Cold Spring, New York

This article is about the village on the Hudson River. For the town in western New York, see Coldspring, New York. For the hamlet on Long Island, see Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

Cold Spring, New York
Village
Cold Spring's Main Street, part of the federally recognized historic district in the village
Location in Putnam County and the state of New York.
Coordinates:
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Putnam
Incorporated	1846
Area
• Total	0.60 sq mi (1.55 km2)
• Land	0.59 sq mi (1.54 km2)
• Water	0.004 sq mi (0.01 km2)  0.91%
Elevation	108 ft (33 m)
Population (2010 Census)
• Total	1,983
• Density	3,300/sq mi (1,300/km2)
Area code(s)	845
FIPS code	36-16936
Website	coldspringny.gov

Cold Spring is a village in the town of Philipstown in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 1,983 at the 2010 census. It borders the smaller village of Nelsonville. The central area of the village is on the National Register of Historic Places as the Cold Spring Historic District due to its many well-preserved 19th-century buildings, constructed to accommodate workers at the nearby West Point Foundry (itself a Registered Historic Place today). The town is the birthplace of General Gouverneur K. Warren, who was an important figure in the Union Army during the Civil War. The village, located in the Hudson Highlands, sits at the deepest point of the Hudson River, directly across from West Point. Cold Spring serves as a weekend getaway for many residents of New York City.

Commuter service to New York City is available via the Cold Spring train station, served by Metro-North Railroad. The train journey is about an hour and ten minutes to Grand Central Terminal.

History

Until 1818, when the West Point Foundry was established by Gouverneur Kemble, Cold Spring was a small settlement nestled on the shores of the Hudson River near the river's narrowest point. Cold Spring served as an industrial base for the next 150 years. A battery factory operated from 1952 to 1979, polluting nearby Constitution Marsh, before the marsh was cleaned (at great expense) in the 1990s.

Geography

Cold Spring is located at (41.418907, -73.954522).

Hudson River Views From Cold Spring, New York

A MetroNorth train arriving at Cold Spring train station

The village is bordered by the Hudson River to the west, and is bound by the Hudson Highlands State Park to the north, where Mount Taurus and Breakneck Ridge rise steeply and dramatically out of the banks of the Hudson and form two basically parallel ridges that track each other inland. The valley between them has an abandoned dairy farm, two lakes, and a camp. The view from the river bank is the Constitution Marsh and the US Military Academy (West Point) slightly to the south, and Crow's Nest and Storm King Mountain to the west and northwest. All of this considered, the village is nestled in the most prominent vertical terrain on the Hudson River north of New York City prior to the Shawangunk and Catskill ranges. Being bound by these formidable terrain features has kept the size of the village small, and prevented the suburban sprawl that has come about in the less-constrained regions to the north and south and in the New York Metropolitan area generally. This unique sense of place, and the village's historic housing stock, have made it a very popular weekend destination for tourists from New York City. Its oldest current home is located on 191 Main Street and was built in 1814. Some say Abraham Lincoln visited that house when he visited Cold Spring.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.60 square miles (1.55 km²), of which 0.59 square miles (1.54 km²) is land and 0.004 square miles (0.01 km²), or 0.91%, is water.

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1860	2,770		—
1870	3,086		11.4%
1880	2,111		−31.6%
1900	2,067		—
1910	2,549		23.3%
1920	1,433		−43.8%
1930	1,784		24.5%
1940	1,897		6.3%
1950	1,788		−5.7%
1960	2,083		16.5%
1970	2,083		0.0%
1980	2,161		3.7%
1990	1,998		−7.5%
2000	1,983		−0.8%
2010	2,013		1.5%
Est. 2014	1,977		−1.8%
U.S. Decennial Census

As of the census of 2010, there were 1,983 people, 910 households, and 528 families residing in the village. Cold Spring's official website states that they now have 2,013 people. The population density was 3,273.9 people per square mile (1,255.1/km²). There were 953 housing units at an average density of 1,573.4 per square mile (603.2/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 96.57% White, 0.45% African American, 0.15% Native American, 1.06% Asian, 0.50% from other races, and 1.26% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.87% of the population.

Out of the 910 households, 24.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.8% were married couples living together, 8.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.9% were non-families. 69% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 2.88.

In the village the population was spread out with 19.6% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 30.6% from 25 to 44, 25.8% from 45 to 64, and 18.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 81.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.4 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $53,382, and the median income for a family was $76,403. Males had a median income of $54,643 versus $42,036 for females. The per capita income for the village was $34,560. About 2.2% of families and 5.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.4% of those under age 18 and 11.1% of those age 65 or over.

Summer Camps

Surprise Lake Camp is located in Cold Spring when it was the last stop on the Hudson River Line in 1902. Surprise Lake Camp is a Jewish Summer Camp funded by the UJA Federation of New York. Some famous campers were Eddie Cantor, Larry King, Neil Diamond, Jerry Stiller, Neil Simon, and many more. More information can be found on Surprise Lake's Wikipedia page.

Notable residents

Cold Spring is home to:

• Roger Ailes, founder and CEO of Fox News.
• Richard Butler, lead singer of The Psychedelic Furs.
• Anita Desai, novelist.
• Albert L. Ireland, United States Marine.
• Don McLean, singer-songwriter, who lived in Cold Spring when he wrote American Pie.
• Ivy Meeropol, documentary filmmaker.
• Sharr White, Broadway playwright.

See also

• Glynwood Center

External links

• Village of Cold Spring official website
• Cold Spring Living, community website and blog
• Julia L. Butterfield Library
• Philipstown.info / The Paper
• Cold Spring Visitor Guide
• Putnam County News and Recorder
• The Manitou Learning Center (Garrison)
• offMetro Guide to Cold Spring
• Livingston-Svirsky Archive (LiSA)
• An essay on a vacation spent in Cold Harbor by Wall Street Journal columnist Terry Teachout