HISTORY · HISTORICAL MARKER
Historic Goshen Walking Tour
History
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Goshen's historic sites reflect the village's development from the early eighteenth century through the twentieth, including the First Presbyterian Church, organized in 1720, Saint James Episcopal Church, first completed on this site in 1804 and rebuilt in 1853, and the School House built in 1773 where Noah Webster taught from 1782 to 1783, now incorporated into Town Hall. The village also includes the 1838 half-mile harness track, the first in the U.S. and still in use, the Goshen Inn built in 1912 by patrons of harness racing, and the Harness Racing Museum, originally a stable and converted in 1951 into a hall of fame museum for trotter memorabilia. Memorials honor Edward Henry Harriman, soldiers and sailors who served in the Civil War, patriot Henry Wisner, the 124th Infantry Volunteers known as the Orange Blossoms, Goshen men killed in the 1779 Battle of Minisink, and veterans of the First and Second World Wars and the Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf Wars. Other notable buildings include the Orange County Courthouse of 1841, used until 1970, Maplewood of 1816, later the National Bank of Orange County and since 1976 the Village Hall, the Old County Building of 1887, the Goshen Public Library and Historical Society of 1918, and Music Hall of 1889.
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