Hudson

Web site: www.ci.hudson.nh.us

Population: 19,530 (1990); 22,928 (2000); 24,729 (2006)

Overview

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.

Nashua’s neighbor on the East side of the Merrimack River, the town was once famous for Benson’s 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 Taylor’s 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.

Services
Hudson Fire Department
15 Library Street( adjacent to Town Hall)
Hollis, NH
(603) 886-6021

Hudson Police Department
1 Constitution Drive
Hudson, NH
Business 603-886-6011
http://www.hudsonpd.com/

Hills Memorial Library
18 Library Street
Hudson, NH 03051
Phone: 603-886-6030
Fax: 603-595-2850
http://www.hillsml.lib.nh.us/

Utilities
Electric: PSNH
Gas: Keyspan
Water Supplier: Hudson Water Utility
Sanitation: Private septic
Curbside Trash Pickup: Yes
Telephone: Verizon
Cable television service: Yes