Four-Lane Highway Could Have Bisected Downtown Hudson, April Speaker Tells HHA

The community is invited to the April 14 meeting of Hudson Heritage Association when long-time resident Katie Hoy will describe details of a five-year effort the association led to prevent the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and others from widening Route 91 through downtown Hudson in the 1980s.

In 1983, ODOT was looking for a way to improve traffic flow through Hudson and proposed either widening Route 91 or constructing an expressway just west of the downtown district. Both proposals posed a serious threat to Hudson’s historic district and homes in the immediate vicinity, and could have potentially meant the destruction or relocation of Hudson’s clock tower, substantial reduction of the Village Green and possible demolition of the Brewster Store, among other consequences.

Led by Katie Hoy and her husband George, who were serving as Hudson Heritage Association’s co-presidents at the time, the association mounted a grassroots challenge to the plan that involved Hudson Village Council, Hudson’s Municipal Planning Commission, various state and federal agencies and eventually, the U.S. Congress. Ms. Hoy will recap the association’s campaign to preserve downtown Hudson and the lessons that were learned during this watershed period in the community’s history.

Today, the Hoys are the innkeepers at the Inn at Brandywine Falls in nearby Sagamore Hills, Ohio. Located in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Inn was built in 1848 as the home of James and Adeline Wallace, who operated an adjacent mill and an 800-acre farm on the site – part of a long-vanished community known as Brandywine Village.

The April 14 meeting, which will be held at Barlow Community Center, begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the presentation.