John Brown made his first public vow to destroy slavery here and the city later became part of the Underground Railroad.

In 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln spoke to about 6,000 people for 2 to 3 minutes from the last train car at the old Hudson Depot, near the south end of College Street.

[10] A former train station (built in the 1910s) that was located near the intersection of West Streetsboro and Library Streets was demolished in 2013.

Grimm Manufacturing Company to build and sell corrugated tin-pan evaporators for use in maple syrup production.

That area, now called "The Evaporator Works", is on the south of Ravenna Street and just east of Ohio Route 91.

The town marshall was responsible for entering the tower every few days and winding (lifting) the weights.

[18][19] From 1957 until the late 1980s, General Motors had a factory of almost one thousand workers in Hudson that built crawler tractor earth-moving equipment.

In July 2003, Hudson received over 17 inches (430 mm) of rain from three storm events within 24 hours.

[29] The company manufactured aviation, automotive, and maritime devices,[30] and by 1969, employed over 600 individuals, with annual sales of $12 million.

The latter, who arguably did more to end slavery in the United States than any other person, grew up and was educated in Hudson from 1805 to 1825.

There is a marker at the site of his family's home, at the intersection of Ravenna and South Main Streets.

At a November 1837 prayer meeting, church member and anti-slavery leader John Brown made his first public vow to destroy slavery.

"[33] Thousands of fugitive slaves, heading for freedom in Canada, passed through Hudson; it was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Beriah Green, the lone professor of theology at the college, was influenced by William Lloyd Garrison's new newspaper, The Liberator, and his Thoughts on African Colonization.

He preached four fiery anti-slavery sermons, which so inflamed the college that nothing else was being discussed, the president said, and the town was torn apart.

[35] Green, expecting to be fired, left to become president of the Oneida Institute, on condition Blacks be admitted on the same terms as whites.

Oneida, near Utica, New York, replaced Hudson as the nation's leading abolitionist center.

There are several Christian denominations present, including the Eastern Orthodox, Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Christian Science, Presbyterian, United Methodist, Anglican, and Roman Catholic, and non-denominational congregations as well as a Jewish temple.

In November 2002, Hudson was the first community in the U.S. to launch a citywide electronic gift card.

The card was introduced by the Hudson Chamber of Commerce to help stimulate and keep shopping dollars with the independent merchants in town.

[49] The most prominent property is Hudson Springs Park, which has a 50-acre lake open to kayaks, canoes and small motorized boats.

The park also has a disc golf course, docks, sand volleyball pit and permanent corn-hole boards (bring your own bean bags).

Hudson City School District Sports teams are a part of the Suburban League.

This has helped preserve the open spaces, historical buildings, and trees that the city values.

The University Hospitals Hudson Health Center, affiliated with University Hospitals of Cleveland, offers primary and specialty care services, laboratory and general diagnostic radiology services.

Hudson Fire utilizes a primarily on-call response model, where part-time firefighters respond to the station in their personal vehicles before deploying to the scene of an emergency.

In 2024, the City of Hudson hired a consultant to review Fire/EMS staffing and facility needs and make recommendations for future operations.

[58] Prior to 1977, emergency ambulance service was not available locally in Hudson, requiring a response from Akron instead.

In the beginning, volunteer EMTs fielded calls from a single station in the center of town.

[61][62] In addition to patrol and detective service, the Hudson Police Department also provides School Resource Officers to the local schools, as well as numerous community services such as Safety Town, prescription medication disposal, a vacation watch program, and the SAFER Hudson program for senior citizens.