Washington County

Washington County is a county in New York, United States, on the Vermont border between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. It had a population of 61,302 at the 2020 census, spread across 2,190 km² (846 square miles), and Fort Edward is the county seat. The county centre lies near 43°18′N 73°24′W.

Local government here runs through 17 towns, 8 villages and dozens of hamlets. Hudson Falls, not the county seat, is the largest settlement.

Cities, Towns and Communities

New York towns cover the whole county, so every village and hamlet sits inside a town, and town population counts include the villages within them. The table lists all 8 incorporated villages, both census-designated places, all 17 towns and the hamlets with their own post offices.

Salem lost its village status on 31 March 2016, after residents voted 192 to 49 for dissolution in August 2014. The town of Salem now runs the services the village once provided, and the census counts the settlement as a designated place.

ZIP Codes

The main postal code is 12828, covering Fort Edward. Twenty-one ZIP codes serve the county in all: 12028 (Buskirk), 12809 (Argyle), 12816 (Cambridge), 12819 (Clemons), 12821 (Comstock), 12823 (Cossayuna), 12827 (Fort Ann), 12828 (Fort Edward), 12832 (Granville), 12834 (Greenwich), 12837 (Hampton), 12838 (Hartford), 12839 (Hudson Falls), 12841 (Huletts Landing), 12848 (Middle Falls), 12849 (Middle Granville), 12854 (North Granville), 12861 (Putnam Station), 12865 (Salem), 12873 (Shushan) and 12887 (Whitehall). Eight of them cross into Essex, Rensselaer, Saratoga or Warren county, so a mailing address alone does not settle which county an address sits in.

Geography

The county is long and narrow, running roughly 60 miles north to south along the Vermont line. Of its 846 square miles, 831 are land and 15 are water. The Hudson River forms much of the western boundary in the south; north of Whitehall the corridor shifts to Lake Champlain, whose southern tip reaches the town of Whitehall. Dresden and Putnam front Lake Champlain on the east and Lake George on the west, and the Taconic and southern Adirondack foothills rise in the north.

Farmland fills the Hudson, Battenkill and Mettawee valleys in the centre and south. The Battenkill enters from Vermont and runs west through Salem, Greenwich and Easton to the Hudson.

Bordering counties are Essex to the north and Warren to the west, Saratoga to the southwest and Rensselaer to the south. Across the state line lie Addison, Rutland and Bennington counties in Vermont.

Demographics

The 2020 count of 61,302 works out at 73.8 people per square mile, one of the lower densities in eastern New York. Residents were 89.1% White (non-Hispanic), 2.6% Black or African American, 0.5% Asian and 2.9% Hispanic or Latino, with 4.5% reporting more than one race.

The population is falling slowly. Estimates put the county at about 59,800 by 2025, a drop of roughly 1,500 in five years. Fort Ann shows the sharpest fall, from 5,827 in 2020 to an estimated 4,247 — a change driven by the closure of a state prison rather than by households leaving.

Recent American Community Survey estimates put the county median household income at $73,495, below the New York figure of $85,974. Homeownership runs near 77%, well above the national rate.

Economy and Local Life

Agriculture is the county’s defining industry, and the numbers back that up. The 2022 Census of Agriculture recorded 750 farms working 194,060 acres, an average of 259 acres each, and sales of $263.0 million. Milk accounted for $207.9 million of that, ranking Washington fourth among New York counties for milk sales. Herds totalled 61,085 cattle and calves. Forage covers 61,348 acres and corn for silage another 27,760.

Slate is the other historic trade. Quarries opened around Granville after deposits were found in about 1850, and the coloured slate of the Granville–Poultney belt still supplies roofing and flooring stone. Welsh miners arrived from the 1860s; by 1910 nearly half the town’s 3,920 residents were Welsh-born or the children of Welsh parents, and chapel names such as Peniel survive.

Health care, manufacturing and retail employ the largest shares of the workforce. The closure of Great Meadow Correctional Facility at Comstock on 6 November 2024 removed 559 jobs from the town of Fort Ann, the county’s heaviest single economic blow in decades. Tourism fills part of the gap: Lake George shoreline at Huletts Landing, Lake Champlain boating at Whitehall, and fly fishing on the Battenkill.

History

The British created Charlotte County on 12 March 1772 out of Albany County. It was renamed for George Washington on 2 April 1784, and later lost territory to Clinton County in 1788 and Warren County in 1813.

Fortifications came first. Fort Nicholson stood at the Hudson portage in 1709, followed by Fort Lydius in 1731 and Fort Lyman in 1755, which Sir William Johnson renamed Fort Edward. Iroquois people called the portage Wahcoloosencoochaleva, “the great carrying place”. Philip Skene founded Skenesborough, now Whitehall, in 1759; Philip Schuyler’s fleet was built there in 1776 and fought at Valcour Island, which is why Whitehall claims the title birthplace of the United States Navy.

The Champlain Canal opened in 1823 and tied the county’s mills and quarries to Albany and New York City. Hudson Falls served as county seat until 1994, when the courts and county offices moved to Fort Edward.

Getting There

US Route 4 is the main road, running north from Rensselaer County through Fort Edward and Whitehall into Vermont. NY Route 22 traces the Vermont line, while routes 29, 149, 196, 197 and 372 carry east–west traffic. Interstate 87, the Northway, runs just outside the western boundary and is reached through Glens Falls or Saratoga Springs.

Amtrak stops at Fort Edward–Hudson Falls and Whitehall. The Adirondack links New York City with Montreal; the Ethan Allen Express runs to Rutland and Burlington in Vermont. Albany International Airport is the nearest commercial airport, south of the county by way of US 4 and Interstate 87.

FAQ

What is the county seat of Washington County, New York?
Fort Edward. It took over from Hudson Falls in 1994.

How many towns and villages are in Washington County?
There are 17 towns and 8 incorporated villages, plus 2 census-designated places and a large number of hamlets.

What is the largest community in the county?
Hudson Falls, with 7,428 residents in 2020. The largest town is Kingsbury at 12,958, which contains Hudson Falls.

What is the ZIP code for Fort Edward?
12828. Hudson Falls uses 12839, Whitehall 12887 and Granville 12832.

Why is Salem no longer a village?
Residents voted to dissolve it in 2014 and the village ceased to exist on 31 March 2016. The town of Salem absorbed its functions.

What is the main industry?
Dairy farming. Milk sales reached $207.9 million in 2022, fourth highest of any New York county, from a base of 750 farms.

How do you reach Washington County by train?
Amtrak serves Fort Edward–Hudson Falls and Whitehall on the Adirondack and Ethan Allen Express routes.