Cortland is a
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
and the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of
Cortland County, New York, United States. Known as the Crown City, Cortland is in New York's
Southern Tier region. As of 2024, the estimated population of Cortland, New York, is 17,196, reflecting a decline of approximately 1.82% since the 2020 census, which recorded 17,515 residents.
The city of Cortland, near the county's western border, is surrounded by the town of
Cortlandville.
History
The city is within the former
Central New York Military Tract. It is named after
Pierre Van Cortlandt, the first lieutenant governor of New York.
Cortland, settled in 1791, was made a village in 1853 (rechartered in 1864), and
incorporated in 1900 as New York's 41st city. When the county was formed in 1808, Cortland vied with other villages to become the county seat. Known as the "Crown City" because of its location on a plain formed by the convergence of seven valleys, Cortland is above sea level. Forty stars representing the 40 cities incorporated before Cortland circle the State of New York and Crown on the city's official seal. The seven points of the crown represent the seven valleys surrounding Cortland. The 41st star in the center of the crown illustrates Cortland as the incorporated city closest to New York's geographic center.
Cortland's leading industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the Wickwire Brothers wire-drawing mill, noted for its production of wire hardware cloth for use as window screens. The extent of the Wickwires' wealth is demonstrated in the two magnificent mansions they commissioned. The Victorian Chateauesque-style home of Chester Wickwire is now operated as the 1890 House Museum & Center for Victorian Arts. Charles Wickwire's 1912 home is now owned and operated by the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association. It is open to the public and used by the Alumni Association to host college-related events and house visiting dignitaries.
Cortland was also the location of
Brockway Motor Company, a pioneering truck maker. Begun in 1875 as Brockway Carriage Works, it was taken over by
Mack Trucks
Mack Trucks, Inc. is an American truck manufacturing company (law), company and a former manufacturer of buses and Trolleybus, trolley buses. Founded in 1900 as the Mack Brothers Company, it manufactured its first truck in 1905 and adopted its pr ...
in 1956 and survived until 1977. The city continues to host an annual show of Brockway trucks.
From 1960 to 1992,
Smith Corona typewriters were manufactured in Cortland.
Cortland boasts a classic
octagon house. The
Cortland Rural Cemetery is styled as a garden setting and is still in operation.
In 1868, Cortland became the home of the Cortland Normal School, which gradually developed into a four-year college. With graduate programs and research capacity, it has expanded into the
State University of New York at Cortland.
In 2006, Cortland's historic clock tower burned down. It was later rebuilt, with spaces in the building for both businesses and apartments.
The
Cortland County Courthouse,
Cortland County Poor Farm,
Cortland Fire Headquarters,
Cortland Free Library,
First Presbyterian Church Complex,
William J. Greenman House,
Randall Farm,
Tompkins Street Historic District,
Unitarian Universalist Church, and
United States Post Office are 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 ...
.
Notable people
*
Carl Carmer, author
*
Charles Henry De Groat,
Union Army brigadier general
*
William Dillon, composer, lyricist, and vaudevillian
*
Ronnie James Dio, former frontman for
Rainbow
A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...
and
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...
; street in Cortland is named for him (Dio Way)
*
Nancy Duffy, Syracuse news personality and founder of the Syracuse
St. Patrick's Day Parade
*
Katharine May Edwards, Wellesley College professor and classics scholar
*Col.
Arnald Gabriel, Commander and Conductor of US Air Force Band, US Air Force Symphony Orchestra, and Singing Sergeants.
*
Chester Gillette, convicted of the 1906
murder of Grace Brown of Cortland, his girlfriend, in highly publicized and controversial trial; executed in 1908.
*
Milo Goodrich, former US congressman.
*
Charles W. Goodyear, businessman and railroad owner.
*
Leidy Klotz, retired soccer player; professor, author.
*
Jim Mahady, former Baseball second baseman for the New York Giants.
*
Dennis Mepham, retired soccer player.
*
Nathan Lewis Miller, former governor of New York.
*
Gideon C. Moody, former senator of
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...
.
*
Mark Nauseef, musician.
*
Alton B. Parker
Alton Brooks Parker (May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American judge. He was the Democratic nominee in the 1904 United States presidential election, losing in a landslide to incumbent Republican Theodore Roosevelt.
A native of upstate New ...
, Democratic candidate for president in 1904.
*
Sime Silverman, publisher.
*
Eric Soderholm, former professional baseball player.
*
Elmer Ambrose Sperry
Elmer Ambrose Sperry Sr. (October 12, 1860 – June 16, 1930) was an American inventor and entrepreneur, most famous for construction, two years after Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe, of the gyrocompass and as founder of the Sperry Corporation, Sperry ...
, inventor of gyroscopic compass who held over 400 patents;
USS ''Sperry'' is named after him.
*
Aljamain Sterling, Current UFC bantamweight champion, MMA fighter.
*
Joel Eric Suben, composer and conductor.
*
Raymond Gram Swing
Raymond Gram Swing (March 25, 1887 – December 22, 1968) was an American print and broadcast journalist. He was one of the most influential news commentators of his era, heard by people worldwide as a leading American voice from Britain durin ...
, journalist.
*
Samuel Ringgold Ward, African-American who escaped enslavement to become an abolitionist, newspaper editor and Congregational minister.
*
Spiegle Willcox, jazz trombone player, composer, and singer.
*
Gary Wood,
NFL quarterback.
Geography
Cortland is in west-central Cortland County at (42.600658, −76.181284).
Cortland lies between
Syracuse and
Binghamton; it is surrounded by the town of
Cortlandville.
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 city has an area of , of which is land and , or 0.51%, is water.
The
Tioughnioga River, a tributary 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 ...
, flows southward past the city.
Transportation
Roads and highways
Interstate 81
Interstate 81 (I-81) is a north–south (physically northeast–southwest) Interstate Highway in the eastern part of the United States. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 40, I-40 in Dandridge, Tennessee, Dandridge, Tennessee; its nort ...
,
U.S. Route 11, and
New York State Route 281 are north-south highways servicing the city.
New York State Route 13 and
New York State Route 41 also serve the city. Via I-81 it is north to
Syracuse and south to
Binghamton. NY-13 leads southwest to
Ithaca.
Bus
Local public transportation by bus is provided by
Centro
Centro may refer to:
Places Brazil
*Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
* Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
* Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Du ...
, which replaced Cortland Transit on March 31, 2025.
Greyhound
The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a dog breed, breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Some are kept as show dogs or pets.
Greyhounds are defined as a tall, muscular, smooth-c ...
and
Trailways of New York provide the city with intercity bus service with connections to
Syracuse,
Binghamton, and points beyond.
OurBus connects Cortland to Binghamton,
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, and other destinations. The closest
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
train station is in Syracuse.
Air
Air service is provided by
Cortland County Airport located west of the city. The nearest commercial airport is
Ithaca Tompkins International Airport.
Climate
Cortland has a humid continental climate (Koppen ''Dfb''), with cold, snowy winters and warm summers.
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 18,740 people, 6,922 households, and 3,454 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 7,550 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 95.72%
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 ...
, 1.56%
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 ...
, 0.25%
Native American, 0.57%
Asian, 0.02%
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 ...
, 0.56% from
other races, and 1.33% 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 1.72% of the population.
There were 6,922 households, out of which 24.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.7% 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, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.1% were non-families. 36.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.95.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 18.3% under the age of 18, 28.4% from 18 to 24, 23.6% from 25 to 44, 16.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 28 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,478, and the median income for a family was $39,167. Males had a median income of $29,857 versus $21,614 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 city was $14,267. About 13.9% of families and 24.7% 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 24.8% of those under age 18 and 15.2% of those age 65 or over.
As of 2015 the largest self-reported ancestry groups in Cortland, New York were:
*English - 15.6%
*Irish - 10.8%
*Italian - 9.7%
*German - 8.4%
*"American" - 5.7%
*Dutch - 2.2%
*Scottish - 2.1%
*French (except
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
) - 1.8%
*Polish - 1.8%
Government
Cortland's government consists of a mayor, who is elected at large, and an eight-member city council. One member is elected from each of the eight voting wards. As of January 2022, the mayor was Mayor Scott Steve and the eight alderpersons that comprise the city's Common Council are:
* Wayne Schutt, First Ward
*Kathryn Silliman, Second Ward
*Mary Clare Pennello, Third Ward
*Pat Lane, Fourth Ward
*Seth Thompson, Fifth Ward
*Bill Carpenter, Sixth Ward
*Troy Beckwith, Seventh Ward
*Thomas Michales, Eighth Ward
The City Clerk is Andy Jewett. The City Corporation Counsel is Randall Lewis.
Sports
In 2009, the
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...
' training camp was moved from
Hofstra University
Hofstra University is a Private university, private research university in Hempstead, New York, United States. It originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University and became an independent college in 1939. Comprising ten schools, includ ...
in
Hempstead to the SUNY Cortland campus. The camp drew in 34,000 visitors and brought nearly $4.26 million to the local economy. In 2010, the Jets signed a three-year contract with SUNY Cortland. In 2015, they moved back to their own facility in Florham Park, New Jersey.
See also
*
Cortland County, New York
*
Cortlandville, New York
Cortlandville is a town in Cortland County, New York, United States. The population was 8,509 at the 2010 census.
Cortlandville surrounds the city of Cortland and is at the western border of the county.
History
The town is in the former C ...
*
Cortland station
References
Further reading
* Raus, Edmund J. ''Banners South: Northern Community at War'' (2011), about Cortland.
External links
Cortland City School DistrictSUNY Cortland CollegeThe 1890 House Museum and Center for Victorian ArtsCortland Historical Society
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County seats in New York (state)
Cities in New York (state)
Populated places established in 1791
Cities in Cortland County, New York
1791 establishments in New York (state)