In the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, Hudson became notorious as a center of vice, especially gambling and prostitution, as described in Bruce Edward Hall's book, Diamond Street: The Story of the Little Town with the Big Red Light District. (The former Diamond Street is today Columbia Street.) At the peak of the vice industry, Hudson also boasted of more than 50 bars. These rackets were mostly broken up in 1951 after surprise raids of Hudson whorehouses by then-Attorney General Thomas Dewey netted, among other catches, several local policemen. After a steep decline in the 60s and 70s, the City has undergone a significant revival. A group of antiques dealers opened shops on the city's main thoroughfare, Warren Street, in the mid-1980s, their numbers growing from a handful in the 1980s to almost seventy shops now. Following this business revival, the city experienced a residential revival as well, and is now known for its active arts scene, antiques shops, restaurants, art galleries and nightlife. The FASNY Museum of Firefighting is also located here.

With hundreds of properties listed or eligible to be listed in the State and National Registers of historic places, Hudson has been called "a finest dictionary of American architecture in New York State." A discussion of Hudson's architecture, its history, and recent revival, together with a collection of 200 period photographs of the city spanning the mid-19th to the early 20th century, can be found in Historic Hudson: An Architectural Portrait by historian Byrne Fone.

In addition to the many fine antique stores, today Hudson is home to 27 art organizations and commercial galleries and 28 restaurants and numerous other retailers. There is a large annual artfair called ArtsWalk each October that is in its 14th year that draws a huge crowd and showcases artists from the area organized by the Columbia County Council on the Arts and the much loved Winter Walk put together by the Hudson Opera House each December.

All in all, Hudson is a truly unique town that one just needs to discover for themselves. From his article 'Here is Hudson', resident and writer Scott Baldinger remarks, "A place still called Ziesnitz Opticians is filled incongruously with odd tropical figurines like a hula hula mermaid. Up the street viewed through windows badly in need of Windex, the Samuel Sutty & Son luncheonette is a neutron- bomb- moment in time, with assorted candies from the 1960s and a Fruits Daily advertisement collecting dust and fading in the sunlight. An orthopedic supply story called H&W Orthopedic Supports is a Dadaist display of a toy podiatrist holding arch supports, balanced on each side with artificial flowers and a small American flag. None of these accidental shadow boxes is noticeable if you drive around Hudson in a car, stopping only to go to just one destination or another. “I’m always lecturing people about the need to get out of their cars and walk round,” Corbett, a fellow nondriver, says. Indeed, even the most appreciative of year- round residents do this, and as a result are often unaware of some of the stranger wonders of the town."

I invite you to begin your adventure.

Click here for a map of Hudson