downtown itself because of it higher concentration of businesses, surrounding old and beautiful buildings and the landmarks. Another node is the interchange at the Route 303 and Route 8 also plays as an important entrance to the city.

Landmarks: the point references considered to be external to the observer, are simple physical elements which may vary widely in scale. There seemed to be a tendency for those more familiar with a city to reply increasingly on systems of landmarks for their guides - to enjoy uniqueness and specialization, in place of the continuities used earlier (Lynch, 1985).



Clock tower, donated by Mr. Ellsworth 2nd father of Hudson in early 1900s, is the most important landmark of all in Hudson. It is located in downtown. This landmark is used in everywhere - in the city flag, in the police car, magazine, poster, in the city's documents and so on. The park, the 2nd oldest observatory in US located in Western Reserve Academy and the oldest building in Ohio a block away from downtown are also considered as landmarks by the Hudson people.

Skyline: The city of Hudson is a single family residential neighborhood. It is composed of low height buildings both residential and commercial or office. So, the skyline of Hudson is not prominent like the big or metropolitan cities. But, if the skyline has be imagined, it would be it's landmark Clock Tower in front and the piercing churches with full of greenery as a back ground (Figure 14).


Conclusion

Hudson, a 200 year old city became a rich suburb area for Akron and Cleveland from an "altar to God in wilderness", which probably Mr. Hudson never dreamt of. But the community of the city are concerned about their past and are preserving old buildings. The new developments are also in such a way that it cannot destroy the old image of the city. Kevin Lynch (1985) says that city is a temporal art which is seen by millions of people in different time of the day, in different season of the year, in different climate and it is the product of many builders who are constantly modifying the structure for reasons of their own. The city, thus, tries not to make it over-crowed and ugly by the developers and tries to make it pleasant in all climates. The downtown, the most important district, node and also container of landmarks, is being converted to a pedestrian precinct, and lively and less crowed by the motorized vehicles. Hudson is now developing and the developments are spreading out all over the city, one day it may be filled up by the development but the city will remain like a big neighborhood with the unique building code, greenery and the historical structures.


References

Caccamo, James F. (1995), The story of Hudson Ohio, The Friends of the Hudson Library, Inc, Hudson, Ohio.

Izant, Grace G. (1985), Hudson's Heritage a chronicle of the founding and the flowering of the village of Hudson, OH, The Kent State University Press, Ohio.

Klausmeier & Gehrum (1995), Comprehensive Plan, City of Hudson Village.

Lin-Fisher, Betty (1999), The Old Houses, Sunday Beacon Magazine July 11.

Lynch, Kevin (1985), The Image of the City; The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England.

Rogers, J W (1973), Hudson, Ohio: An Architectural and Historical Study, The Council, Village of Hudson, Hudson, Ohio.

Vince, Thomas L (1992), Hudson A Survey of Historical Buildings in an Ohio Town, Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio.