Gilboa Village

Navigation in the Village of Gilboa

Main Street: because of this narrow footprint, the village had one major, north/south road—Main Street. It went south from the iron bridge, parallel to the creek, and curving up to become the Conesville Road with its branching of the Prattsville Road the Manorkill Falls.

• The central part of Main Street had an impressive collection of retail businesses.
  • the west side of that road had a line of retail stores on narrow lots, with their backs overlooking the creek and the valley.
  • the east side had larger lots and hosted a hotel, auto dealership, blacksmith and other light manufacturing outlets, and churches.
• Outlying that business area of Main Street were private residences for the people who worked in the village; and further out were residences that also supported small produce, sheep, or dairy farms.

The iron bridge area: from a hundred yards upstream of the bridge and all the area downstream from it was an upscale residential area and a number of light industrial operations along the creek:

• upstream & west: a major creamery facing South Gilboa Road (the major east-west road);
• downstream and west: two mills taking advantage of Schoharie water power, and a little further north the flooded remnants of a cotton-processing plant; 
• upstream & east: two small smiths;
• downstream and east: the center of Gilboa was the iron bridge and a large green created by the Gilboa school, Dutch Reformed Church and parsonage. Land use north of the green was determined by the area’s distance away from the creek:
  • the land along the shore of the creek fell off quickly, so a number of small roads accessed the power plant and various small mills, and the hillside hid them from the residences on the hill above them;
  • Church Hill was on the land above the downstream and east section of the village, and was the more upscale residential area for Gilboans at that time. Residents on the northern end of Church Hill could get out of town by going up Broome Center Road (nowadays, Flat Creek Road), while those closer to the center would take Back Road (aka Wyckoff Road and Back Road toward Broome Center).

Linked walking tours of these areas

Retail stores on the west side of Main Street to the Masonic Hall.
Retail services requiring more land back to the village green. 
Businesses, residences, and small farms south to the fork of Prattsville Road.
Iron bridge area on the west of the Schoharie Creek.
Iron bridge area on the east of the Schoharie Creek
Church Hill.