Warwick is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in the southwestern part of

Orange County, New York Orange County is a List of counties in New York, county located in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 401,310. The county seat is Goshen (village), New York, Goshen. This count ...

, United States. Its population was 32,027 at the 2020 census. The town contains three villages (

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Greenwood Lake Greenwood Lake is an interstate lake approximately long, straddling the border of New York and New Jersey. It is located in the Town of Warwick and the Village of Greenwood Lake, New York (in Orange County) and West Milford, New Jersey (in ...

, and

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

) and eight hamlets ( Amity, Bellvale, Edenville, Little York, Wisner, New Milford, Pine Island, and Sterling Forest).

History

In the early 1700s, one of the original patent holders, Benjamin Aske, named his land "Warwick", presumably after an area of England near his original ancestral home. He began to sell it off to settlers in 1719. His first parcel of land, 100 acres, was sold to Lawrence Decker. Other familiar family names of the Valley appeared in subsequent years. The European population of the valley grew rapidly from 1730 to 1765, and the previously existing populations of indigenous native people declined as forests and land were cleared for pasture and were re-organized. By the start of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, almost all of the native population had disappeared in various ways. The region has been referred to as Warwick since the early eighteenth century, but a governmental form for a town named Warwick was officially created in 1788. During the

American War for Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, Warwick was the site of a

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

encampment. The

Hudson River Chain The Hudson River Chains were a series of boom (navigational barrier), chain booms constructed across the Hudson River at West Point, New York, West Point by Continental Army forces from 1776 to 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. These s ...

was forged at

Sterling Iron Works The Sterling Iron Works owned by Peter Townsend was one of the first steel and iron manufacturers in the Thirteen Colonies and the first steel producer in the Province of New York. The company was most famous for forging the Hudson River Chain that ...

in Warwick, preventing the British Navy from sailing up the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

. In 1783,

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

traveled through Warwick, stopping at Baird's Tavern and spending the night in the home of John Hathorn. Warwick is situated along a freight rail line, which, as it did with many other towns in Orange County (such as Goshen, Middletown, and Newburgh), contributed to the growth of the area. The nineteenth-century writer and naturalist

Henry William Herbert Henry William Herbert (7 April 1807 – 17 May 1858), pen name Frank Forester, was an English-born American novelist, poet, historian, illustrator, journalist and writer on sport. Chester Starr, Starr writes that "as a classical scholar he ...

, writing as Frank Forrester, popularized the area with his 1845 book, "The Warwick Woodlands". Between 1977 and 2011, Warwick was home to

Mid-Orange Correctional Facility Mid-Orange Correctional Facility was an all-male, medium security prison located in the Town of Warwick, New York. It closed in 2011. History The site of Mid-Orange Correctional Facility was between 1932 and 1977 the home of the New York Stat ...

. The prison was closed in 2011 and transferred to the town in 2014. Part of the prison grounds became Wickham Woodlands Park, a large public park centred on Wickham Lake. The rest of the prison, including the buildings, became part of the Warwick Valley Office & Technology Corporate Park. Businesses on the site include the Hudson Sports Complex, Drowned Lands Brewery, as well as cannabis industry companies Green Thumb Industries, UrbanXtracts, Phyto-Farma labs, and Citiva Medical. Other companies with a presence in the town include Trans Tech.

Geography

The town of Warwick comprises much of the southern tip of Orange County. It borders the townships of Vernon and West Milford to the south, both in the state of

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. To its north, Warwick is bordered by

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

via

Sugar Loaf A sugarloaf was the usual form in which refined sugar was produced and sold until the late 19th century, when granulated and cube sugars were introduced. A tall cone with a rounded top was the end product of a process in which dark molasses, a ...

, Orange County's oldest

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 ...

, antedating both Warwick and Chester, and which was part of Warwick until the mid-nineteenth century. To its east, Warwick is bordered by the town of

Tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and North American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal ...

, home of the

New York Renaissance Faire The New York Renaissance Faire is a Renaissance faire located in Tuxedo, New York off New York State Route 17A that was first held in 1978. The faire comprises permanent structures and has twenty stages and more than 100 shops. As of 2024, th ...

, and the hamlet of Tuxedo Park. 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 town is the second largest township in New York State and has a total area of 104.9 square miles (271.6 km²), of which 101.7 square miles (263.3 km²) is land and 3.2 square miles (8.3 km²) (3.04%) is water.

is Orange County's largest lake, and it is bisected by the border between New Jersey (to the south) and New York (on its north). Glenmere Lake, an extremely critical endangered species habitat, is bisected by Warwick and Chester. Warwick is served by Warwick Municipal Airport and two regional state highways, New York State Route 17A (NY 17A) and NY 94. The

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tra ...

passes through Warwick, which has been designated an Appalachian Trail Community. Warwick is part of the Black Dirt Region and has good agricultural soil.

Climate

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 30,764 people, 10,868 households, and 7,955 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 11,818 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 91.06%

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 ...

, 4.51%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

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 ...

, 0.31% Native American, 0.85% Asian, 0.05%

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 ...

, 1.60% from other races, and 1.61% 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 6.47% of the population. There were 10,868 households, of which 38.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.7% 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, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.8% were non-families. 22.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.74 and the average family size was 3.25. In the town, the population was spread out, with 27.2% under the age of 18, 5.6% from 18 to 24, 31.3% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 11.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.2 males.

Education

Most of the town is in the Warwick Valley Central School District.
Text list
/ref> The Florida Union Free School District includes some other parts of the town. The distruc

serves the residents of Florida, NY, with Golden Hill Elementary School and S.S. Seward Institute. The Greenwood Lake Union Free School District includes another part of the town. I

serves the residents of Greenwood Lake, with the GWL Elementary School and GWL Middle School; students have a choice of Chester Academy or Warwick Valley High School for their high school education. Another part is in the Tuxedo Union Free School District.

Festivals

Applefest Applefest is a yearly village-wide food, entertainment and crafts fair, taking place in several towns in Canada, the United States and England. Canada Brighton, Ontario Brighton, Ontario's Applefest, founded in 1975, is held annually on the las ...

is an annual outdoor festival attracting as many as 35,000 people each year in October. The Hudson Valley Jazz Festival, originally named the Warwick Valley Jazz Festival, takes place during the summer. The annual George Washington Day 5K is a tradition that celebrates when the Founding Father, Gen. George Washington, came to Warwick and enjoyed a grog with his men in Baird's Tavern. This popular tradition takes place in July, and is carried on by the Historical Society of the Town of Warwick, also known as the Warwick Historical Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to Warwick since its inception in 1906.

Transportation

Warwick is served by the 196 and 197 buses to

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

(operated by

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It ...

). It is also served by the Warwick inter-municipal bus.

Government and infrastructure

Formerly the

was in the town.

Communities and locations in the town of Warwick

– village located by the junction of NY 94 and NY 17A *

– village located on NY 17A *

– village located on NY 17A at the north end of Greenwood Lake * Amity – hamlet located between Edenville and Pine Island near the

state line - It is served by the Amity Station of the Pine Island Fire Department and is the site of the Amity Presbyterian Church, which was first opened in 1796. * Bellvale – hamlet on NY 17A between Warwick village and Greenwood Lake * Black Walnut Hill – hamlet north of Hoopstick on Pulaski Highway * Cascade Lake – a small lake in the hills on the southern part of town * Center – a historic hamlet identified solely by the post office that was located at the Warwick Woodlands Hotel from 1909 to 1916 on the western shore of Greenwood Lake north of Furnace Brook. An earlier post office by the name of Warwick Woodlands, New York, operated at the same location from 1882 to 1891. * Durland – hamlet northeast of Warwick village and west of Wickham Lake * Edenville – hamlet in the western part of Warwick, on Pine Island Turnpike, just off County Route 1 (CR 1) * Greenwood Forest Farms – an early area retreat for African-American families * Hoopstick – hamlet north of Pine Island in the "black dirt" on Pulaski Highway, historically the home of nineteenth century barrel hoop makers * Lake – hamlet along King's Highway near the town line at Chester; Had a depot, freight house, creamery, post office, general store and long passing siding on the

Lehigh and Hudson River Railway The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR) was the smallest of the six railroads that were merged into Conrail in 1976. It was a bridge line running northeast–southwest across northwestern New Jersey, connecting the line to the Poughkeepsie Br ...

* Lakeville – hamlet located at the southern end of Sterling Lake * Liberty Corners – hamlet on CR 88, near the New Jersey state line in the southwestern part of the town * Little York – hamlet east of Pine Island * New Milford – hamlet near the New Jersey state line on NY 94 * Newport – hamlet south of Pine Island * Pine Island – hamlet at the junction of CR 1 (Pine Island Turnpike), CR 6 (Pulaski Highway), and CR 26 (Glenwood Road) near the northwest town line - It is the commercial center of the "black dirt" region. * Quaker Creek – hamlet south of Snufftown on Pulaski Highway, directly on the border with the town of Goshen * Snufftown – hamlet north of Pine Island near the town line; historically considered the "Snufftown section of the village of Florida", it is the last settlement in the Florida union-free school district, named for the habit of the early twentieth century farmers who relaxed on the front porch of one of the earliest homesteads, drinking beer, and chewing snuff. * Sterling Forest – a hamlet located at the New Jersey state line on the eastern shore of Greenwood Lake, and served by the Sterling Forest, New York, post office. It was the site of the first American rocket airplane flight that carried mail from New York to New Jersey on February 23, 1936. Babe Ruth often rented a cabin there for the summer season during his retirement. The

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...

' world headquarters building is located in Sterling Forest. * Wisner – hamlet northeast of Warwick village originally known as "Stone Bridge"; Had a depot, freight house, creamery, and siding on the

and a post office, Grange general store and warehouse, the latter of which still stands. * Glenmere Lake – a reservoir that hosts New York's last population of the endangered northern cricket frog *

– a lake on the border of New York and New Jersey * Mount Adam – a granite and shale mount directly on the border of the "black dirt", near the northern town line and directly southwest of Mount Eve * Mount Eve – a granite and shale mount, one-quarter mile south of Snufftown and northeast of Mount Adam * Pochuck Neck – a location near the western town line between Liberty Corners and Pine Island * Sterling Lake – a lake in the eastern part of the town * Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge – northernmost part only * Wickham Lake – a small lake near the northern town line

Notable people

* Mike Jackson - Jazz Guitarist * Damon Amendolara - radio host on

CBS Sports Radio Infinity Sports Network is an American sports radio network. It debuted as CBS Sports Radio with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. Infinity Sports Network is programmed by Audacy, Inc ...

* Steve Brinster – professional disc golfer and winner of the 2013

United States Disc Golf Championship The United States Disc Golf Championship is a disc golf tournament held at the Winthrop Gold Course, on the campus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The professional event has been held annually as a PDGA sanctioned Major since ...

Carleton Carpenter Carleton Upham Carpenter Jr. (July 10, 1926 – January 31, 2022) was an American film, television and stage actor, magician, songwriter, and novelist. Early and personal life Carpenter was born in Bennington, Vermont, where he attended Benni ...

, actor * E. Jean Carroll – advice columnist with ''

Elle Elle may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Elle (magazine), ''Elle'' (magazine), a fashion publication ** Elle Style Awards * Elle (India), ''Elle'' (India), the Indian edition * Elle (film), ''Elle'' (film), a 2016 French film * ''Elle: ...

'' magazine *

James Cromwell James Oliver Cromwell (born January 27, 1940) is an American actor. Known for his extensive work as a character actor, he has received a Primetime Emmy Award as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Babe'' ( ...

– actor and long-term activist for community issues concerning environment * Jasper Francis Cropsey –

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

artist * Gus Dapperton - indie pop musician * Susan J. Elliott – author and media commentator, owns a residence in Pine Island * James Emery - jazz guitarist and founding member of the String Trio of New York *

Frederick Franck Frederick Sigfred Franck (April 12, 1909 – June 5, 2006) was a painter, sculptor, and author of more than 30 books on Buddhism and other subjects, who was known for his interest in human spirituality. He became a United States citizen in 19 ...

- painter, sculptor, and author *

John Hathorn John Hathorn (January 9, 1749 – February 19, 1825) was an American politician and Continental Army officer from New York. Life He completed preparatory studies and became a surveyor and a school teacher. He moved to Warwick in the Province of ...

– Commander in 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 the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

and New York politician *

Derek Jeter Derek Sanderson Jeter ( ; born June 26, 1974), nicknamed "the Captain", is an American former professional baseball shortstop, businessman, and baseball executive. As a player, Jeter spent his entire 20-year Major League Baseball (MLB) caree ...

– owns a residence on the western shore of Greenwood Lake, originally known as Tiedemann Castle, built in 1915. * Michael N. Kane – lawyer, judge, and politician *

Richard Kiley Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor and singer. He is best-known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Kile ...

– actor * Bill Pennington – sports reporter for

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

and author of multiple books * Emilio Sanchez – painter with works in

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...

and other collections *

William H. Seward William Henry Seward (; May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States senator. A determined opp ...

– Secretary of State to

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

, born and raised in the village of Florida *

Jimmy Sturr James W. Sturr Jr. (born September 25, 1941), commonly known as Jimmy Sturr, is an American polka musician, trumpeter, clarinetist, saxophonist and leader of Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra. Media outlets have often dubbed him the " King of Polka," w ...

– eighteen-time Grammy Award winner, grew up and resides in the village of Florida * Jonathan Talbot – internationally known painter,

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

artist, and author *

Robert Whitman Robert Whitman (May 23, 1935 – January 19, 2024) was an American artist best known for his seminal theater pieces of the early 1960s combining visual and sound images, actors, film, slides, and evocative props in environments of his own makin ...

(1935–2024), visual and performance artist best known for his pieces of the early 1960s combining visual and sound images, actors, film, slides, and evocative propsKennedy, Randy
"Robert Whitman, Cutting-Edge Performance Artist, Dies at 88"
''

'', January 20, 2024. Accessed January 21, 2024. "Robert Whitman, a pioneer of performance and multimedia art whose work tapped into primitive, nonverbal human ritual while also anticipating the fractured nature of 21st-century digital existence, died on Friday at his home in Warwick, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. He was 88." *

Gretchen Wyler Gretchen Wyler (born Gretchen Patricia Wienecke; February 16, 1932 – May 27, 2007) was an American actress and dancer. She was also an animal rights advocate and founder of the Genesis Awards for animal protection. Biography Early lif ...

– American actress and dancer * Caden Dana -

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

pitcher

References

External links

*
Town of Warwick

Directory of Warwick's three villages and eight hamlets
{{Authority control Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh metropolitan area Towns in Orange County, New York Towns in New York (state) Towns in the New York metropolitan area Wallkill River