Joseph L. Hudson had lots of luck in retail and wasn’ t all that eager to get back into the car business. But his niece Louise Webber and her husband, Roscoe B. Jackson, convinced him to help finance the creation of a new automaker. They named it in his honor.
The company was incorporated on Feb. 20, 1909.
Hudson Motor Car Co. was a success right out of the gate, with demand for that first 1910 model far exceeding production capacity. In 1910, the company hired Albert Kahn to design this factory at East Jefferson and Conner. A couple of years later, the factory was doubled in size, and was producing 100 cars a day. Its "Super Six" six-cylinder engine became the stuff of automotive legend. In 1954, the automaker merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corp. (AMC), and the last Detroit-built Hudson rolled off the line at this plant that August.
Cadillac bought the Hudson plant in 1956 to use as a metal fabricating plant, but didn’ t stick around long. The old plant was demolished in 1959-60.
AMC stopped using the Hudson name with the 1958 line.