The story
Read it all →How Amboy came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Amboy.
The town was first settled circa 1805. The Town of Amboy was created in 1830 from part of the Town of Williamstown.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
B+History
History · Amboy
Amboy dates to 1805, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 70% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Amboy District No. 2 Schoolhouse. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1906 on, and the census since 1830.
1805founded
1on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
Quick answers
How Amboy began
When was Amboy founded?
1805
Amboy dates its founding to 1805 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1830.
First census: 669 in 18302020 census: 1,245221 years
How historic is Amboy?
B+
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 70% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1832.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Amboy’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Amboy is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Amboy’s overall grade.
Founding era1805, from Wikipedia: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 194016.8% of homes (±4.9) · typical NY town 26.6% · U.S. 8.4%BNational Register1 listing, 7.8 per 10,000 residents · typical NY town 12.3 · U.S. 2.4B−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 70%
NewerOlder
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Amboy’s 7.8 sits near the middle of its state (42% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikipedia alone; no second source gives 1805.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.9 points).
Founding year: Wikipedia (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Amboy’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
A history waiting to be writtenOnly 3 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Amboy, and 6 old place names are still on the map.Shrank, then grewLost two-thirds of its people between 1840 and 1950, then more than doubled.On the map since 19063 editions of the USGS map, 1906 to 1960. Watch Amboy change.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Amboy’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Amboy’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Amboy had its own post office from 1832 to 1850. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Amboy
West Amboy
Amboy Centre
Cartersville
18301930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Amboy CenterCartervilleEast AmboyMud HillNorth AmboyWest Amboy
Gone or out of use
School Number 1schoolSchool Number 2schoolSchool Number 3schoolSchool Number 4schoolSchool Number 5schoolSchool Number 6schoolSchool Number 7school
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Amboy
Amboy CenterButlerKinneyWest Amboy
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
People over time
Amboy, census by census
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1840 and 1950, then more than doubled.
19 censuses, 1830–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Amboy’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Amboy in 1877
Passages that mention Amboy, cut from the printed page as they were published.
... History of Oswego County, New York1877Read the page →
Read the text
A third and fourth ensued, but still township No. 6 was nameless. At length, at the fifth meeting, Mr. Frederick Andrews proposed the name of Amboy, from the town thus called in New Jersey. This suggestion met with general favor, the name in (juestion was sent forward to the legislature, and the town of Amboy was formed by an act passed March 25, 1830.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Amboy, 1805 to 1938
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1805FoundingAmboy is established
- 1832Post officeThe Amboy post office opens
- 1840CensusPopulation peaks at 1,670
- 1847Post officeThe West Amboy post office opens
- 1849Post officeThe Amboy Centre post office opens
- 1850Post officeThe Amboy post office closes
- 1855
In the archiveMap of the town of - 1867
In the archiveCarterville (Village); Amboy Center Business Directory.; Amboy Center (Village); Amboy (T… - 20th century
- 1906
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey - 1910Post officeThe Amboy Centre post office closes
- 1938Post officeThe West Amboy post office closes
By decade
Amboy, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1867On the map
Amboy on the map, 1906 to 1960
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Amboy. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1906Kasoag sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Amboy.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewCarterville (Village); Amboy Center Business Directory.; Amboy Center (Village); Amboy (Township), 1867
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Amboy’s page.
Retake this view · +15On the National Register
1 historic place in Amboy
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2020
Amboy District No. 2 Schoolhouse
Buildings
All 1 listings
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Amboy
Nobody well known was born in Amboy itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
G
Gertrude Simmons BurlinghamAmerican mycologist and entomologist · b. 1872
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Amboy’s history
What year was Amboy founded?
In 1805, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Amboy’s post office opened in 1832, and the census of 1830 counted 669 people here.
How does Amboy rank for history?
Amboy is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Amboy?
One place: the Amboy District No. 2 Schoolhouse (listed 2020).
How old are the homes in Amboy?
17% of Amboy’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.9 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1987.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.