HUDSON AREA HISTORY CONNECTION
Octagon House Museum
Community Oral History Project
November 2025-May 2026
Hudson, Wisconsin
About the Project
The Hudson Area History Connection-Octagon House Museum (HAHC-OHM) will be collaborating with community members to conduct an oral history project!
The Octagon House was first established as a museum by the St. Croix County Historical Society in 1964 and curated as a domestic home from the mid-late nineteenth century. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.In 2023, the museum board separated from the St Croix County Historical Society and reinvented itself as the Hudson Area History Connection (HAHC). Today, the Octagon House Museum is operated by the Hudson Area History Connection and offers private and group tours, field trips, rotating exhibits, events, and family fun, as well as opportunities to research, present, and share Hudson history through volunteering and board membership.
Oral histories are a unique form of preserving knowledge and experience, and add incredible depth, intimacy, and veracity to our understanding of the past. Oral history is the practice and study of recording (audio or transcribed) history from people that have a personal knowledge or connection to a moment in history. All histories began as oral histories, and nearly every culture in the world has a tradition of oral storytelling or preservation.
HAHC-OHM intends to use oral histories collected over the next several months to expand our collections. We have many incredible artifacts, documents, and photographs, and hope that by incorporating oral histories from this wonderful community, that we can further develop our collections to include even more of a variety of histories. These stories will help create a narrative for a community and show the uniqueness of a place at a moment in time. Oral history can either be about a historical time, or a more modern moment, since all of this will be considered history for the future generations for whom these stories are being preserved.
We would like to hear your stories about Hudson! We are inviting any individual, group, or organization to share one or more story with us about their experiences living, working, volunteering, serving, or exploring the Hudson area. We know that the history of this landscape and all its people is long, unique, vivid, and always growing—and as the local history and preservation organization, we are working to collect and preserve these stories that have perhaps not been heard before.
As a project by the Hudson Octagon House Museum, we of course would love to hear about any history of the house but also any experiences you had in the house. Whether as a visitor or volunteer, or passerby, the memory could be something or someone that has stuck with you. These histories will help our future curators, volunteers, and community members to have a better grasp of the full history of Hudson. The Hudson Octagon House Museum is dedicated to the preservation and perseverance of these full stories in the Hudson community, in the exhibits and history of the Moffat-Hughes House, and in the HAHC-OHM archives and records.
CONTACT
Primary Contact – Brooke Dreier
Hudson Area History Connection - INTERN
Katie Henry
Hudson Area History Connection – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
director@hudsonoctagonhouse.org
Kylie Foss
Hudson Area History Connection – ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Consent Form
How you can get involved: As a representative of a Group - If you are part of a group or organization, you can fill out the Interest Form for a possible interview and fill out the contact information there. This will include questions about the topic, contact information, and other comments or questions. As an Individual- If you are an individual with knowledge of Hudson history or have an impactful story about your time in Hudson, then you can fill out our interview interest form that is available on our website, https://www.hudsonoctagonhouse.org/. Written Story Submission- If you prefer not to interview, or wish to supplement an interview, you can also submit a written story or recollection. You can submit the story or stories via email or postal service (see below for contact information). If you would like assistance or support in typing or writing your recollection or story, we would be happy to assist; please let us know. This project will conclude by May 1, 2026. The stories and recollections collected will be preserved by HAHC, for use through the museum, which may include: Research Exhibits Tours or special programs Blogs or short articles
What being involved looks like: This project is being organized by Brooke Dreier, Brooke is a spring 2025 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse and a longtime resident of Hudson. Her degree is in public history, and she plans to continue this work in graduate school during the fall 2026 semester. During her studies, she collaborated with an oral history project in the La Crosse communities where she conducted interviews and created a trolley tour based on a collection of those stories. She is excited to continue this work in her hometown and hear your stories! Brooke will be the primary contact for this project, but is working closely under the oversight of the Octagon House Museum staff. SUBMISSION & INVOLVEMENT PROCESS Interest Form: If you have a story or stories you’d like to share, the first step is filling out a short Interest Form. All submissions, whether written or oral/interviewed, must be preceded by an Interest Form. This is so we may accurately track the information and contacts and ensure a timely response. You will be contacted with more information about being involved and to schedule a brief pre-interview. During the pre-interview, the interviewer will create a bibliography of sources and questions to utilize during the interview. This is where we will discuss any questions the interviewee might have and ease any worries or concerns around being interviewed. At this point, if the interviewee wishes to continue, the interviewee will sign a Consent Form, stating that they consent to being interviewed, and they release their submission to the Hudson Area History Connection for our use as a museum. Then we will conduct the actual interview. There will be a list of questions, but the conversation can be more fluid than that. There will be follow-up questions wherever the story goes. The recording will last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. The interviews will be held in-person at the Octagon House Museum. Sometime after the interview, there will be a follow-up conversation with the interviewer about how it went. This is when we can discuss anything that the interviewee wants to change, rerecord, or delete entirely. We can take out any names or people that do not want to be identified. Once the interview has been edited to take out the interviewer asking questions or any “ums”, pauses or breaks, the edited version will be sent to the interviewee for approval. If they give their approval, then they will sign the last part of the consent form that this version is complete and ready for final acquisition into the Museum Collection.
Timeline All submissions, whether written or oral/interviewed, must be preceded by an Interest Form. This is so we may accurately track the information and contacts and ensure a timely response. During the months of November and December, we will be accepting Interest Forms and conducting initial preparation research and contact. Interviews will be scheduled during this time, to take place starting in early 2026. All interviews will be concluded by March 1, 2026. Final editing, research, and confirmation will be completed with the project concluding no later than May 1, 2026.
A non-exhaustive list of stories/topics we’d love to hear about, groups we'd love to hear from: Octagon House Museum Willow River Elementary Houlton Elementary Other Hudson Schools/School District Willis Miller City of Hudson Hudson business’s/business owners Hudson historical events/activities Willow River State Park Birkmose Park Other Hudson Parks Hudson PRIDE Hudson Public Library Hudson History Room Communities such as: Native American Black Queer Women Immigrant What do YOU think is important about Hudson or the Hudson area? Tell us!