Warwick

Warwick Town is fabulously rich in history and lore. Originally called "Wawayanda" by the Minisink Indians, it became part of the vast Wawayanda Patent in 1703. One patentee named his 3000 acre share "Warwick" after his ancestral "Warwickshire" in England.

Within a decade, the land was further subdivided as Dutch, French Huguenot, English, Swiss and Scotch-Irish settlers poured in from northern New Jersey, Western Connecticut, Long Island and New York City. Little hamlets with mills, taverns, and cottage industries sprang up along the many fast flowing creeks. One of them, Warwick Village, was laid out in 1719 and settled from 1764. The "Town" itself was officially created in 1788, just 105 years after the organization of Orange County, named in honor of Prince William Of Orange, the future King Of England.

Warwick Village was one of the town's smallest hamlets until the railroad opened in 1862. The commercial center boomed, and so did the surrounding iron mines, granite quarries, and dairy and fruit farms. Warwick grew rich on its fresh milk, shipped to New York City by rail. It's famous apples and peaches were distilled into applejack and peach brandy for export and for the Valley's many quaint inns and taverns. Modest log cabins and New England style saltboxes were replaced by rambling Victorian and Greek Revival farmhouses.

In 1867, Warwick Village was incorporated and became the Town's "Queen Village" A year earlier The Warwick Advertiser began publication, followed by The Warwick Dispatch in 1885. A fire company was organized in 1869 and the now venerable Warwick Savings Bank opened its doors in 1876. Homes radiated with electricity from 1898 and telephones were introduced four years later by a company still in operation. Proud of their great accomplishments, the community organized a historical society in 1906, now one of the oldest in New York State. A decade later, the first hospital received patients. The high school was completed in 1958, marking over 160 years of public education. In 1969, Warwickians were able to tune in to their first community radio station, followed nine years later by cable television.

Warwick is famous for its picruresque valleys with their still flourishing farms and small businesses, many of them owned for generations by the same families. The Town's three incorporated Villages and six Hamlets each retain their distinctive character and identity. For more than a century, the community's many ponds, lakes and streams, its verdant pastures set against a spectacular backdrop of sylvan hills with enchanting forest trails, have attracted famous naturalists, artists and sportsmen, as well as country lovers seeking fresh air and peaceful reflection only minutes from the metropolis. To discover Warwick is to find a deeper dimension in residential living.

 

12 Maple Avenue, Warwick, NY 10990  -  (845) 986-7500

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