Shaw/Hudson House

Shaw Hudson House

The Shaw Hudson House, built in 1833 for Dr. Samuel Shaw and his family in Plainfield, Massachusetts, serves as a museum preserving the history of early Plainfield life. The home features late 18th-century family furnishings, artwork, photographs, books, quilts, clothing, kitchenware, and other everyday items, carefully maintained by Clara Shaw Hudson, the last remaining Shaw/Hudson decendent. Clara left the house in trust in 1960 to benefit the Plainfield Congregational Church and community, providing a modest endowment for its upkeep.

The house includes Dr. Shaw’s medical office, left intact as a museum, showcasing his medical practice from 1824 to 1880. Shaw, who apprenticed under Dr. Peter Bryant, father of poet William Cullen Bryant, and inherited Bryant’s medical practice and collection of early medical books, many of which are on display in the office.

To learn more about the many historically important family members who lived in this home visit A Virtual Tour of the Shaw Hudson House.

Rediscovering the Shaw Hudson House: A National Treasure Worth Saving – check out this informative YouTube video presentation by historian William Hosley.

MEDICINE IN NEW ENGLAND 1790–1840 by Barnes Riznik Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, Massachusetts This booklet highlights Doctor Shaw’s office

The Romances of a Country Doctor A Paper Read by The Country Doctor’s Grand-Daughter, Miss Clara Hudson, at the Annual Meeting of the Northampton Historical Society at The Unitarian Church, Northampton, MA, Tuesday Afternoon, October 7, 1947