CHARLTON FOUNDERS DAY WEEKEND

Events begin Friday evening and conclude Sunday afternoon - there's something for everyone!
Visit the schedule page for additional details.

Community Art Exhibit and Craft Workshops @ Main Street Studio

Artist's Reception: Friday, May 31 | 6pm - 9pm

Exhibit Hours: 10am - 5pm (closed Monday & Tuesdays)

"Charlton Makes!" has become an annual exhibition and workshop series highlighting the creative talent that abounds in our small community. 

It is held at Main Street Studio, a new community arts center in the repurposed firehouse on Charlton Road.  The exhibit kicks off on Founder's Day Weekend with an artist's reception that is open to the public on Friday, May 31st and continues through until Sunday, June 9th.  

The full schedule and list of kids and adult workshops is online at www.mainstreetcharlton.com. 

If you have questions about the events, wish to volunteer, would like to donate, or need to contact event organizers, please email councilmanrobbins@townofcharlton.org or call 518-384-0152.

A Brief History of Charlton, NY

In 1792, the State Legislature divided “Balls Town” into four parts forming three new towns: Galway, Milton and, in the southwest corner of the county, Charlton. Charlton had been known as "New Freehold" by its settlers, who were mostly immigrants from Freehold, New Jersey. Why the name Charlton was chosen, or where it came from, is not known. It may have been for John Charlton, a squatter already living in the area when early settlers arrived. The Town had close to 1,500 residents and held its first Town meeting on April 1st, 1792.

First settlers in the southern part of West Charlton were the Gonzales's, a Spanish Huguenot family farming there since 1770. Starting in 1774, Episcopalian and Presbyterian families from Freehold and downstate NY settled in eastern Charlton. Settlers from Scotland arrived in West Charlton in 1775. French Huguenots, Dutch, Irish and others followed. Research on northern West Charlton shows land first deeded from Native Americans in 1708 and a stage route through a busy hamlet during the 1700s.

Several hamlets with a variety of mills, shops, taverns, schools, churches and cemeteries formed along the Town’s waterways and stage routes.  These community centers came to be known as New Freehold (Charlton Hamlet), Slab Troy (Little Troy), Liberty Three Corners (West Charlton), Scotch Street (Scotch Church), Blue Corners, Holbrook Corners and Harmony Corners. By 1865, Charlton's population had changed little: 1,589 people living in 333 dwellings.

In the late 1700s citizens helped to found Union College to educate leaders of the new United States.  Three well-known first graduates of the College were from Charlton. Gideon Hawley, successful lawyer and businessman, founded New York State’s public education system. In response to his 1812 New York State Law for the establishment of common schools, Charlton setup ten one-room school districts so that no child had to walk more than a mile to school.  Joseph Sweetman, a Charlton minister for seventy-one years, spread the Presbyterian Church throughout the Northeast and into Canada.  John W. Taylor, Attorney-at-Law, served as both New York Senator and Assemblyman, and was twice Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in its formative years.