Feura Bush is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

of New Scotland, Albany County,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, United States. It is in the southeastern corner of the town, along the

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

town-line, eight miles south of Albany. The Feura Bush ZIP Code (12067) includes parts of the town of Bethlehem. It is in the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Company fire protection district. The 2020 Census showed 28 employer establishments in the hamlet.

History

Feura Bush was originally called Moaksville, after an early family in the vicinity, and later called Jerusalem after the Jerusalem Reformed Church. Harmon Van Der Zee was a major landowner in the area during the mid-18th century. At that time, Jerusalem was a part of the town of

; in 1832, New Scotland was erected as a separate town. In 1790, the Jerusalem

Dutch Reformed The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family an ...

Church was established halfway between Union ( Unionville) and Jerusalem (Feura Bush). This was the first church in the area immediately south of Albany. In 1825, the church was moved to Jerusalem. In the 1920s, part of the Van Der Zee homestead over the town-line in Bethlehem was taken for the

West Shore Railroad The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad that ran from Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River opposite New York City, north to Albany, New York, and then west to Buffalo. It was organized as a competitor ...

's Selkirk

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...

. The yard was originally referred to as being in Feura Bush, being closer to this hamlet than to Selkirk; however, it is located in the Selkirk ZIP Code. In 1854, a

plank road A plank road is a road composed of wooden planks or puncheon logs. Plank roads were commonly found in the Canadian province of Ontario as well as the Northeast and Midwest of the United States in the first half of the 19th century. They were oft ...

was established to run through Feura Bush to Houcks Corners, this section is today

New York State Route 32 New York State Route 32 (NY 32) is a north–south state highway that extends for through the Hudson Valley and Capital District regions of the U.S. state of New York. It is a two-lane surface road for nearly its entire length, with f ...

; and then from the corners to Bethlehem Center, which today is New York State Route 910A. This road was also made an official

post road A post road is a road designated for the transportation of postal mail. In past centuries, only major towns had a post house and the roads used by post riders or mail coaches to carry mail among them were particularly important ones or, due ...

by the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washingto ...

. The Feura Bush School ( Bethlehem School District Number 5) was a one-room school house built in 1885. In 1929, the school was abandoned, and was put to different uses over time until 1987, when the Feura Bush Neighborhood Association converted it to a library. In 1929, a large brick school for kindergarten through eighth grade was built replacing the one-room school house. This building would be in service until ''circa'' 1950. The West Shore Railroad established a station here in approximately 1870 and it was used to ferry students to

Ravena Ravena is a village in Albany County, New York, United States. The population was 3,271 in the 2020 census an increase of 3 over the 2010 census. The village is in the southeast part of the town of Coeymans. History The village of Ravena ...

for high school. Around 1940, the station was discontinued. The Jerusalem (later Feura Bush)

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

was once located in the Mathias Store until it moved to the hamlet's hotel in 1946, when the store was sold and converted into a residence. A new post office was built in 1989.

Geography

Feura Bush is situated along Main Street ( New York Route 32) at the town border with neighboring Delmar and extends to other borders with Clarksville, Voorheesville, New Salem, South Bethlehem, and Coeymans.

Location

Architecture

The hamlet has mostly Victorian and

Colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

residences with some modern styles as well. Several are historic buildings from the mid-18th century.

Education

The majority of Feura Bush is part of the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District (R-C-S). Children attend A.W. Becker Elementary School for kindergarten through fifth grade, R-C-S Middle School for sixth through eighth grade, and R-C-S High for ninth through twelfth grade. Small pockets of the hamlet are within the Bethlehem Central School District. Feura Bush also has a library, situated in a former one room school house adjacent to Jerusalem Reformed Church.

References

{{Authority control New Scotland, New York Hamlets in New York (state) Hamlets in Albany County, New York