Connecting People With Communities

On September 15, 1863, the first Albany and Susquehanna train rolled from Albany to Central Bridge through a landscape of farm fields of Indian corn and potatoes. Farmers in New Salem, Unionville, and Clarksville quickly recognized that the railroad gave them a way to ship their crops to Albany. In 1865, the West Shore Railroad opened a second rail line from Albany to Schenectady that remains active today. A new passenger station, built in 1890 with costs shared by both railroads, stood at the crossing of the two lines and was known as Union Depot. The stop soon developed into a vibrant agricultural and industrial hamlet. Alonzo B. Voorhees, a prominent lawyer who lived and practiced mainly in Albany, built a home nearby after the railroad opened and regularly commuted by train. According to generally accepted accounts, he wrote “Voorheesville” on an application for the hamlet’s first post office in 1867, and the name remained in use until it became official when the village was incorporated in 1899.

Voorheesville, New York · United States