Neighborhoods of Troy

Introduction

Troy, New York is currently a city that expands over 11.06 square miles of land and has a population of 51,401 people. This is a tremendous change from the 65 acres of land that it covered when it was first laid out as a village. Over the years, Troy has slowly acquired more plots of land as its population and needs expanded. Some of this property is mostly for residential and commercial use while others have been strictly set aside to be preserved as public, natural land.

Downtown Troy

The land that is now part of the city of Troy was first laid out in lots at the direction of Jacob Van der Hayden and named Vanderhayden after him. The village at that time was made up of 289 lots. These lots were broken up by five streets running north to south: Ferry Street, Congress Street, State Street, Albany Street, and Elbow Street. In addition, First, Second, and Third Streets divided the lots running east to west and River Street followed the curve of the Hudson in that area.

In January of 1789, the name of the village was changed to Troy, as Vanderhayden was decided to be too long and too Dutch sounding to keep as a name.

By 1838, Troy had expanded to include much of what today is known as Downtown Troy. At that time lots and roads stretched almost to the Poestenkill as its southern border and to Dow Street, now Douw Street, as its Northern border.

Lansingburgh

In 1763, Abraham Jacob Lansing acquired the land that is today known as Lansingburgh. It was first called New City. When Lansing had the land surveyed in 1771, he renamed it Lansingburgh. The first post office was established there in 1792. Letters to both citizens of Lansignburgh and Troy were delivered there until Troy established it's own post office . In 1836, part of Lansingburgh was added to Troy. It wasn't until 1901 that all of Lansingburgh was incorperated into Troy.

Frear Park

In 1830, the lakes that are now known as Bradley and Wright lakes were used for the water supply in the city. As Troy continued to grow, new water reservoirs were needed and the two lakes were no longer used. In the early 1890s, the city of Troy started a movement to create more park lands around the area of the two lakes. The land of Frear Park was donated by the Frear family in 1917 in response to this movement. They donated the land with four conditions: that the land would always remain a public park under the name Frear Park, that a street from Oakwood Avenue to Lake Avenue (now North Lake Avenue) be created and named Frear Avenue (now named Frear Park Road), that the gateway to to the entrance of Frear Avenue on 15th Street could be constructed by the Frear family, and that the fountain within the park always be preserved. At this time, William Henry Frear donated 22 acres of land to the city of Troy. This was added on to the 90 acres that the city already owned that the two lakes were on. In 1922, the Frear family donated another 78 acres, for a total of 190 acres that now makes up Frear park.

Since the time that the first piece of land was donated, additions have been made to the park such as completing the fountain, adding a pavilion, golf course, ice hockey rink, tennis and softball fields, and a playground.

References

Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. "Troy" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-13f7-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

The History of Frear Park. Frear Park Conservancy. https://web.archive.org/web/20141006221925/http://frearparkconservancy.org/gpage4.html.

“Troy, New York.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, January 17, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy,_New_York.

Weise, William. Troy's One Hundred Years. Troy, N.Y.: William H. Young, 7 and 9 First Street. 1891.