New Hudson: Village Of The Week Factoids

Congratulations to New Hudson Village of The Week with WCSX! New Hudson (along with much of Michigan) was settled around the 1830s.  One of their best-kept pieces of history is the New Hudson Inn.  WCSX was out for their Open-mic competition finals a couple of years ago.  I found the owner and patrons of New Hudson Inn to be very friendly people who love their community.

New Hudson Inn opened in 1831, calling itself "Old Tavern."  This place was LUX.  It offered a spring dance floor that moved with the dancers.  The New Hudson Inn is one of the oldest standing buildings in Oakland County.

Historical documents at cms2.revizse.com say that The New Hudson Inn was built with lumber that was hand cut. "The 18” beams fastened with wooden pegs remain as staunch today as when they were originally put in place." While there have been a few modifications through the years, much of the original building is still intact.  Check out the above link to cms2 for cool historical pictures of New Hudson.

Hometownlife.com wrote an article on New Hudson Inn's secret room and history.  It's believed that The New Hudson Inn was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Years back, a secret room was discovered on the second floor that contained old clothing items, a corset box, and other assorted items.  Back in 2016, The New Hudson Inn did a massive remodel to take the building BACK to its original look.  They also opened the secret room and some of the found items to the public.  You can view the room and items through plexiglass.

Here's a drone flyover of the building:

Dr.Curtis was one of the first shop owners and was appointed the first postmaster of New Hudson. Sadly, geneologytrails.com tells us that he promised to stay in New Hudson and then took off for Kensington with "its enormous emoluments." How 1800s is that?

http://genealogytrails.com/mich/oakland/citynewhudson.html#:~:text=Settlements%20were%20made%20in%20the,%2C%20Heman%20Smith%2C%20and%20others.

New Hudson was a stagecoach stop between Lansing and Detroit.  When Grand Trunk Western came through, New Hudson was a stop.  You can check out pics of the depot on michiganrailroads. com.

https://www.american-rails.com/gtw.html#:~:text=In%20January%20of%201923%20the,assets%20between%20Detroit%20and%20Chicago.

Many of Michigan's settlers were from New York.  It would seem that they LOVED naming the new towns after the ones they came from.  You see where this going... New Hudson, NY is a much smaller community.  The population was 800 as of the 2020 census compared to New Hudson, Michigan's 6,000+ (unitedstateszipcodes.org)