Brown's Station was 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 Esopus Valley of southeastern

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

, United States. It was submerged by the waters of the

Ashokan Reservoir The Ashokan Reservoir (; Iroquois for "place of fish") is a reservoir in Ulster County, New York. It is at the eastern end of the Catskill Park, and is one of several in the region created to provide the City of New York with water. It is the ci ...

, an artificial lake built between 1906 and 1915 to supply fresh water to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The easternmost hamlet in the town of

Olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ' ...

, Brown's Station was named for Alfred Brown, a prominent local farmer. In the village and its environs, there were farms, boarding houses, shops, and a

telegraph office Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

. Two streams flowed through the village: the

Esopus Creek Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Uls ...

and the

Beaverkill Creek The Beaverkill Creek was a former tributary of the Esopus Creek in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. It began in West Hurley, New York, and flowed through the towns of Glenford, Olive Branch and Ashton until it joined the Esopus Creek at ...

, which merged, at the downhill end of the village, retaining the name, Esopus Creek. Brown's Station was a popular spot, especially for vacationers from

, who would come to swim in the creeks, and to enjoy rafting (using rubber inner tubes), boating, and fishing. The village was served by the

Ulster and Delaware Railroad The Ulster and Delaware Railroad (U&D) was a railroad located in the state of New York. It was often advertised as "The Only All-Rail Route to the Catskill Mountains." At its greatest extent, the U&D extended from Kingston Point on the Hudson R ...

; the

railroad depot A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...

called Brown's Station, which lent the hamlet its name, was one of the busiest passenger and freight depots in the Esopus Valley. The depot at Brown's Station was an instrument of its own demise; shipments of cement were transported there for use in the construction of the

. Having already impounded part of the nearby

Croton River The Croton River ( ) is a river in southern New York with three principal tributaries: the West Branch, Middle Branch, and East Branch. Their waters, all part of the New York City water supply system, join downstream from the Croton Falls R ...

and most of its tributaries, agents of the City of New York surveyed a number of places to build another

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

. Eventually, they decided to flood the Esopus Valley. They started building the dam in 1906, using

Rosendale cement Rosendale cement is a natural hydraulic cement that was produced in and around Rosendale, New York, beginning in 1825. From 1818 to 1970 natural cements were produced in over 70 locations in the United States and Canada. More than half of the 35 mi ...

, a high-quality hydraulic cement produced at Rosendale in the central part of Ulster County. When the dam was completed in 1912, the sluice was closed and water flooded the valley, a process which was completed in 1915. The buildings of Brown's Station had either been moved or abandoned. Although Brown Station was flooded, some homes retained the town as their address. In the 1950s, letters to Paula Cohen, a nearby resident, were still addressed to Brown Station.

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See also