Editing Richmond, New York (section)

== History ==
{{more citations needed|1=section|date=February 2024}}
Richmond was part of the [[Phelps and Gorham Purchase]]. The area was first settled around 1790. The town was established in 1796 as "Pittstown", after Captain Peter Pitts, and was renamed "Honeoye" in 1808. In 1815, the name was changed to "Richmond", after Peter Pitts' wife, Abigail Richmond Pitts, regarded as the town's "founding mother."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lewis|first=Joy (Richmond town historian)|title=The Town's Namesake, Abigail Richmond Pitts|work=The Daily Messenger|location=Canandaigua, New York|date=August 16, 2015|url=
https://www.mpnnow.com/story/news/local/2015/08/16/the-town-s-namesake-abigail/33674521007/|access-date=February 14, 2024}}</ref>  More territory was added to Richmond from the [[Canadice, New York|Town of Canadice]] in 1836. Parts of the Towns of [[Bristol, New York|Bristol]] and [[South Bristol, New York|South Bristol]] were added to Richmond in 1848, but were returned to their previous towns in 1852.

In 1600 the Honeoye Lake Watershed was—apart from clearings made by Native Americans and natural causes such as fire, steep slope landslides, wind or ice—completely forested. The watershed’s primeval forest contained massive trees, some covering as much as a half-acre of ground.

Early settlers found these forests useful. Probably the first product to be transported to market was barrels of potash, made from ashes of the burned trees. As sawmills were erected, lumber from the trees cut from  1830 to 1890 were used in the construction of urban centers such as Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse.

Efforts to bring logs down from the inaccessible area between East Lake Road and Gulick led to the  construction of a rail line in the bottom of Briggs Gully. In 1885, maximum deforestation and  agricultural land use arrived in New York State, often on lands that would not support these practices. Since 1885, there has been a slow decline of farming in the watershed, accelerated by the Great  Depression from 1929 to 1943 and a gradual re-establishment of the area’s forests.

Changes in the character of the Town of Richmond and Honeoye Lake Watershed over the past half century have been significant. The growth in the use of private automobiles and the construction of good roads in the 1920s and 1930s added to the desirability of Honeoye lakefront cottages. By the mid-twentieth century, undeveloped lake frontage had mostly disappeared and summer cottages filled the shoreline.

The years after World War II also signaled the end of agriculture as a principal use of the watershed land and the rapid residential development in the hills of Richmond and Canadice overlooking the lake. The reduction of agriculture resulted in the natural re-forestation of inactive agricultural lands, which was beneficial in reducing erosion. However, increased residential development resulted in the loss of native vegetation and an increase in impermeable surfaces.  These historical changes in the watershed have impacted the watershed character and the water quality— both for better and worse.

In 1962, the Honeoye Chamber of Commerce organized a first Winter Carnival. The event became so popular that in 1971 over 50,000 visitors arrived—tying up traffic for miles. After considerable success, the Winter Carnival was discontinued due to lack of tourist infrastructure. Recent studies by the Ontario County Tourism Bureau have documented the major economic benefits of special festivals and occasions to Ontario County communities.  The summer population has been estimated at 4,500.