Warwick
Then & Now
The town
of Warwick is a fascinating study in striking contrasts.
Located
in the picturesque and historic Hudson River Valley less than
40 miles from New York City, Warwick's breathtaking geographical
expanse embraces almost 34,000 people residing in three incorporated
villages, ten culturally-distinct hamlets and within view of near-pristine
acres of woodlands, freshwater wetlands, and active farms providing
dairy products, fruit, and an array of vegetables. Warwick is
only minutes from one of America's largest ski centers and is
intersected by the famed Appalachian Trail. It is buffered from
the New York metropolis by a matrix of greenbelts of federal,
state, and county-protected parklands for active and passive public
recreation. The town is laced with streams and rivers that rise
in the surrounding mountains and drain into ponds, lakes and marshes
that support fragile habitats of floral, faunal and aquatic communities.
This diverse
environment that sustains our community has attracted homesteaders
since the arrival of the Indians some 12,000 years ago. White
and black settlers followed in the mid-18th century as independent
farmers. Warwick, founded as a town in 1788, grew explosively
after the coming of the railroad in 1860 and by the century's
turn this was a major agricultural community in New York State.
Farms and small businesses flourished.
Though
suburbanization began in the 1960s and continues to accelerate,
Warwick still exudes a delightfully bucolic and small-town atmosphere.
Its rich past is preserved by no less than three historical societies
that maintain ten museums, by a federally-designated Historic
District, by three public libraries with vast collections, by
two high schools and a plethora of public and private primary
and preschool institutions and by three weekly newspapers that
have been published continuously for more than a century and a
half.
With their
own capital and vision Warwick residents over the century have
built their own rail network, their own general hospital, their
own private telecommunications system, their own radio and television
stations, and much more. Indeed, Warwick has always been a community
of public-spirited activists and volunteers. It is a community
known for its internationally-recognized artists, dramatists,
musicians, scholars, entrepreneurs, and professional innovators.
Warwick
is a community with few pretensions where individuals are respected
more for the content of their character than for their material
wealth or family background. It is a community where the farmer
meets the teacher and the rabbi shares thoughts with pastor and
priest. For the spiritually-inclined, there are dozens of churches,
synagogues, and centers for trans-religious meditation. There
are galleries, studios and workshops to satisfy our aesthetic
needs and quaint country inns and taverns that cater to our gastronomical
inclinations. As one visitor put it, "Warwick is a friendly
welcoming community with a dynamic civil spirit and pride, a strong
sense of its past, and a vision of where it wants to be in the
21st century and beyond. It's the quintessential American Hometown".
-
Richard W. Hull
Professor of History, New York University
Author of: People of the Valleys Revisited:
A History of Warwick, 1700-2005.
(
For information on how to purchase Professor Hull's Book Click
Here )
|