Normansville, New York
| Normansville | |
| hamlet | |
| Formerly: Upper Hollow | |
| Name origin: For being a village along the banks of the Normans Kill (creek) | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | New York |
| Region | Capital District |
| County | Albany |
| Municipality | Town of Bethlehem and City of Albany |
| River | Normans Kill |
| Coordinates | 42°38′01″N 73°47′57″W / 42.63361°N 73.79917°WCoordinates: 42°38′01″N 73°47′57″W / 42.63361°N 73.79917°W |
| Timezone | EST (UTC-5) |
| - summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP Code | 12054 (Bethlehem side)/12209 (Albany side) |
| Area code | 518 |
  Location of Normansville within the state of New York
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Normansville is a hamlet in the town of Bethlehem and a neighborhood in the city of Albany, Albany County, New York. The entire area was one hamlet in Bethlehem until the portion north of the Normans Kill was annexed by Albany in 1916. The Delaware Turnpike once ran through both neighborhoods until 1929 with the construction of a new much higher, longer, and wider Delaware Avenue Bridge over the Normans Kill. This allowed commuters to and from Albany to bypass both Normansvilles. The original lower bridge still stands, though it has been closed to vehicular traffic since January 1990.
Normansville was originally called Upper Hollow for the deep ravine carved by the Normans Kill that the unincorporated village sits in. Further downstream was Lower Hollow, later named Kenwood. Upper Hollow had its start with the construction of the Delaware Turnpike in 1805 which went from the city of Albany to Otego (which then was part of Delaware County). At the Normans Kill (kill is Dutch for stream) the road was carried by a 100-foot-long (30 m) wooden bridge and northwest of this bridge was a toll-gate. This bridge was washed away by a freshet in 1869. This was the year after the turnpike company had abandoned the road and so the town of Bethlehem built an iron bridge in its place.
Soon after the turnpike was constructed taverns and various industries began to spring up to take advantage of the power that could be harnessed from the Normans Kill's waters. Among the industries were cloth mills and saw mills, several of these mills were swept aside by the same freshet that washed away the bridge, they were quickly rebuilt but by the beginning of the 20th century the mills were abandoned. Another major industry along the Normans Kill was that of cutting ice blocks from the creek during the winter and storing it for shipping to New York City and other locations for use in iceboxes. The Pappalau Ice House on the Albany side was one of many ice houses along the Normans Kill and Hudson River at the end of the 1800s, by 1920 it too would be abandoned as new technologies made the industry obsolete.
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Wikipedia