Amsterdam is a city in

Montgomery County, New York Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,532. The county seat is Fonda. The county was named in honor of Richard Montgomery, an American Revolutionary War general killed in 177 ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 18,219. The city is named after Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The City of Amsterdam is surrounded on the northern, eastern and western sides by the town of Amsterdam. The city developed on both sides of the Mohawk River, with the majority located on the north bank. The Port Jackson area on the south side is also part of the city.

History

Prior to settlement by Europeans, the region which includes Amsterdam was inhabited for centuries by the

Mohawk tribe The Mohawk people ( moh, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern Ne ...

of the

Iroquois Confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...

, which dominated most of the Mohawk Valley. They had pushed the

Algonquin Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to: Languages and peoples *Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia **Algonquin la ...

Mohican tribe to the east of the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between New ...

. Dutch settlers began to arrive in the area in the 1660s, founding

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

in 1664. They had previously been based in Albany, along the Hudson River to the east. They reached what would later be Amsterdam c.1710. They called the community Veeders Mills and Veedersburgh after Albert Veeder, an early mill owner. By the second decade of the 1700s, Scotch-Irish and German Palatinate immigrants began to arrive in the Mohawk Valley region, but few settled in Amsterdam. The governor of the colony granted a group of 100 Palatine German households land in the area that developed as

Little Falls, New York Little Falls is a city in Herkimer County, New York. The population was 4,946 at the time of the 2010 census, which is the second-smallest city population in the state, ahead of only the city of Sherrill. The city is built on both sides of the ...

to the west, where the English planned they could serve as a buffer to French and Native American incursions."History of Amsterdam, NY"
City of Amsterdam website The

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

had little effect on the Amsterdam region. No major battles were fought there or in the surrounding region. The

Battle of Johnstown The Battle of Johnstown was one of the last battles in the northern theatre of the American Revolutionary War, with approximately 1,400 engaged at Johnstown, New York on October 25, 1781. British regulars and militia, commanded by Major John R ...

was essentially the repelling of a raid by British forces and their Native American, mostly Iroquois, allies. Amsterdam grew slowly after the war, primarily providing the services needed for the farming communities which surrounded it. It was located in the now-defunct Town of Caughnawaga.Hamilton Child, ''History of Amsterdam, New York;'' Syracuse, New York 1869
When the Town of Amsterdam was created, the city changed its name to Amsterdam in 1803, possibly to encourage its selection as the seat of the town's government. After the War, Loyalists such as the powerful Johnson family fled to Canada. Sir William Johnson had long been the British agent of Indian Affairs for this region. Many new land-hungry settlers came from New England as the state sold off former Iroquois lands for development. The settlement was incorporated as a village on April 20, 1830, from a section of the Town of Amsterdam. This was a period of rapid growth for the village, influenced by major transportation developments. In turn, the Mohawk Turnpike, the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing ...

, and construction of the railroad across the valley improved trade. The steeply descending creeks in the region, which flowed from the foothills of the

Adirondacks The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular d ...

, were used to power an increasing number of mills. These manufactured goods that were shipped from the region by land, canal and rail. Products such as linseed oil, brooms, knit ware, buttons, and iron goods were produced in the growing village, which became an important manufacturing center. It was best known, however, for its carpets, eventually becoming the carpet and rug manufacturing center of the U.S. Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Amsterdam was a destination for immigrants from Europe: Irish, Italian, Polish, and Lithuanian peoples, among others, who found work in the factories. In 1865, the population of Amsterdam was 5,135. New

charters A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

in 1854, 1865, and 1875 increased the size of the village. In 1885, Amsterdam incorporated as a city; it expanded by annexing Rockton to the north, and the former village of Port Jackson on the south side of the Mohawk River was annexed to become the fifth ward of the city. By 1920, the city's population was 33,524. In the Great Depression, the mills slowed down their output, but did not close. The city survived the two world wars without significant effect. Shortly after World War II, however, manufacturing in general began to move to the southern United States, where labor costs and taxes were lower. The mills of Amsterdam also shifted their jobs to the South. After a period in the South, that region lost industrial jobs to overseas locations. Additionally, the second and third generations of the city's immigrant families often left to go to college and did not return, as there were few jobs to attract college-educated citizens. The city attempted to re-create its industrial base, but these efforts were not particularly successful. Subsequent city and State projects intended for improved commuting and urban renewal resulted in eroding the local character of the city. As the city's website expresses it:

In an attempt to draw people and business back to Amsterdam, the City and State began a program of urban renewal and arterial roadway construction, destroying much of the original fabric of downtown. Now, not only is there less to go downtown for, it's harder to get there. Once again, Amsterdam is somewhere to be bypassed on the way to somewhere else.

In the early 21st century, post-industrial Amsterdam is still trying to re-invent itself. The city suffered serious flood damage in late August 2011, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. The flooding threatened properties at the river's edge due to erosion and water damage.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.3 square miles (16.3 km), of which 5.9 square miles (15.4 km) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.9 km) is water, with the total area being 5.41% water. The city developed on both sides of the Mohawk River and Erie Canal, and both North Chuctanunda Creek and South Chuctanunda Creek flow into the Mohawk at Amsterdam. New York State Route 30, a north-south highway called Market Street in part, crosses the Mohawk River to link the main part of Amsterdam to the New York State Thruway. NY-30 also intersects east-west highways New York State Route 5 and New York State Route 67 in the city. New York State Route 5S passes along the south side of the Mohawk River. Amsterdam is currently within New York's 20th congressional district.

Economy

In the 19th century, the city of Amsterdam was known for carpet, textile, and pearl button, manufacturing. It continued to be a center for carpet-making in the 20th century, when the Bigelow-Sanford and Mohawk Mills Carpet companies both were located in Amsterdam, but these companies have relocated to other regions. Amsterdam was also the home of

Coleco Coleco Industries, Inc. was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. It was a successful toy company in the 1980s, mass-producing versions of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game consol ...

, makers of the

ColecoVision ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision. The console offered a closer expe ...

Cabbage Patch Kids Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cloth dolls with plastic heads first produced by Coleco Industries in 1982. They were inspired by the Little People soft sculptured dolls sold by Xavier Roberts as collectibles. The brand was renamed 'Cabbage ...

and the

Coleco Adam The Coleco Adam is a home computer and expansion device for the ColecoVision released in 1983 by American toy and video game manufacturer Coleco. It was an attempt to follow on the success of the company's ColecoVision video game console. The Ad ...

. Founded in 1932 as the Connecticut Leather Company, Coleco went bankrupt in 1988 after a failed attempt to enter the electronics market, and pulled out of Amsterdam, as well as its other North American manufacturing sites. The enclosed shopping center is named the Amsterdam Riverfront Center. Once filled with clothing shops, the mall complex has been adapted for offices of doctors, public assistance services, community organizations, a radio station, and an off-track betting site. Media in Amsterdam includes one print newspaper
''The Recorder''
which is owned by the

-based Daily Gazette, an online newspaper
''The Mohawk Valley Compass''
and two AM radio stations,

WVTL WVTL (1570 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting a classic country radio format to the Mohawk Valley in the U.S. state of New York. It is licensed to Amsterdam, New York, and is owned by Roser Communications Network, Inc. WVTL's r ...

and

WCSS WCSS (1490 AM) is a commercial radio station broadcasting a full service oldies and classic hits radio format. Licensed to Amsterdam, New York, the station serves the Mohawk Valley, with radio studios in the Riverfront Center Mall in that city' ...

. In the early 2000s, distribution centers began being constructed in the Florida Business Park in the Town of Florida, which is located just outside the City of Amsterdam. The park currently holds Target, Hill & Marks, Alpin Haus, and most recently, Dollar General. In 2019, Vida Blend broke ground on a new distribution center in the park. Some thousands of city and adjacent county residents are now employed by these businesses.

Demographics

As of the census"Amsterdam, New York (city)"
QuickFacts page from the U.S. Census Bureau's American FacFinder. Accessed: May 21, 2012 of 2010, there were 18,620 people, 8,324 households, and 4,721 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,176.4 people per square mile (1,226.4/km). There were 9,218 housing units at an average density of 1,573 per square mile (607/km). The racial makeup of the city was 80.4% White (68.1% Non Hispanic White), 3.8%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have of ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...

, 0.6% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 0%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oce ...

and 3.4% from two or more races. 26.2% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 8,146 households in the city, with the average household size being 2.24 persons. In the city, 25.0% of the people were under the age of 18 and 15.8% were age 65 or older. The median income for a household in the city, based on data from 2007 to 2011, was $38,699.

Transportation

The City of Amsterdam is at the convergence of State Routes 5, 30, and 67. The New York State Thruway/Interstate 90 is slightly less than one mile to the southwest of the city. Amsterdam also has passenger rail access provided by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

. Three trains stop daily at the Amsterdam Station which is located off of State Route 5 in the western part of the city. * The

Maple Leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along th ...

, operating between

Toronto Union Station Union Station is a major railway station and intermodal transportation hub in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Front Street West, on the south side of the block bounded by Bay Street and York Street in downtown Toronto. The munic ...

, and

New York Penn Station Pennsylvania Station, also known as New York Penn Station or simply Penn Station, is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest transportation facility in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 600,000 passengers p ...

* Two Empire Service trains, operating between Niagara Falls and

In 2022,

CDTA The Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) is a New York state public-benefit corporations, New York State public-benefit corporation overseeing a number of multi-modal parts of public transportation in the Capital District, New York, C ...

began providing bus services with two inner-city routes, a Thruway Express route, and an Amsterdam-Schenectady route. The City of Amsterdam has two Level 3 DC Fast Chargers for electric vehicles provided by

New York Power Authority The New York Power Authority (NYPA), officially the Power Authority of the State of New York, is a New York State public-benefit corporation. It is the largest state public power utility in the United States. NYPA provides some of the lowest-co ...

's Evolve NY program. These chargers are located at the city owned parking lot in downtown near the Amsterdam Free Library. Other chargers are located throughout the city at various parks.

Sports

*Amsterdam's municipal golf course was designed by Robert Trent Jones. *The city is home to the

Amsterdam Mohawks The Amsterdam Mohawks are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Amsterdam, New York. The team plays in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL). The Mohawks, who were located in Schenectady prior to 2003, won the championship in 1 ...

baseball team of the

Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League The Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) is a 16-team collegiate summer baseball league founded in 2010. As of 2022, all teams are within New York (state). All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to pa ...

. The team plays at Shuttleworth Park. *The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame was located in Amsterdam until November 2015, when it relocated to

Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. According ...

Places of interest

Lock E11 truss, movable dam and lock chamber

*The Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook pedestrian bridge spans the Mohawk River and connects the city's Bridge Street downtown area on the south shore and Riverlink Park on the north. It was built from 2014 to 2016. * Lock E11 was built to facilitate water traffic on the Mohawk River/Erie Canal; it is one of 8 locks which include a truss structure which spans the river and which has multiple steel gates which can be opened and closed by the use of electric winches in order to dam the river or let it flow freely. *The Sanford Clock Tower, also known as the Sanford Mills, the Hasbro Plant, the Coleco Industries Plant – where Cabbage Patch Dolls and ColecoVision were manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s – and, currently, the Clock Tower Complex, was built in 1922 for carpet magnate

Stephen Sanford Stephen Sanford (May 26, 1826 – February 13, 1913) was an American businessman and a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York's 18th congressional district. Life and career Born in Mayfield, New York, he was the so ...

as the headquarters and mill of the Sanford-Bigelow Carpet Company. The current owners, who bought the property in 2001, hope to attract small businesses and professional as well as manufacturing and warehousing businesses to the building. Although ill-considered urban renewal highway projects did significant damage to the city's historic downtown, a few historic buildings and sites, mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries, remain in the city, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP): * Amsterdam (46th Separate Company) Armory was built in 1895 as an armory for the New York Army National Guard and was decommissioned in 1994. It is now a bed and breakfast inn called the Amsterdam Castle; * Amsterdam City Hall was built in 1869 as the residence of carpet magnate

. In 1932 it was deeded to the city to become its city hall; *the Amsterdam Free Library is a Carnegie library which was built in 1903; *the Gray-Jewett House, was built in 1890; * Green Hill Cemetery; *the Greene Mansion was built in 1881; * Guy Park Manor was built in 1774 in the Georgian style for

Guy Johnson Guy Johnson ( 1740 – 5 March 1788) was an Irish military officer and diplomat. He served on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War, having migrated to the Province of New York as a young man and worked with his uncle, Sir W ...

, the Irish-born nephew and son-in-law to Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, the British Superintendent for Indian Affairs in colonial New York. It replaced an earlier house which burnt down. The house and the land it is located on sustained significant damage from Hurricane Irene; the house is located in close proximity to Lock E11; *the Guy Park Avenue School was built in 1902 and ceased being used as a school in 1968; * Samuel Sweet Canal Store was built in 1847 to service

barges Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

on the Erie Canal as both a store and a forwarding warehouse; *the Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church Complex contains a church (1897, enlarged 1912), a school building (1906, closed in 2011), a former convent, now the parish center (1934) and a rectory (1941); *the Temple of Israel is a synagog built in 1901; * United States Post Office built in 1936; and * Vrooman Avenue School, built in 1916 and ceased operating as a school in 1975; it is now an apartment building. The Chalmers Knitting Mills was added to the

NRHP The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2010, but was later demolished.

Houses of worship

* Calvary

Assembly of God The Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 144 autonomous self-governing national groupings of churches that together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination."Assemblies of God". ...

( Pentecostal) * Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses * Congregation Sons of Israel (Jewish) * Covenant Presbyterian Church * Crossroads Community Church ( independent) * Five Buddha Temple * First Reformed_Church_ *_Goddess_of_Mercy_Temple_(Buddhist) *_Iglesia_de_Dios,_Torre_Fuerte_(Hispanic_ Reformed_Church_ *_Goddess_of_Mercy_Temple_(Buddhist) *_Iglesia_de_Dios,_Torre_Fuerte_(Hispanic_Pentecostalism">Pentecostal) *_Lord_of_the_Harvest_Church_(Non-denominational) *_Our_Lady_of_Mount_Carmel_(Catholic) *_Pilgrim_Holiness_Church *_ Reformed_Church_ *_Goddess_of_Mercy_Temple_(Buddhist) *_Iglesia_de_Dios,_Torre_Fuerte_(Hispanic_Pentecostalism">Pentecostal) *_Lord_of_the_Harvest_Church_(Non-denominational) *_Our_Lady_of_Mount_Carmel_(Catholic) *_Pilgrim_Holiness_Church *_The_Salvation_Army">Salvation_Army *_Segunda_Sinagoga_(Pentocostal) *_Seventh-day_Adventist_Church.html" ;"title="The_Salvation_Army.html" ;"title="Pentecostalism.html" ;"title="Reformed_churches.html" ;"title="aptist Church of Amsterdam * First

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) *_St._Luke's_( Reformed_Church_ *_Goddess_of_Mercy_Temple_(Buddhist) *_Iglesia_de_Dios,_Torre_Fuerte_(Hispanic_Pentecostalism">Pentecostal) *_Lord_of_the_Harvest_Church_(Non-denominational) *_Our_Lady_of_Mount_Carmel_(Catholic) *_Pilgrim_Holiness_Church *_The_Salvation_Army">Salvation_Army *_Segunda_Sinagoga_(Pentocostal) *_Seventh-day_Adventist_Church">Seventh-day_Adventist_Church *_St._Ann's_(Episcopal_Church_(United_States)">Episcopal_ Episcopal_may_refer_to: *Of_or_relating_to_a_bishop,_an_overseer_in_the_Christian_church *Episcopate,_the_see_of_a_bishop_–_a_diocese *Episcopal_Church_(disambiguation),_any_church_with_"Episcopal"_in_its_name **_Episcopal_Church_(United_State_...