Editing Gardnertown, New York (section)

==History==
Gardnertown is named after the Silas Gardner family, whose home is still standing and in private use. Gardnertown Road was cut in half to make way for the NYS Thruway in the mid-1950s (as was Orr Avenue in the southern part of the Town). Site of the gunpowder mill, on Powder Mill Road, which is the centerpiece of the [[Orange Mill Historic District]], the only historic district within the Town. The ruins of the mill are now part of Algonquin Park, owned and maintained by the Orange County Department of Parks and Recreation. The current Gardnertown Methodist Church building was constructed at its current location, the intersection of Gardnertown Road and Union Avenue, in 1858, replacing an earlier church built in 1825. The fellowship hall was built in 1957.<ref>Favata, Patricia A., ''Around Orange Lake'', Images of America series, 2007, Syracuse University Press.</ref> The church is affiliated with Gardnertown Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in the Town still in use, which is located both immediately east of the church, across Union Avenue, and south of the church, across Gardnertown Road. The Town of Newburgh [[American Legion]] Post 1420 is located on Union Avenue a short distance south of Gardnertown Methodist Church. Gardnertown Elementary School was located on Gardnertown Road.  A new school was built on Plattekill Turnpike in the mid-1950s, where it remains today. The former schoolhouse then became Newburgh Town Hall. (Previously, the Town Hall was located in a building on Old South Plank Road, about a half a mile to the south.  That building is no longer standing.) When the current Town Hall was constructed and opened next door in 1973 (at 1496 Route 300), the former schoolhouse became police headquarters.  When the current police headquarters was built and opened next door in the other direction in 1989 (at 300 Gardnertown Road), it became an auxiliary Town Hall, housing the Code Compliance, Planning and Zoning Departments.<ref>Plaques in lobbies of these three municipal buildings.</ref>