Historian

My office is located on the second floor of the town hall. The files of the Historical Society of Esquatak are also stored in the historian's office. Types of resources available are photographs of the various hamlets in the town, information on many of the older homes in the town as collected by an Esquatak survey in the 1970s. Also available are many books about the town, county and other local historic topics.

A 52 page booklet called "A Historical Record of the Town of Schodack, Rensselaer County, NY" is available from the office of the Town Clerk for $5.00. This booklet was produced at the time of the town's bicentennial in 1995. It contains brief histories of the many hamlets in the town as well as a brief history of the only village in the town, Castleton-on-Hudson. The booklet also contains other relevant information on schools, cemeteries and industries among other topics.

Office hours are on Thursdays from 8:30 until 12:30 pm or by appointment. Please stop in to visit or contact me for research about any questions you may have on Schodack history at 477-7939, extension 316 or by email.

The meeting room/courtroom has a large display of historic photographs from several localities within the town including East Schodack, South Schodack, Schodack Centre, Castleton, Muitzeskill, Schodack Depot (Brookview) and Schodack Landing. Each grouping of photographs is centered with a reproduction of an 1876 map from Beers Atlas of Rensselaer County, as well as a map of the whole town from the same atlas. The photographs of each locality do not date from 1876 but from a few decades later, mostly the 1880s through the early 1900s.

The hallway to the town court office has a display of the early one-room schoolhouses in the town. A group of historic photographs of the Albany Southern Railroad, an interurban line that ran through the town, is located on the third floor of the town hall. Also on the third floor is a display of photographs showing country life in simpler times.

The next time you are in the town hall take a few minutes to enjoy a glimpse of the "good, old days" in the town of Schodack.