Haverstraw 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 ...

Rockland County, New York Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population is 338,329, making it the state' ...

, United States, located north of the Town of Clarkstown and the Town of Ramapo; east of Orange County; south of the Town of Stony Point; and west of 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 ...

. The town runs from the west to the east border of the county in its northern section. The population was 39,087 at the 2020 census. The name comes from the Dutch word ''Haverstroo'' meaning "oats straw", referring to the grasslands along the river. The town contains three

villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

, one of which is also known as Haverstraw. Haverstraw village is the original seat of government for the town, hosting the area's historic central downtown business district and the densest population in northern Rockland County.

History

In 1609, the region was explored by

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States. In 1607 and 16 ...

. A land purchase was made in this town in 1666 from local natives and confirmed as a patent in 1671. The region was known as ''Haverstroo'', meaning "oat straw" in

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

. During 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 ...

, it served (under the command of Col. Ann Hawkes Hay) as an important lookout for British activities on the Hudson. A blue-marked trail, the Long Path, may be taken eastward from Central Highway along the crest of South Mountain to High Tor. Halfway is Little Tor, the second highest peak on South Mountain. The town of Haverstraw was formed in 1788 while still 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 ...

. Haverstraw was partitioned in 1791 to form the town of Clarkstown and the town of Ramapo and again in 1865 to form the town of Stony Point. In 1826 the town was the site of a short-lived effort to establish an Owenite colony called the

Franklin Community The Franklin Community was the first American Owenite community established in New York state. Founded in 1826 two miles from the Hudson River near the town of Haverstraw in Rockland County, the enterprise stumbled in its first year of existence ...

.Arthur Bestor, ''Backwoods Utopias: The Sectarian Origins and the Owenite Phase of Communitarian Socialism in America, 1663-1829.''

950 Year 950 ( CML) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: A Hamdanid army (30,000 men) led by Sayf al-Dawla raids into Byzantine theme Anatolia. He defea ...

Enlarged 2nd Edition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970; pp. 203-204. Underfinanced and wracked by internal dissent, the model Owenite community folded after a mere five months of operation.

Geography

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 has a total area of , of which is land and , or 19.19%, is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 33,811 people, 11,255 households, and 8,328 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 11,553 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 66.24%

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 ...

, 10.27%

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 ...

, .41% Native American, 3.21% Asian, .10%

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 ...

, 15.65% from other races, and 4.12% 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 31.73% of the population. Haverstraw has one of largest Dominican communities in the United States with Dominicans making up 32.4% of the population There were 11,255 households, out of which 37.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.4% were married couples living together, 15.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.0% were non-families. 21.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.94 and the average family size was 3.43. In the town, the population was spread out, with 26.3% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 23.6% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.4 males. The median income for a household in the town was $53,850, and the median income for a family was $61,119. Males had a median income of $40,109 versus $31,979 for females. The per capita income for the town was $22,188. About 8.1% of families and 10.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.8% of those under age 18 and 13.8% of those age 65 or over. As of the 2020 census, there were 39,087 people residing in the town.

Government

Haverstraw has a council form of government. The town supervisor is Howard T. Phillips Jr., and council members are Vincent Gamboli, John J. Gould, Hector L. Soto and Isidro "Papo" Cancel. The town's services include a police department.

Transportation

Major highways include the

Palisades Interstate Parkway The Palisades Interstate Parkway (PIP) is a controlled-access parkway in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. The parkway is a major commuter route into New York City from Rockland and Orange counties in New York and Bergen County in ...

U.S. Route 9W U.S. Route 9W (US 9W) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in the states of New Jersey and New York. It begins in Fort Lee, New Jersey, as Fletcher Avenue crosses the US 1/9, US 46, and Interstate 95 (I- ...

U.S. Route 202 U.S. Route 202 (US 202) is a spur route of U.S. Route 2, US 2. It follows a northeasterly and southwesterly direction stretching from Delaware in the south to Maine in the north and traveling through the states of Pennsylvania, N ...

, and NY Route 45. Haverstraw is also a terminus of the

NY Waterway NY Waterway, or New York Waterway, is a private transportation company running ferry and bus service in the Port of New York and New Jersey and in the Hudson Valley. The company utilizes public-private partnership with agencies such as the Por ...

Metro-North Railroad The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State publ ...

Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry The Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry is a passenger ferry over the Haverstraw Bay and Hudson River, which connects Haverstraw with Ossining in the U.S. state of New York. The ferry operates during rush hours on weekdays only, primarily transporting ...

. Short Line, part of

Coach USA Coach USA, LLC is a holding company for various American transportation service providers providing scheduled intercity bus service, local and commuter bus transit, city sightseeing, tour, yellow school bus, and charter bus service across the ...

, provides daily service along

heading to and from the

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving ab ...

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...

and

West Point Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

Newburgh Newburgh (''"new"'' + the English/Scots word ''"burgh"'') may refer to: Places Scotland *Newburgh, Fife, a former royal burgh *Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, a village England *Newburgh, Lancashire, a village * Newburgh, North Yorkshire, a village ...

New York Central The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

West Shore Railroad The West Shore Railroad was a U.S. railway company active in the states of New York and New Jersey between 1885 and 1952. It was incorporated in 1885 to reorganize the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway, which had originally been inten ...

began operations along the banks of the Hudson in 1883 and until 1958 operated passenger service between Albany and

Weehawken Terminal Weehawken Terminal was the waterfront intermodal terminal on the North River (Hudson River) in Weehawken, New Jersey for the New York Central Railroad's West Shore Railroad division, whose route traveled along the west shore of the Hudson Rive ...

Weehawken, New Jersey Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located on the Hudson Waterfront and Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's po ...

, where passengers could transfer to ferries 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 ...

. Service between West Haverstraw and Weehawken was discontinued in 1959. The

right of way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

is still used for freight and is known as the River Line.

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

operated the system until its dissolution. It is now part of the CSX River Subdivision which runs between

North Bergen Yard The North Bergen Yard is freight rail yard and intermodal terminal in North Bergen, New Jersey parallel to Tonnelle Avenue between 49th and 69th Streets. Located within the North Jersey Shared Assets Area, the facility is part of CSX Transporta ...

in New Jersey and

Selkirk, New York Selkirk is a hamlet in the town of Bethlehem, Albany County, New York, United States. It is located south of the city of Albany and is a suburb of that city. A major freight railyard operated by the Selkirk Subdivision of CSX Transportatio ...

Communities and locations in the town

* Bowline Point Town Park – A park east of Haverstraw on a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

, called Bowline Point, in the

. *

Garnerville Garnerville, previously known as Calicotown, is a hamlet in the town of Haverstraw, Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of New York City; east of Mount Ivy; south of Stony Point and west of West Haverstraw. Most of the haml ...

– A hamlet southwest of

West Haverstraw West Haverstraw is a village incorporated in 1883 in the town of Haverstraw, Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located northwest of Haverstraw village, east of Thiells, south of the hamlet of Stony Point, and west of the Hudson R ...

. * Harriman State Park – Part of the park is in the western part of the town. * Village of Haverstraw – The historic downtown business district. The original seat of government in Haverstraw Town. * Johnsontown – A hamlet west of

named after the Johnson brothers. * Ladentown – A hamlet. *

Lake Kanawauke Lake Kanawauke is a primarily human-made lake in Harriman State Park (New York), Harriman State Park. The name is Onondaga (tribe), Onondaga in origin, and means "place of much water". There are three parts to the lake, lower, middle and upper; ...

– A lake in Harriman State Park in the southwestern corner of the town. * Lake Sebago – A lake in Harriman State Park in the southwestern corner of the town. *

Lake Welch Sandyfield was a settlement of about 30 houses in the Town of Ramapo in Rockland County, New York, United States, that was submerged in 1928 when swampy Beaver Pond was dammed to create Lake Welch in Harriman State Park. Settlement History (1 ...

– A lake in Harriman State Park near the western town line. * Mount Ivy – A hamlet by the southern town line. * Pomona – A village partly in the town and partly in the town of Ramapo. * Samsondale – A hamlet east of

. * St. John's in the Wilderness – A hamlet. * Thiells – A hamlet west of

. *

– A village. * Willow Grove – A hamlet on the northern town line.

Education

The

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the State of New York. It encompasses the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York City and the count ...

operates Catholic schools in Rockland County. St. Peter Parish School was in Haverstraw. In 2012, after the archdiocese announced that it could potentially be closed, the school community did a fundraising drive as the school was told it could remain open if a plan to raise $500,000 annually was produced. That year the school's per-student cost was $5,500 but it relied on archdiocese funds as it deliberately had tuition below cost, at $3,600, so children of

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

backgrounds could attend. It had an increasing enrollment at the time of closure, with 328 students in its final year.

Notable people

* Walter S. Gurnee (1813-1903), served as the 14th

Mayor of Chicago The mayor of Chicago is the Chief executive officer, chief executive of city Government of Chicago, government in Chicago, Illinois, the List of United States cities by population, third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsib ...

(1851-1853), the village of

Gurnee, Illinois Gurnee ( ) is a Village (United States), village and suburb in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Its population was 30,706 as of the 2020 census. It borders the city of Waukegan, Illinois, Waukegan, and is a popular tourist attraction within ...

is named after him. * Wilson P. Foss Jr., art collector and businessman *

Abram Stevens Hewitt Abram Stevens Hewitt (July 31, 1822January 18, 1903) was an American politician, educator, ironmaking industrialist, and lawyer who was mayor of New York City for two years from 1887 to 1888. He also twice served as a U.S. Congressman from an ...

(1822–1903) was a teacher, lawyer, iron manufacturer,

U.S. Congressman The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

, and a mayor of New York. * Molly McGee (1952–1994), gridiron football player *

Marty Springstead Martin John Springstead (July 9, 1937 – January 17, 2012) was an American umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the American League from 1966 to 1985 and had since worked as an umpire supervisor. He was the youngest umpire ever to serve ...

, American League Umpire *

Scott Stanford Scott Stanford (born August 30, 1966) is an American entertainment host, news/sports anchor and commentator. Stanford is a studio Host for WWE (since 2009) and can also be seen co-hosting The Suki & Scott Show on digital and broadcast platforms ...

(1977) –

WWE Superstars ''WWE Superstars'', or simply ''Superstars'', is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by WWE that originally aired on WGN America in the United States and later broadcast on the WWE Network. It debuted on and ...

play-by-play announcer In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

working for the Raw

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

* Both the composer

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...

and his wife, the actress and singer

Lotte Lenya Lotte Lenya (born Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer; 18 October 1898 – 27 November 1981) was an Austrian-American singer, diseuse, and actress, long based in the United States. In the German-speaking and classical music world, she is be ...

, are buried in Haverstraw *

Robert Sterling Yard Robert Sterling Yard (February 1, 1861 – May 17, 1945) was an American writer, journalist, and wilderness activist. Born in Haverstraw (town), New York, Haverstraw, New York, Yard graduated from Princeton University and spent the first twenty ...

, journalist, environmentalist Haverstraw was home to three Medal of Honor recipients: * Nick Erickson, Navy,

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

* Michael A. Donaldson, 69th New York,

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Footnotes

External links

Town of Haverstraw official website

Greater Haverstraw Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control Towns in Rockland County, New York Towns in New York (state) New York (state) populated places on the Hudson River 1671 establishments in the Province of New York Populated places established in 1671