Endwell is a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
(and
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
) located in the town of
Union in
Broome County,
New York, United States. Its population was 11,446 at the 2010 census.
Endwell is situated between the villages of
Endicott and
Johnson City. It is west of
Binghamton and is considered a
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
of that city.
Endwell is also the home of a popular local park, Highland Park, well known in the area for its annual
Fourth of July
Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing th ...
fireworks display as well as its classic
carousel
A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (International English), or galloper (British English) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders. The seats are tradit ...
. Although most children residing in Endwell that attend public schools are served through the Maine-Endwell School District, some attend the Union-Endicott School District.
History
Endwell used to be known as Hooper, but the name had to be changed in 1921 because of post office regulations. There were too many locations in the state with the name Hooper. The most likely story, shared by an elderly man who attended the meeting to change the name:
Endicott Johnson Corporation was producing a line of shoes called the "Endwell", named after H. Wendell Endicott of the
Endicott Johnson Shoe Company. An advertisement for the shoes read, "Wear the Endwell shoes and your day will end well."
Hooper was part of the town of Union in Broome County and first appears on a map in the early 1850s as a depot of the newly constructed
Erie Railroad
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 ...
at the intersection of what is now Hooper Road and the
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...
. (The original site of Hooper is now underneath the overpass carrying Hooper Road over the railroad tracks and State Route 17C.) The main road along the north bank of the
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...
, existing since colonial times and long before as an Indian trail, passed just to the south. It was common practice at the time to name depots for landowners who donated or leased land to the railroad to construct a depot, and this is where the name "Hooper" came from.
Up until 1890, the only settlements on the north side of the Susquehanna River between Binghamton and
Owego were Hooper and Union (at the intersection of what is now Route 26N and Route 17C).
Several businesses were located near this commercial site from 1850 to 1950, including a
creamery
A creamery or cheese factory is a place where milk and cream are processed and where butter and cheese is produced. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has ...
(dairy plant) reflecting the predominantly
dairy
A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...
-based economy in the immediate surrounding area at the time. A US post office named Hooper was established in one of the general stores near this site in 1853, and "Hooper" was the term commonly used for the unincorporated area of the town of Union between the villages of Johnson City and Endicott until "Endwell" was adopted in 1921. The Town Council of Union has been the local government of what is now Endwell since 1791, although over the years some functions have been taken over by Broome County (poor relief/social services) and by New York State (policing).
Hooper School (now demolished), located a quarter mile west of the depot on the north side of East Main Street, provided primary education (kindergarten-8th grade, K-6 after 1954) for area children from 1923 to 1971. A nationally recognized "state-of-the-art" school when it was built, Hooper School supplanted the railroad depot as the center of the community. Graduates of Hooper School who went on to what was then called "secondary" education attended Union-Endicott High School until the opening of Maine-Endwell Central High School in 1961. Other schools were located on this site dating back to 1876.
What is now Endwell was largely a rural area well into the 20th century. It was in fact a dense forest pierced by Patterson Creek, and the original industry in Endwell dating back to about 1800 was
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucks[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099 as of 2020, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the larger of the two pr ...]
, where they were broken up and sold as lumber. Permanent settlement began around 1820 along Patterson Creek which flowed into the Susquehanna and was attractive as a water supply and water power source for
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...
s. By 1860 economic activity in the area was based on dairy farms along Hooper and Farm-to-Market Roads, second-growth logging, and the railroad depot.
At this time, the only roads in the area were Hooper, Farm-to-Market, Taft, Twist Run, and East Main (current names). The hilly terrain and relatively poor
soil quality
Soil quality refers to the condition of soil based on its capacity to perform ecosystem services that meet the needs of human and non-human life.Tóth, G., Stolbovoy, V. and Montanarella, 2007. Soil Quality and Sustainability Evaluation - An integ ...
meant that only a pasture/livestock-based agriculture was viable, and the area was sparsely settled compared to other areas of Broome County. During the 1890s, significant commercial and residential development began along the East Main Street corridor (State Route 17C), including a horse-drawn
streetcar
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
line, which connected the growing villages of Johnson City and Endicott. These villages grew very rapidly between 1890 and 1920 because of the success of the
Endicott Johnson Corporation, a shoe manufacturer. Wealthy residents of Binghamton in this horse-and-buggy era also maintained numerous weekend/summer homes in what is now Endwell.
The area was best known from the 1850s to the early 1900s for the Carmel Grove Campgrounds located about half a mile north of the depot on the east side of Hooper Road, near the intersection of what is now Country Club Road. Originally created by the
Methodist Church
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
close to the depot for the summer church meetings popular at the time, it soon became part of the
Chautauqua
Chautauqua ( ) is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Cha ...
movement, which appealed to a desire for self-improvement. For a nominal fee, subsidized by Reed Freeman, a wealthy Binghamton clothing manufacturer, the Chautauqua Assembly at Carmel Grove combined what we would call today a week-long "resort" experience with a stimulating series of lectures by nationally known figures of the time, along with popular musical and theater acts. Capable of accommodating a thousand guests in rows of cabins over the hillside, this was a popular summer vacation destination for residents of Binghamton, central New York, and northeastern Pennsylvania for many years.
Endwell appears as it does today because of the rapid growth of nearby Endicott-based International Business Machines (
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
), a computer manufacturer, during the 1940-1970 period. This created a demand for housing which quickly converted Endwell from a hamlet at the intersection of Hooper Road and State Route 17C into the large residential area it is today. The simultaneous increase in car ownership in the 1940s and 1950s made the development of Endwell possible. The area north of Watson Boulevard was developed during the 1940s and 1950s, and the area east of Hooper Road during the 1950s and 1960s. This growth, along with similar growth in the town of
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
to the immediate north, led to the creation of a new Maine-Endwell Central School District and the opening of Maine-Endwell Central High School in 1961. This school is now the center of the community, inheriting its role from Hooper School and the original Hooper railroad depot. The school was the 2008 New York State Class A High School baseball champions. Also is home to the 4-time state football champions, and 6 time ranked number one in New York Swim Team.
A few big names in sports have lived or were born here, including
Mike Dunham (longtime NHL goalie, now goalie coach for the
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (N ...
) and
Isaiah Kacyvenski (starter for the
Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...
for 5 years-and was Special Teams captain for Seattle during their 2005 Super Bowl appearance). The high school girls
field hockey
Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...
team was ranked as high as 19th in the nation in 2007. Jennifer Radi is a world champion baton twirler, who won gold in Italy in 1996 and the World Open 1-baton championship for 11 consecutive years and the World Open 2-baton championship for nine years. Endwell is home to two well-known local golf courses, Endwell Greens and the Binghamton Country Club. It is also the hometown of the 2007 and 2015 New York State Little League Champions and the winners of the
2016 Little League World Series.
www.msn.com
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Geography
Endwell is located at (42.114974, -76.025991).
According to the United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.85%, is water.
Endwell is on the north side of the Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...
. New York State Route 17
New York State Route 17 (NY 17) is a major state highway that extends for through the Southern Tier and Downstate New York, Downstate regions of New York (state), New York in the United States. It begins at the New York–Pennsylvani ...
and New York State Route 17C are east-west highways passing through the community.
The Highland Park Carousel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1992. The Washingtonian Hall was listed in 1996 and the Patterson-Hooper Family Cemetery in 2008.
Endwell is protected by the New York State Police
The New York State Police (NYSP) is the state police of the U.S. state of New York; it is part of the New York State Executive Department and employs over 5,000 sworn state troopers and 711 non-sworn members.
The New York State Police are re ...
, Broome County Sheriff, Union Volunteer Emergency Squad and the Endwell Fire Department
Demographics
As of the census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 11,706 people, 5,187 households, and 3,340 families residing in the community. The population density was .[ There were 5,414 housing units at an average density of .][ The racial makeup of the CDP was 95.48% ]White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 1.32% African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.09% Native American, 1.72% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.47% from other races, and 0.91% from two or more races.[ ]Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 1.27% of the population.[
There were 5,187 households, out of which 25.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.9% were ]married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 8.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.6% were non-families. Thirty-one-point-one percent of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.83.
In the community, the population was spread out, with 21.0% under the age of 18, 6.1% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 21.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.8 males.
The median income for a household in the community was $41,212, and the median income for a family was $51,881. Males had a median income of $40,407 versus $25,516 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the CDP was $24,069. About 3.9% of families and 5.0% of the population were below the poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 6.1% of those under age 18 and 2.7% of those age 65 or over.
Notable people
* Mike Dunham, former professional ice hockey goaltender predominantly associated with the Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators (colloquially referred to as the Preds) are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Predators compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Divisio ...
* Megan Jacoby, Hyrox athlete and 2024 Hyrox World Champion
* Jasmine Kennedie
Jasmine Kennedie (born May 22, 1999) is an American Drag (clothing), drag performer most known for competing on RuPaul's Drag Race season 14, season 14 of ''RuPaul's Drag Race''.
Early life
Kennedie was raised in Binghamton, New York and Morganto ...
, drag performer most known for competing on season 14 of ''RuPaul's Drag Race
''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the Drag Race (franchise), ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder (company), World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, ...
''
* Thomas Tull
Thomas J. Tull (born June 9, 1970) is an American billionaire businessman, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Legendary Entertainment. Tull is the founder of Tulco LLC, an investment h ...
, billionaire businessman, entrepreneur, and film producer; former chairman and CEO at Legendary Entertainment
Legendary Entertainment, LLC (also known as Legendary Pictures or simply Legendary) is an American mass media and film production company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull. The company has often collaborated with the major stu ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Endwell, New York
Census-designated places in New York (state)
Hamlets in New York (state)
Binghamton metropolitan area
Census-designated places in Broome County, New York
Hamlets in Broome County, New York
Logging communities in the United States