The Hudson post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Filkins Grove (1858), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 52 in 18802020 census: 2,546169 years
How historic is Hudson?
C
More historic than 29% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Hudson post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Hudson’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hudson is more historic than 29% of U.S. towns, #111 of 140 in Iowa. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hudson’s overall grade.
Iowa towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Iowa town has 9.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Hudson’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (17% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Hudson’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Hudson yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Hudson is a city in Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,546 at the time of the 2020 census. The rural community of Hudson has grown in recent years and is included as a part of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Its first post office opened in 1857. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 2,282 to 2,546 (+12%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Hudson, 1878–1915
Passages that mention Hudson, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Black Hawk County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion ..1878 · page 337Read the page →
Read the text
The town of Hudson is in this township. In 1861, Township 87, Range 14, was set off as a new township, and called Lincoln.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people1915 · page 253Read the page →
Read the text
is the next of the family. Elizabeth is the wife of Lloyd Loonan, a farmer residing at Hudson, Iowa. Helen is deceased. William H. Bedford attended school in Hudson, Iowa, and also the State Teachers College at Cedar Falls. Upon attaining his rnajority he accepted a position in a bank at Adrian, Minnesota, where he acted first as bookkeeper and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Hudson, 1857 to 1963
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Hudson post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Hudson rank for history?
Hudson is more historic than 29% of U.S. towns, #111 of 140 in Iowa. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Hudson?
12% of Hudson’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1976.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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