Editing Averill Park, New York

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name            = Averill Park, New York
|settlement_type          = [[Census-designated place|CDP]]
|image_skyline            = 2014-08-28 13 31 47 View east along West Sand Lake Road (New York State Route 43) in the Averill Park section of Sand Lake, New York.JPG
|imagesize                = 
|image_caption            = View east along [[New York State Route 43|NY 43]] in Averill Park
|image_flag               = 
|image_seal               = 
|pushpin_map            = New York
|pushpin_label_position = left<!-- the position of the pushpin label: left, right, top, bottom, none -->
|pushpin_map_caption    = Location within the state of New York
|pushpin_mapsize        = 
|image_map                = Rensselaer County New York incorporated and unincorporated areas Averill Park highlighted.svg
|mapsize                  = 300px
|map_caption              = Location in [[Rensselaer County, New York|Rensselaer County]] and the state of [[New York (state)|New York]].
|subdivision_type         = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
|subdivision_name         = United States
|subdivision_type1        = [[U.S. state|State]]
|subdivision_name1        = [[New York (state)|New York]]
|subdivision_type2        = [[List of counties in New York|County]]
|subdivision_name2        = [[Rensselaer County, New York|Rensselaer]]
|subdivision_type3        = [[List of towns in New York|Town]]
|subdivision_name3        = [[Sand Lake, New York|Sand Lake]]
|established_title        = 
|established_date         = 
|area_footnotes           = <ref name="TigerWebMapServer">{{cite web|title=ArcGIS REST Services Directory|url=https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=September 20, 2022}}</ref>
|area_magnitude           = 
|area_total_km2           = 10.77
|area_land_km2            = 10.46
|area_water_km2           = 0.32
|area_total_sq_mi         = 4.16
|area_land_sq_mi          = 4.04
|area_water_sq_mi         = 0.12
|population_as_of         = [[2020 United States census|2020]]
|population_footnotes     = 
|population_total         = 2098
|population_density_km2   = 200.66
|population_density_sq_mi = 519.69
|timezone                 = [[North American Eastern Time Zone|Eastern (EST)]]
|utc_offset               = -5
|timezone_DST             = EDT
|utc_offset_DST           = -4
|elevation_footnotes      = 
|elevation_m              = 239
|elevation_ft             = 784
|coordinates              = {{coord|42|38|10|N|73|33|16|W|region:US_type:city|display=inline,title}}
|postal_code_type         = [[ZIP code]]
|postal_code              = 12018
|area_code                = [[Area code 518|518]]
|blank_name               = [[Federal Information Processing Standard|FIPS code]]
|blank_info               = 36-03320
|blank1_name              = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS]] feature ID
|blank1_info              = 0942730
|pop_est_as_of = 
|pop_est_footnotes = 
|population_est = 
|unit_pref = Imperial
}}

'''Averill Park''' is a [[census-designated place]] within the town of [[Sand Lake, New York|Sand Lake]] in [[Rensselaer County, New York|Rensselaer County]], [[New York (state)|New York]], United States. The population was 2,098 at the 2020 census.

The community is named after the local Averill family.<ref>{{cite book|title=University of the State of New York Bulletin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1IEnAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA50|year=1914|publisher=University of the State of New York|page=50}}</ref> It is located on [[New York State Highway 43|Route 43]], south of Crystal Lake and east of [[West Sand Lake]].

The [[Sand Lake Baptist Church]] was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2004.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>

==Demographics==
{{US Census population
| 2000 = 1517
| 2010 = 1693
| 2020 = 2098
| footnote = U.S. Decennial Census<ref name="DecennialCensus">{{cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html|title=Census of Population and Housing|publisher=Census.gov|accessdate=June 4, 2016}}</ref>
}}

== 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>

== 2010 demographics==
{{more citations needed section|date=March 2017}}
As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date=2008-01-31 |title=U.S. Census website }}</ref> of 2010, The racial makeup of the CDP was 85.4% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 6.5% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 4.1% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], and 4.0% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino/ Carlo Toma (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 7.4% of the population.

There were 571 households in the CDP, out of which 41.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.2% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.4% were non-families. 20.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.09. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 28.8% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 24.3% from 25 to 44, 29.7% from 45 to 64, and 9.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.9 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $44,000, and the median income for a family was $49,367. Males had a median income of $34,909 versus $26,890 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $26,226. About 8.0% of families and 17.3 of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.4% of those under age 18 and 19.1% of those age 65 or over.

== 2000 demographics==
As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2" /> of 2000, there were 1,517 people, 597 households, and 420 families residing in the CDP. The population density was {{convert|507.2|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. There were 628 housing units at an average density of {{convert|210.0|/sqmi|/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. The racial makeup of the CDP was 96.89% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 1.26% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 1.46% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], and 1.38% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 2.99% of the population.

==Schools==
* [[Averill Park Central School District|Averill Park School District]]
** [[Averill Park High School]]
** [[Miller Hill - Sand Lake Elementary School]]
* Specialty Schools 
** Luis LaBoy Technical School 
**[[Crenshaw Charter School]]
** Taborton Alternative School

==Climate==
This [[climate|climatic]] region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters.  According to the [[Köppen Climate Classification]] system, Averill Park has a [[humid continental climate]], abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps.<ref>[http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather-summary.php3?s=303903&cityname=Averill+Park%2C+New+York%2C+United+States+of+America&units= Climate Summary for Averill Park, New York]</ref>

==Sites of interest==

Arts Letters & Numbers, on Burden Lake Road, is a nonprofit arts center offering workshops, performances, and residencies,<ref name="artsletters">{{cite web| title = About | url = http://www.artslettersandnumbers.com/about | website= Arts Letters & Numbers | access-date= January 31, 2020 }}</ref> housed in a complex including the former Sand Lake Cotton Factory, which operated as Arnolds, Hunt & Co. until 1875 and was later run by Faith Mills; and also the residence built by mill owner George Arnold.<ref name="milltown2">{{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 31, 2020 }}</ref>

Hollywood Drive-In Theatre, on [[New York State Route 66]], is a four-hundred-car [[drive-in theater]] built in 1952.<ref name="drivein">{{cite web| title = Hollywood Drive-In | url = http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8612 | website= Cinema Treasures | access-date= January 31, 2020 }}</ref>

==References==
<references />

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.averillparkfire.org Averill Park & Sand Lake Volunteer Fire Company] - Established 1901
* [http://www.averillpark.k12.ny.us/ Averill Park Central School District]
* [http://sandlakehistory.org Sand Lake Historical Society]
* [http://averillpark.org/webcam/ Averill Park Webcam]

{{Rensselaer County, New York}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Census-designated places in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Hamlets in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Census-designated places in Rensselaer County, New York]]
[[Category:Hamlets in Rensselaer County, New York]]