Raymond Rouse

This interview was conducted with Ray Rouse in his home on Washington Street in Hudson, New York on Monday, June 27, 2016. Rouse, born in 1955, is a lifelong Hudson resident and discusses the changes in the town’s industrial and economic landscape over his lifetime. He discusses the industrial landscape of Hudson in his youth, especially in the vicinity of the street he grew up on, Chapel St., where Bliss Towers were built. He goes on to talk about his long-time work as a volunteer firefighter and the history of firefighting in Hudson, his 33-year career as a corrections officer at the Coxsackie, Greene, and Hudson Correctional Facilities, and his work and the environment at Universal Match in the 1970s and 1980s during Hudson’s deindustrialization.

This interview may be of interest to those who want to learn about Hudson’s industrial history, the history of firefighting and volunteer fire companies in Hudson, the Universal Match factory, the legacy of deindustrialization in Hudson, corrections officers, and the prison economy in the Hudson region.

Ray Rouse’s wife, Sharon Rouse, was interviewed separately on the same day as this interview.