A Board of Supervisors, one elected by each of the County’s 18 towns and the City of Hudson’s 5 wards, governs Columbia County. The board elects a chairman from its ranks, who serves as the County’s chief executive. Voting on the Board of Supervisors is weighted according to population, in accordance with the one-man, one-vote principle.
Each town is governed by its supervisor and 5 councilmen. A mayor and 10 aldermen share authority in the City of Hudson. Each of the four villages elects a mayor and a Board of Trustees; a village is not represented directly on the Board of Supervisors, but by the supervisor of the town in which it is located.
From north to south and west to east, Columbia County’s towns and city are as follows:
Primarily rural and residential, Stuyvesant (pop. 2,188) is developing a nature preserve and Hudson River access point at Nutten Hook, in conjunction with which the town is renovating its railroad depot.
Home of President Martin "Old Kinderhook" Van Buren (and thus probable source of the expression O.K.), the Town of Kinderhook (pop. 8,296) is the County’s most populous. Within its borders lie two villages: Kinderhook, rich in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century architecture; and Valatie (from the Dutch for "little falls"), where mills once drew power from the falls of the Kinderhook Creek. Kinderhook is the site of the Columbia County Historical Society museum, while Valatie boasts the gleaming Valatie Medical Arts Center and Energy Onix, manufacturer of state-of-the-art radio transmitters.
Chatham (pop. 4,249) includes most of the Village of Chatham, once an important rail junction and now home to Sonoco Crellin, a leading plastics manufacturer, as well as a variety of shops and restaurants. The township is home to several horse farms, and the trails of the Old Chatham Hunt Club run through several neighboring communities, including North Chatham, Chatham Center, Old Chatham, and Malden Bridge. The Shaker Museum and Library is in Old Chatham.
In the northeast corner of the County is New Lebanon (pop. 2,454), whose attractions include Lebanon Valley Speedway, Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, and the summer stock Theater Barn.
Bordering Massachusetts, Canaan (pop. 1,820) is the site of a picturesque tunnel on the Boston & Albany railroad, Queechy Lake, and a bustling commercial complex at the B-3 interchange of the New York State Thruway.
Stockport (pop. 2,933) once hummed with industry; now the town offers peace and quiet to residents who work as far away as Albany, or retreat to second homes on weekends and vacations. The Church of St. John the Evangelist (Episcopal) is the work of noted nineteenth-century architect Richard Upjohn.
The growing Town of Ghent (pop. 5,276) includes part of the Village of Chatham and the Columbia County Fairgrounds in the north, and the Columbia County Airport and Columbia County Commerce Park in the south. The 24-hour airport can accommodate jet aircraft. The Commerce Park offers industrial and commercial sites in various configurations, on a rolling site of pastures and woods.
Lightly populated and thickly wooded, Austerlitz (pop. 1,453) contains the undeveloped Beebe Hill State Forest. In the Hamlet of Spencertown, St. Peter’s Church (Presbyterian) is distinctive both for its Federal architecture and for its music. Nearby Spencertown Academy offers a year-round schedule of exhibits and musical concerts from bluegrass to classical.
The City of Hudson (pop. 7,524), chartered in 1785, was the first planned city in the new United States. Until 1815, and again from 1830 to 1845, it was a center of the American whaling industry. As the railroad replaced river- and canal-based transportation, Hudson became a general manufacturing and retail center. Over the last decade, Hudson has reinvented itself as a retail and tourist center while welcoming new industry. Along Warren Street, the principal business street, are more than 40 high-quality antiques dealers, along with upscale restaurants and art galleries. Architectural gems from the Federal, Greek Revival and Victorian periods have been given new life. As the County seat, Hudson is home to the Columbia County Courthouse and several public-service agencies. The New York State Firemen’s Home and the FASNY Museum of Firefighting are just north of downtown. The city’s manufacturing sector ranges from furniture makers to high-tech plastic fasteners.
Wrapped around the city is the Town of Greenport (pop. 4,180), at once a bedroom suburb, major retail center, and patchwork of fruit farms. North of Hudson along Route 9 are major retailers like Wal-Mart and Price Chopper, along with chain restaurants for every taste. Greenport is also home to Columbia-Greene Community College, Olana State Historic Site, and the new $6 million headquarters and factory of Kaz, Inc., a major manufacturer of home health care products.
Claverack (pop. 6,401) was originally part of the Van Rensselaer Manor, and several examples of Dutch colonial architecture survive, including the Reformed Dutch Church (1767). Sleepy today, the community of Hollowville was the scene of violence against landlords and lawmen during the Rent Wars of the 1840s. Today, farmers and second-home owners share Claverack’s rolling hills. The Village of Philmont, a nineteenth-century manufacturing center, contains homes built for mill hands and mill owners alike. On the edge of Philmont is Novapak, a leading producer of containers for products from shampoo to floor polish. In nearby Mellenville, the Columbia County Advocacy Resource Center runs a major injection-molding plant that employs people of all abilities.
Part of the Dutch lands but settled by land-seekers from New England, Hillsdale (pop. 1,744) still supports several farms. The town’s twin economic mainstays are second-home owners from downstate, and skiers and snowboarders who come to Catamount Ski Area on the Massachusetts border. The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival takes place on a Hillsdale hillside every summer. In the Hamlet of Harlemville is Hawthorne Valley Farm, a biodynamic farm run in conjunction with the Hawthorne Valley School.
Livingston (pop. 3,424) is part of the Livingston Manor that once stretched across southern Columbia County to the Massachusetts border. Near the Hamlet of Burden, in an iron mine that once fed the foundries of Troy, NY, is Iron Mountain, the country’s largest secure document storage facility. Home to many large fruit farms, Livingston also processes fruit at Apple Partners on Rte 9.
West of Livingston is Taghkanic (pop. 1,118), a predominantly agricultural community bisected by the Taconic State Parkway. Waterpower and proximity to iron mines made the town an industrial powerhouse in the eighteenth century, with several forges established and encouraged by the Livingston family. Most of Lake Taghkanic State Park lies within the town.
East of Taghkanic and once a part of it, Copake (pop. 3,278) is the site of one of the County’s first settlements, a Livingston Manor farm on the Roeliff Jansen Kill first worked in 1687. With the County’s two largest bodies of fresh water, Robinson Pond and Copake Lake, the town has been a vacation-home center since before World War II and a favored retirement spot for New York City policemen and firemen. At Copake Falls is the gateway to Taconic State Park, the Roe Jan Historical Society museum, and another Richard Upjohn building, the Church of St. John in the Wilderness (Episcopal). Camphill Village, a community for young adults and adults of all abilities, is on Chrysler Pond.
Along the river south of Livingston is Germantown (pop. 2,018), so named for the Palatine refugees from the Rhineland who settled there early in the eighteenth century. The town is home to Taconic Farms, a major breeder and shipper of laboratory rats and mice. The recreation and civic complex at Palatine Park is extensive for a town of such small size.
Tucked into the extreme southwestern corner of the County is Clermont (pop. 1,726), site of New York State’s first public school (1791). The grounds and mansion of Robert Livingston’s estate now constitute the Clermont State Historic Site.
East of Livingston and south of Taghkanic lies Gallatin (pop. 1,499), which describes itself as "A Great Little Town." Gallatin has no post office, no stores, five telephone exchanges, and residents who like it that way. The Vedder Church on County Route 7 (1824) is noteworthy.
With other south-County towns, Ancram (pop. 1,513) was part of the Livingston Manor. Named for the ancestral Livingston estate in Scotland, the town had an ironworks on the Roeliff Jansen Creek by the 1740s. Ammunition for the Battle of Saratoga was made here. In the 1800s a paper mill replaced the ironworks; specialty papers for the tobacco industry are still made in Ancram. The nearby Hamlet of Ancramdale was once a major lead-mining center. Today dairy farms -- some in the same families since the 1700s -- continue to operate in Ancram, but increasingly the town is attracting second-home seekers from the greater New York City area.
Columbia County has nearly fifty country farm markets and orchards, many of them specializing in organic produce.
The Old Chatham Sheepherding Company is the largest sheep dairy farm in the United States.
Census/Demographics
The estimated population of the County is 63,668.
Hudson, once a busy port city frequented by whalers, is the Seat of Columbia County.
Arts & Culture
PS/21 - Performing Spaces for the 21st Century, is a new venue under the direction of Gwen Gould, offering classical sings under an open-air tent in Chatham. www.ps21chatham.org.
What's New
Migrant Farm Workers Get New Housing Through Innovative Program
Migrant workers on several farms in Columbia County are receiving new living quarters thanks to a unique program created by the Columbia Hudson Partnership.
