Elsmere shows how railroads shaped the growth of suburban communities. In 1863, when the first A&S Railroad train left Adams Station for Albany, the area now known as Elsmere was mostly farmland. Families began to build houses, and only three decades later the D&H Railroad recognized the area as a rapidly growing suburban village. Residents of this growing suburb successfully petitioned the D&H for their own railroad station, which was built adjacent to Elsmere Avenue in 1899, a 20 minute walk east of Adams Station. According to the D&H, the station was named Elsmere after the popular 1888 novel Robert Elsmere, and the name was suggested by J. White Strong, a D&H executive who lived in Slingerlands. In time, the surrounding hamlet took the station's name, just as the hamlet of Delmar took its name from its station.