Editing Averill Park, New York (section)

== History ==

Originally known only as part of greater Sand Lake, the community along with neighboring towns grew with the nineteenth-century development of wool and cotton [[textile manufacturing]] by local [[watermills]] and knitting factories along the [[Wynants Kill]] tributary of the [[Hudson River]].<ref name="business1">{{cite journal | last1 = Harris | first1 = Robert Dalton | last2 = DeBlois | first2 = Diane | date = 2005 | title = Geographic Integration of Industry on the Wynants Kill, 1816-1911 | url = https://thebhc.org/sites/default/files/harrisanddeblois_0.pdf | journal = Business and Economic History On-Line | publisher = The Business History Conference | volume = 3 | access-date = January 30, 2020 }}</ref> By the 1880s, several independent local mills produced [[hosiery]], undergarments, and knit shirts.<ref name="milltown">{{cite magazine | author =<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | title = Sand Lake -- Mill Town? | url = http://sandlakehistory.org/mill.htm | magazine = Historical Highlights | publisher = Sand Lake Historical Society | date = Winter 2000 | access-date= January 30, 2020 }}</ref>

The hamlet was named Averill in 1880 after a local leading family, then in 1882 renamed Averill Park in promotion of local summer-resort development<ref name="averill">{{cite magazine | last = Bob | first = Lilly | date = Spring 2003 | title = 'Averill' | url = http://sandlakehistory.org/averill.htm | magazine = Historical Highlights | publisher = Sand Lake Historical Society | volume = 20 | issue = 3 | access-date= January 30, 2020 }}</ref> and of the Troy & New England Railway, a never-completed trolley and freight line intended to connect the city of [[Troy, New York]] with the mills and summer resorts of Averill Park and its “upstate Coney Island” recreational Crystal Lake Beach, and with the mills of the neighboring town of [[West Sand Lake]].<ref name="railway">{{cite web |url= http://gino.cdfw.net/_trolleypage/TNE/history.html |title= A Brief Sketch of the Troy & New England Railway |last1= Ballard |first1= Charles L. |last2= DiCarlo |first2= Gino |date=2011 |website= Gino’s Rail Page |publisher= Originally printed in The Call Board, newsletter of the Mohawk and Hudson Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society |access-date=January 30, 2020 }}</ref>
 
The local mills declined after the increasing efficiency of steam and electrical power improved competition from regional factories, and were then destroyed by a 1891 river flood. The Faith Knitting Company (later Faith Mills), founded in 1897, restored local industry by buying and re-equipping the old mills and rehiring local labor.<ref name="business2">{{cite journal | last1 = Harris | first1 = Robert Dalton | last2 = DeBlois | first2 = Diane | date = 2005 | title = Geographic Integration of Industry on the Wynants Kill, 1816-1911 | url = https://thebhc.org/sites/default/files/harrisanddeblois_0.pdf | journal = Business and Economic History On-Line | publisher = The Business History Conference | volume = 3 | access-date = January 30, 2020 }}</ref> Other late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century firms included Jake Warger’s Dry Goods Store; Gilbert Beebe’s blacksmith shop; Stout’s Hardware; and Park Pharmacy, where [[Jerry Lewis]] worked as a soda jerk in 1942 when his father was a superintendent at Faith Mills.<ref name="sandlake2">{{cite book |last1=French |first1=Mary D.  |last2=Lilly |first2= Robert J.  |date=2001 |title=Sand Lake |location= Charleston, SC |publisher= Arcadia |isbn=9780738505404 }}</ref>

Mid-nineteenth- to early twentieth-century seasonal hotels included Al’s Place, Hilke’s Averill Park Hotel (previously housing Scram’s Collegiate Institute), Traveler’s Rest (aka Sand Lake House, Tillotson’s Hotel, and Wagner’s Hotel), the Lake View Hotel (aka Blake’s and the Gabler Hotel, later housing the Averill Park Female Seminary), and Clum’s. For mill workers and townspeople, Faith Mills’s Clubhouse was “the entertainment center of the town for many years,”<ref name="sandlake2"/> complete with dance hall, motion picture parlor, cafeteria, bowling alleys, pocket billiard room, and shower room.<ref name="business3">{{cite journal | last1 = Harris | first1 = Robert Dalton | last2 = DeBlois | first2 = Diane | date = 2005 | title = Geographic Integration of Industry on the Wynants Kill, 1816-1911 | url = https://thebhc.org/sites/default/files/harrisanddeblois_0.pdf | journal = Business and Economic History On-Line | publisher = The Business History Conference | volume = 3 | access-date = January 30, 2020 }}</ref>

Faith Mills’s decline, and with it that of Averill Park, began in the [[Great Depression]], during which local textile mills did not regain business till 1932.<ref name="parade">{{cite news | author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | date = July 22, 1932 | title = Parade Back to Jobs Gains Speed Daily | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/415076921/ | work = Daily News | location = New York | page = 15  | access-date = January 30, 2020 | via = Newspapers.com | url-access = subscription }}</ref> During [[World War II]], manufacture of wool blankets and long woolen underwear for the military earned Faith Mills four rare “excellence in production” [[Army-Navy "E" Award]]s.<ref name="award1">{{cite news | author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | date = December 31, 1943 | title = Faith Mills Given 'E' Award for Splendid Record in Production | page = 3 | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/56349855/ | work = Times Record | location = Troy, NY  | access-date = January 30, 2020 | via = Newspapers.com | url-access = subscription}}</ref><ref name="award2">{{cite news | author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | date = August 14, 1945 | page = 9 | title = Fourth Federal Award Received by Faith Mills | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/58754319/ | work = Troy Record | location = Troy, NY  | access-date = January 30, 2020 | via = Newspapers.com | url-access = subscription }}</ref>

From 1955 to 1962, Faith Mills, by then one of only three remaining U.S. manufacturers of woolen long underwear “considered obsolete by most persons” as the market shifted to cotton undergarments, was sold to holding companies and downsized to one factory in Averill Park employing as few as 54 workers, finally closing in 1962.<ref name="holding">{{cite news | author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | date = October 1, 1955 | page = 3 | title = Two Holding Companies Purchase Faith Mills, Inc. | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/58814327/ | work = Times Record | location = Troy, NY  | access-date = January 30, 2020 | via = Newspapers.com | url-access = subscription }}</ref><ref name="close">{{cite news | last = Goodwin | first = Hilda | date = May 21, 1962 | page = 18 | title = Averill Park's Faith Mills to Close After 65 Years | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/60521939/ | work = Troy Record | location = Troy, NY  | access-date = January 30, 2020 | via = Newspapers.com | url-access = subscription }}</ref><ref name="reopen">{{cite news | last = Roy | first = Retzlaff | date = July 24, 1962 | page = 20 | title = 150 to Work as Mills Reopen in Averill Park | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/60535596/ | work = Troy Record | location = Troy, NY  | access-date = January 30, 2020
| via = Newspapers.com | url-access = subscription }}</ref><ref name="souhan">{{cite news | author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | date = July 29, 1962 | page = 2B | title = Souhan Buys Troy Firm | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/137458560/ | work = Democrat and Chronicle | location = Rochester, NY  | access-date = January 30, 2020 | via = Newspapers.com | url-access = subscription }}</ref> In 1965, the factory was to manufacture a “floor-sweeping compound” and become a warehouse for corrugated shipping containers, employing 15 workers.<ref name="cardboard">{{cite news | author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | date = November 17, 1965 | title = New Owner Takes Over Faith Mills | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/59069014/ | work = Troy Record | location = Troy, NY | access-date = January 30, 2020 | via = Newspapers.com | url-access = subscription }}</ref>