Walden, New York Orange County New York incorporated and unincorporated areas Walden highlighted.svg Walden is the biggest of three villages of the Town of Montgomery in Orange County, New York, United States.
Walden is part of the Poughkeepsie Newburgh Middletown, NY Metropolitan Travel Destination as well as the larger New York Newark Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.
The village began in the early 18th century as a foundry town along the Wallkill River.
One miller, Jacob Walden, was so prosperous the village that incorporated in the mid-19th century took its name from him.
Walden has been best known in the Hudson Valley as the home of the Thruway Markets hypermarket complex, which closed in 2013.
In the 1820s, a prosperous New York shipper titled Jacob Walden convinced some of his company partners to finance the assembly of woolen mills on the river, thriving by the Great Falls as a origin of power and the barns connections at close-by Maybrook.
Most of them floundered a several decades later, but their influence was such that the village incorporated in 1855 as Walden.
The village fathers needed to replace the mills as a origin of employment, and began encouraging knife manufacturers to relocate from close-by Dutchess County to the vacant buildings, where the New York Knife Company made much of the cutlery working by the Union Army amid the U.S.
After the war, other knifemakers came to Walden, too, and the village became colloquially known as Knifetown.
Walden's Main Street was the site of an active retail trade which encompassed Millspaugh's Furniture as well as Roosa's Jewelers, both still in business.
The last business making knives in the village, Imperial Schrade, closed down its factory after a 1957 fire and moved to close-by Ellenville afterwards, where it lasted until 2004.
Today, Walden retains some light trade and much of its working-class feel, enough for the village to have gotten into a spat with WPDH-FM disc jockey The Wolf in the late 1990s over his constant joking on- and off-air joking about Walden as a redneck town.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the village has a total region of 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2), of which, 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2) of it is territory and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) of it (3.90%) is water.
The village's most notable geographical feature is the Wallkill River, which flows from the south to the north athwart the village and divides one-third of it from the rest.
Within the easterly portion, Tin Brook, the Wallkill's primary right tributary in New York, meanders athwart as well, forming part of the northern village boundary.
There are two waterfalls and dams on the river inside the village limits, known as the Great and Little Falls; and two auto bridges, the Walden Veterans' Memorial Bridge (known colloquially as the High Bridge, which carries NY 52, known in the village as West Main Street) and Low (Oak Street) bridges).
The encircling topography in the village is correspondingly gentle rolling hills of this section of the Great Appalachian Valley between the higher rises of the Shawangunk Ridge, visible to the west from some sections of the village, and the Hudson Highlands to the southwest.
The highest altitude is roughly 520 feet (158 m) above sea level along Overlook Road at the village's boundary; the lowest is 260 feet (79 m) along the Wallkill at the northern village line.
Walden's expansion began near the mills and later the knife-making plants, particular the New York Knife Company, positioned on the steep east bank of the river just south of the Veterans' Memorial Bridge (footings can still be seen on the slope today).
The central company precinct of the village is today a several blocks to the east, along Main Street.
Just to its south is the village hall and the chief square.
East Main Street, the section of 52 from the 208 junction to the village line, has seen many newer businesses locate there, including a small strip mall.
This alongsides the village's remaining industrialized existence along the barns line to the east, which at its northern end abuts downtown to the southeast.
Walden's other primary commercial region is the Thruway Markets complex positioned along the river north of Oak Street, just south of the remains of the Walden Knife Company.
There are two schools, enhance Walden Elementary School on Orchard Street and Catholic Most Precious Blood near the northern village line along Ulster Avenue.
Bradley Park - Albany Ave, on the high ground between Thruway Market and Ulster Ave (Rte 208), contains 4 baseball & 1 softball field (Home to the Walden Little League), 2 Tennis courts, a playground, and a skateboard park.
Wooster Grove - East Main St (Rte 52), surrounded by the Tin Brook, offers a large playground, indoor & outside basketball courts, a bandstand, an ice rink, and is home the Village of Walden Recreation Dept 'teen center' James Olley Park - End of Sherman Ave, offers a man-made beach with enhance swimming and fishing, a small play ground, picnic grove, un-improved walking trails, and is home to the Village's Summer Recreation Camp Walden Wallkill Rail Trail - Beginning at Woosters Grove, once the Wallkill Valley Railroad, now thrives as a 3.22-mile (5.18 km)-long paved walking and biking trail linking the village to the Hamlet of Wallkill in Ulster County.
Much of the remainder of the village is residentiary, with homes tending from modest and small near downtown, the river and barns , to more expansive homes (such as the Victorians along the west side of Ulster Avenue) being found on the hills, newer evolution near the southwestern and easterly borders with the town, and 6 small apartment and townhouse complexes.
On the other end of the village, the sewage treatment plant is also in the middle of an undeveloped area.
Climate data for Walden, New York (1981 2010 normals) Average snowy days ( 0.1 in) 4.9 3.6 2.8 0.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.6 2.8 15.2 In the village, the populace was spread out with 30.2% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 20.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older.
The burgeoning service zone is most firmly represented by two county-wide banks, Walden Federal and Walden Savings Bank, are based in the village (though the latter has moved to new command posts at Scotts Corners, the 17 - K/208 intersection).
While it eventually drove lesser stores from Main Street, it remains a substantial part of the village's tax base and a primary draw for consumers from outside not only Walden but the Town of Montgomery (particularly the close-by hamlet of Wallkill, which has no large retailers of its own), despite the openings of chain supermarkets in a several nearby communities.
The Thruway complex also boasts an outdoor-recreation store, tire-repair shop and the earliest of the village's three Chinese restaurants.
National and county-wide chain stores once had little existence in Walden beyond two gas stations along the 52/208 section of Main Street, but in the last decade the amount of convenience stores has doubled with the addition of a Stewart's along East Main Street, and fast-food chains Subway and Dunkin' Donuts have found space nearby.
Outside of jobs at the enterprises in the village, most inhabitants work in the area.
Walden's Village Hall, assembled in 1915.
It homes the police department, village court and library in addition to government offices.
As a village of the Town of Montgomery, Walden inhabitants are taxpayers and electors in both.
The village has seven propel officials, a village board consisting of the mayor and six nonpartisan trustees, per the New York State Village Law.
The village has its own law enforcement, which provides 24-hour protection for residents; a enhance works department which maintains roads, water and sewage lines; a skate park in Bradley Park which was assembled in Fall 2006 due to the ongoing complaints from older inhabitants about all the skateboarders, a recreation department which maintains a several parks inside the village, including one with a pond in which swimming is permitted; and a village court presided over by an propel justice.
Fire protection is provided for the village and encircling fire precinct by the Walden Fire Department.
The Village Hall, pictured left, homed both the Walden Fire Department and Police Station until 1994 when the Fire District moved to a newly constructed firehouse at 230 Old Orange Avenue, near the edge of the village.
Most traffic from outside the region comes in via Route 208 from the south due to its exit on Interstate 84 about five miles (9 km) south of the village, as well as its intersection with alongsideing NY 17 - K at Scotts Corners three miles (5 km) to the south.
The remaining spur of the old Wallkill Valley Railroad, now directed by Norfolk Southern, serves a several businesses in the village and ends just short of East Main Street.
Metro-North rail service directly into New York City is available just athwart the Hudson River from Newburgh at Beacon and other stations on the Hudson Line.
The nearest airport to Walden, Orange County Airport, is a general aviation facility just south of Montgomery.
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Municipalities and communities of Orange County, New York, United States
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Villages in New York - Populated places established in 1736 - Villages in Orange County, New York - Wallkill River - Poughkeepsie Newburgh Middletown urbane area
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