Continuing Jim Findlay's  RAIL MEMORABILIA AND LORE          Click on photos for full image

Long after passenger service had ceased on the CN track this excursion train passed through Hudson in 1954.  It is being pulled by a Hudson type locomotive, principal workhorse for passenger trains on the NYC line.  The setting is at Hudson's Main Street crossing.  Note the Larry Dillon building and later Harper Chevrolet visible on the right. 

                                             Taken from Hudson Gazette 2-1-1889
When the blue-coated brakeman on the Lake Shore announces ‘Hudson’ the occupants will no longer look out on a mean and dingy little depot, appearing hardly large enough for a section house.  No, not a bit of it!  But they are confronted by a massive and commodious passenger house, 43 by 70 feet, of the latest design, constructed with cut stone, ornamented by a tower and having arched doorways and windows – a building comporting in durability, elegance and completeness with the      importance and attractiveness for the village, to whose happy homes, comfortable inns and model business places, it welcomes the new arrivals who come within our borders to visit or trade. 

Passing through the waiting room to take the gravel walk or a conveyance, the traveler finds an apartment, the 22 by 44 feet room as clean and pleasant as a parlor, with an old fashioned fire place at the west end, and light streaming through large windows at the east end and sides of the room.  Heat is radiated by steam-pipes connected with the boiler house, and refreshing zauber wasser flows a fountain near the main entrance, a toilet room 8 by 12 feet is provided for the ladies, being separated from the main apartment by a curtain. 

The interior wood-work is of white pine and painted.  Comfortable seats are provided for passengers.  The plan of having but one room is a wise one, as the presence of the gentler sex puts the gentlemen upon their best behavior and keeps the apartment free from smoking and the rowdiness which is so common in public places.  LaFayette Bell has charge of the building and is very vigilant in seeing that the rules are properly regarded and that no impropriety occurs. 

The ticket office is a roomy conveniently arranged apartment measuring 13 by 15 feet.  Projecting out from the line of the front elevation, it commands a splendid view of the track in both directions.  The conveniences for managing the target are also much appreciated by the operators and the increased facilities for ticket selling and operating make the gentlemen wonder how they ever managed to do business in the crowded den they recently vacated.  Like the waiting room and all the interior, it is finished in white pine and painted. 

The telegraph window is reached by entering the depot at the west end.  Directly opposite the window across the passageway is a small aperture through which the operator can communicate with the baggage-room.  This room is 17 feet square.  In addition to the apartment described there are water closets, a large garret and a cellar under the entire building – the accompanying cut conveys a good idea of the exterior of the building. Mr. Frederick H Spier of Detroit was the architect, Messrs. Adams and Rogers of Detroit, the builders. The stone used in the building was from the quarries stony point. 

On the completion of the Michigan Southern Railroad by the State through Hudson-Hillsdale, the stopping place, or station, was the first established on the west side of the river.  The water tank and wood shed (which was all there was of the depot) was located on the north of the track, a little west of the Boies warehouse.  In the winter of 1848 the legislature passed a bill selling the road to a private company, headed by Thomas G Cole of Monroe and Henry Waldron of Hillsdale.  J W Turner, a lawyer of Hudson (afterwards of Coldwater), was chosen that year to the legislature. He was a resident of east side and identified with east side interests.  He improved his opportunities as a member of the legislature, and secured a pledge from the purchasing company that the Hudson station should be moved to the east side of the river.  The following summer the pledge was carried out and the water tank and woodshed were moved to the east side and located on the south side of the track, a few roads west of the Piper homestead.  This arrangement continued for several years, until the N Y company with large capital, bought out the Michigan company, became the owner of the road, and proceeded to build it through from Hillsdale-Chicago. 

There were, in those days some pretty shrewd and wide-awake businessmen in Hudson on the west side, who had all along been ‘laying low’, determined at some time or another to recapture the depot and get it back on the west side.  With the transfer to the new owners they recognized their opportunity and went to work with the new company to accomplish their purpose. The result was a proposition from the company that the citizens of west Hudson would secure and convey to the company that tract of ground extending in length from Lane street to the county line and would erect suitable buildings for freight and passengers.  They had a right of way through this land, but wanted the whole tract.  This was going to cost a good bit of money and seemed like a big undertaking, as there was a handful of people comparatively, to take hold and help, but such men as Dr Chamberlin, the  Boies', Mr. L G Hall and others drew their pocket books and put in their money and time until this was accomplished. 

Baker, Osborn, Johnson and others who were afterwards prominent and public spirited citizens were at that time identified with the east side and could not be expected to lend a helping hand.  The tract of ground necessary to secure had been years before platted into village lots and sold out to different parties, and the owners had become widely scattered.  Some had gone on further west and as the Railroad company would accept nothing but an invincible title, there was much trouble about getting satisfactory conveyances.  Dr Chamberlin went to N.Y. and Mr. Boies to Illinois to obtain quit claim deeds from the parties holding claims and titles.  Traveling was expensive in those days compared with what is now and the expenses of those journeys which were necessarily heavy were defrayed by citizens.   

The amount contributed at that time by individuals to the L.S.& M.S. Rail Road Company was a liberal a sum as the amount donated at a recent date to C. J. & M. when the land had been secured and conveyed to the railroad company. The freight house was built, but it was years before any passenger house was put up.  A room about 12 feet square under the water tank was for some years all the waiting room furnished by the railroad company.  Finally, about the year 1857 a public meeting was called and held in the old school house (now occupied by William Crisher as a cooper shop) the new school house was not built until 1861 and a series of resolutions adopted and a committee appointed to confer with the railroad officials and see if they wouldn’t complete their agreement and build a passenger house.  The railroad company was very civil and courteous to the committee, and promised to build one right away, and within a few months it was finished, and was as good as any then on the line between Adrian and White Pigeon.  It has been used ever since, for more than 30 years and until the present month, when it was superseded by the new and elegant depot erected in 1888.

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