Goshen
New York, 10924
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About Goshen, NY:
Goshen is the county seat of Orange County, NY. The village is within the Town of Goshen, some fifty miles northwest of NYC, on Route 17 in the center of Orange County. Goshen is the home of the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame. Racing is still held at the Historic Track in the center of the village.
The village was settled in 1714 and incorporated in 1809. In 1727 it was declared the "half-shire town" of Orange County, a predecessor to its current status as county seat. It did not take on that full status, however, until Rocklan County was split from the county in 1798, and Goshen was designated the seat since Orangetown was in the new county. For a while afterward it shared that status with Newburgh, moved into Orange as compensation for the lost territory, but since the late 19th century all county government functions have been centralized in Goshen.
The village (or the town, which are indistinguishable in old records) was the site of the hanging of the famous outlaw Claudius Smith a British Loyalist who along with the Mohawk Indian Chief Joseph Brandlt raided the countryside surrounding Goshen during the Revolutionary War.
Goshen was once located on the Eria Railroad Main Line across southern New York, which made a loop around Good Time Park through the center of the village; the tracks are gone but the right-of-way remains visible as the Heritage "Rail Trail" east of the village and Railroad Avenue within it. The former station has been converted into the village's police headquarters. Passenger rail service is available today via the Metro-North Port Jervis commuter line a few miles north of the village at Campbell Hall, on the Erie's onetime freight bypass. For more information about the Metro-North Station. please click here to visit the Cambell Hall Page of Metro-North's website.
The railroad has been replaced as the village's main long-distance transportation connection by NY 17, which ran through the south portion of the village and was expanded into a freeway in the 1960s. It will eventually be redesignated as part of I-86. The western terminus of US 6 and NY 17M's orverlap with Route 17 is at Exit 122 in the southwestern corner of the village; from there Route 6 connects Goshen to Middletown and Port Jervis while 17 continues to Binghamton. To the east, 6, 17 and 17M lead to the NYS Thruway at Harriman, with Route 6 continuing on to the Bear Mountain Bridge.
Transportation:
NY 207, the former Newburgh-Goshen Turnpike, begins at the interchange with 17 and becomes first Greenwich Street, then Main Street before leaving the village at the north end to continue across the county to Newburgh. South of 17 the same roadway becomes NY17A, signed east-west but leading first south to Florida and then to Warwick. Two Orange County roads also connect Goshen to nearby communities: Orange County 8, named Sarah Wells Trail after a local pioneer woman, begins in the north of the village and parallels 207 to the south towards Washingtonville; and Orange County 83, Scotchtown Avenue, follows the old Goshen Turnpike to Scotchtown and later, Circleville.
There are two airports within a short drive of the village. Passenger flights leave from Stewart International Airport, near Newburgh on 207 and genral aviation uses the Orage County Airport, near Montgomery via 207 and NY 416.
The triangular park at the village's central area, containing the landmark spire of First Presbyterian Church and the 1887 county office building, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Church Park Historic District. When first recognized in 1980, it included just the park, Webster Street and the Historic Track, but in 2004 its boundaries were extended to include many of the historic buildings on Main Street north to Erie Street and the block south of the park to Green Street. The village has designated it an Architectural Design District to insure that any new construction or renovation within it is in keeping with the area's historic character.
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