E-mail this pageHistorical Points of Interest About Hudson Hall and George Henry Hudson
Hudson Hall was dedicated at 3:30 on April 23, 1965 by then president of the State University. Samuel B. Gould (See the Plattsburgh Press Republican article "Hudson Hall a Pace-Setter " and the reproduction of the paper's page (John we need a links from this page to those two files). The cost of the building lauded by Gould and reported in the "Pace-Setter" article, was $2.4 million. Originally, planned as a net 44,000 square foot science building with a gross 74,000 square feet of space, it was projected to cost only $2.04 million in Dr. George Angell's capital budget book for the campus. This amounted to only $25 per square foot. The general contractor for the project was the company now known as Murnane and Associates.
The dedication was scheduled as part of a scientific symposium named for the building's honoree, George Henry Hudson. Dr. George Angell, president of the college, welcomed the audience to the symposium on April 22, 1965. After the welcome, the historian Frank Cooper provided a short biographical sketch of George Hudson. Among the more interesting facts about Hudson were:
- He was born on October 1, 1855 in north Bangor New York to parents who believed in instructing him "in the wonders of the natural world." This instruction lead to a life in which he collected over 10,000 specimens of fossils, minerals, insect and shells. He died on March 19, 1934.
- He was a member of the Association for Advancement of Science, the American Conchological Society and the Association of Economic Entomologists.
- He was Professor of Natural Science at the Plattsburgh Normal School from 1890 until his retirement in 1926.
- He received an honorary Doctor of Pedagogy degree from the New York State Department of Education and an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Vermont.
- Some publications included: "Joint Caves of Valcour Island - Their Age and Their Origin" (1910); "On Some Palmatozoa From the Chazy Limestone of New York" (1907); and, "The Use of Stereogram in Paleobiology" (1913).
As part of an associated honors convocation, Dr. Gould spoke to the students about maturity and arrogance as it related to the university and to the students (see the Plattsburgh Press Republican's article , "Dr. Gould Urges PSUC Students to Accept Growing Responsibility" and the papers page from that day.
Information obtained from College Achieves and a paper by Frank Cooper on the life of George Hudson entitled the "Scientist and Teacher" stored in special collections of the Feinberg Library.