As JOANN, Inc. winds down operations, its headquarters in Hudson has a large “for sale” sign out front. A potential buyer might be thinking housing development, or another major business headquarters. But what about an airport?
It’s happened before.
Mid-City Airport opened in the 1920s at the corner of what’s today Darrow and Terex Roads. It was named for the area’s position, midway between Akron and Cleveland. The 1920 census shows about 2,000 people in Hudson, which was being touted as a getaway from the big city for people with the means to fly their own planes. Try getting a flight from Cleveland to Hudson today. You’d probably have to connect in Chicago.
The full name of the airfield was Issoudon Mid-City Airport according to a 1980 article by James F. Caccamo, then-archivist for the Hudson Library & Historical Society. He wrote that Maj. Thomas G. Lanphier and Col. Henry Breckenridge named the field “as a memorial to the pilots who trained under Lanphier in France."
The late Mr. Caccamo was a wonderful resource until his untimely death in 2002. He’s still fondly remembered by colleagues and patrons, including me. One day in 1993, as I prepared a school report on Hudson and the Underground Railroad, I wandered into his office and asked for help. He gave me a free copy of his then-new book, “Hudson, Ohio and the Underground Railroad.” Mind reader!
Back to the airport, a hangar was built in 1927 and plans were made to extend the runways, but the Depression slowed any further progress. Mid-City was still serving flying clubs and student pilots when, in 1956, General Motors bought the land and built a massive complex for its heavy equipment division, eventually called Terex (from “terra,” for earth, and “rex,” for king). That company moved out in the 1980s, and soon the facility was home to Joann, Jo-Ann, Joann’s or Joann Fabrics. (The moniker depends on when your mind retained a name for the former Cleveland Fabric Shops, founded in 1945.)
Soon, Joann Fabric and Crafts (another moniker!) will be no more. The 45-acre site, part of what was once known as Darrowville, is not far from Little Tikes, a maze of healthcare offices and a large neighborhood. Will a new business make its home there, or will the land be repurposed into something else?
Hudson legend says that Charles Lindbergh once landed at Mid-City Airport on his way from Columbus to New York. Historians are unsure. Even without that sliver of notoriety, the land has a very colorful past and, hopefully, future.
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