Hudson History Bus Tour to benefit Hudson Area Library's History Room

The tour is a fun and educational exploration of Hudson history and a fundraiser in support of the Hudson Area Library’s History Room. Ticket purchases will support the preservation, archiving and digitizing of items in the library’s special collections pertaining to the histories of the City of Hudson, and towns of Greenport and Stockport. The tour begins and ends at Hudson Brewing Company at 99 South 3rd St. in Hudson and members of the tour will receive a free drink ticket as part of the tour cost. The bus will leave at 1pm and travel through the streets of Hudson stopping to discuss historic buildings, people, scandals, and moments in history. Tickets are $60, in honor of the library’s 60th birthday. Seating is limited. To register email programs@hudsonarealibrary.org, call 518-828-1792 x101, or visit the main desk in the library. “Hudson is hot now but in many ways, it has been a fascinating place for more than two centuries,” said Hudson native and library board member Gary Sheffer, “There have always been people who saw Hudson’s beauty, its gritty and friendly nature, and its potential. The history of the city has ups and downs and unexpected outcomes, and our tour will bring it all to life with narration from experts who know its amazing story.” Leading the tour is inimitable library History Room researcher John Craig (a Hudson fixture and according to the Gossips of Rivertown: “a tenacious researcher”). He will be accompanied by former Hudson Mayor Richard F. Tracy, who will also drive the tour bus. These two gentlemen will regale tour-goers with the real history of Hudson, the oldest city in the United States. Established by whalers and merchants from Nantucket and New Bedford, Hudson has had many incarnations: as a safe harbor for maritime commerce, an industrial city with foundries, mills, cement plants, and factories; and then as a city valuing its history and historic architecture attracting retailers, writers, and other artists to the city. Hudson today is a city of many communities with economic, cultural, and racial diversity, that are debating through democratic means how the city should be defined, how it can best take care of its residents, and how it can thrive in its next iteration today and in the future.