Warrensburg

WARRENSBURG, NEW YORK, where handsome Victorian-era homes line tree-lined streets, where local retail shops, businesses, and civic organizations serve a year-round community of caring people, is located between the Schroon and Hudson rivers, just 10 minutes north of Lake George Village, on Route 9 (Exit 23, I-87).

Founded in the late 18th/early 19thcentury along the Schroon River, where a 70-foot drop in 3 miles offered the opportunity for three consecutive dams to power tanneries, sawmills, gristmills, a woolen mill and, later, shirt and pants manufacture, the town of Warrensburg prospered. Jobs were plentiful and substantial homes were built. The town early provided fresh water to its residents from a spring-fed mountain reservoir, a limited sewer system, and electric streetlights. It was among the first towns in the area to offer a free high school education to all residents when the Warrensburgh Academy was converted, by popular vote, to the Union free School. A trolley line provided cheap access to towns and cities to the south, and the populace and industry were soon serviced by a major railroad line, the Delaware & Hudson.

Among its native sons was Floyd Bennett, the pilot who flew Commander Byrd to the North Pole and was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award. U. S. Congressman Louis Emerson was born and bred in Warrensburg, as was his brother, NY State Senator James Emerson, a long-term and influential legislator who helped create the New York State highway system in the early part of the 20th century. Both of these men were joined by other entrepreneurs in the development of the industries that employed several thousand people in the mid-20th century.

Warrensburg has over 200 homes on the National Historic Register. The Historic Mills District provides a picturesque link to the past. (See details of the town’s history in its newly reorganized Museum of Local History.) That water power now only generates electricity but both the Schroon and Hudson rivers offer canoeing, kayaking and tubing through rapids and calm waters, and fishing, stocked annually, for the angler.

Warrensburg has always provided hospitality to travelers and visitors from its earliest days when numerous hotels lined its streets. Vacationers seeking a respite from hot cities found Warrensburg quiet bucolic ways and mountain scenery a tonic from hectic lives. Warrensburg continues that tradition, with six bed-and-breakfasts, from elegant Victorian to charming farmhouses and lodges, and several motels. Fine gourmet dining in historic buildings and hometown cooking in traditional diner settings draw visitors from far and wide.