Essex

Understand

This charming Federal period town prospered in the 1800s and today has become a somewhat "sleepier" rural community home to vacationers and year-round residents with an appreciation for the well preserved architecture and friendly population. Lake frontage, its relatively flat land, and the powerful Bouquet River made the town of Essex readily accessible to settlement, and sped its rate of development.

According to the Adirondack History Centre Museum , "Essex County’s best known early settler, William Gilliland planned a baronial estate for Essex in 1765. His brother-in-law finished the first house the next year, and a lake shore community rapidly developed. But, when English troops passed through the area during the Revolutionary War, most of the settlers fled their homes, returning to their families. Once the trampling feet of the opposing armies were gone, the settlers came back to the land. When the War of 1812 began, Essex was the principal shipbuilding port on this side of the lake. Apple orchards thrived on the plain. By the late 1800s Canadian merchants would boat along the Champlain shore contracting for the apples grown in adjacent fields. These apples, and grains for distilling, were agricultural cash crops but hay and dairy products were the primary cash products."

Boat building, a knitting mill, and a buttery were among the business in the first two decades of the 20th century. Industries fell away as the 20th century progressed. Today tourists are drawn to its quaint shops and restaurants, the ferry service to Vermont and the beauty of the remaining farms.

Get in

By boat

• A car ferry owned by Lake Champlain Transportation (LCT) runs between Essex, NY and Charlotte, VT.