The Broadalbin post office opened in 1810, the earliest record of the town by name. Six smaller post offices, South Broadalbin (1828), Mills Corners (1830) and Union Mills (1834), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 2,428 in 18202020 census: 5,145216 years
How historic is Broadalbin?
B+
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Broadalbin post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Broadalbin’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Broadalbin is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #506 of 758 in New York. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Broadalbin’s overall grade.
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 Broadalbin’s 2.0 sits below most of its state (25% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
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 (±6.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 Broadalbin’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Broadalbin’s post office has been open since 1810. Six other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Broadalbin
1810–today
South Broadalbin
1828–1842
Mills Corners
1830–1907
Union Mills
1834–1905
Hoesville
1846–1849
North Broadalbin
1850–1904
Benedict
1884–1928
18101920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
BenedictGorthey CornersHill CornersHoesevilleHoneywell CornersIndian Village Mobile Home ParkMills CornersNorth BroadalbinRolling Ridge Mobile Home ParkSacandaga Meadows Mobile Home ParkSteele CornersStever MillTwin Pines Mobile Home ParkUnion Mills
Gone or out of use
Mills Corners SchoolschoolSchool Number 10schoolSchool Number 4schoolSchool Number 5school
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Broadalbin
HagemanHoesville RoadUnion MillsWest GalwayYates
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Broadalbin’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Broadalbin’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The town was part of the Sacandaga Patent of 1741. It was first settled by Europeans c. 1770, near the location of the present Broadalbin village.
Castle Cumberland was a short-lived fortification in the town during the American Revolutionary War.
Broadalbin was created from the towns of Johnstown and Mayfield in 1793, before Fulton County was formed. In 1799, part of Broadalbin was used to form the town of Northampton. Broadalbin lost the southern part of the town in 1842 to form Perth.
When the Great Sacandaga Lake was created in 1930, some of the town's land was covered with water, including the Sacondaga Vlaie, a broad expanse of marshy land.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Broadalbin. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1899Broadalbin sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Broadalbin.
Every building
Broadalbin, building by building, 1894–1912
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1894Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Broadalbin
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
The Broadalbin post office opened in 1810, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Broadalbin rank for history?
Broadalbin is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #506 of 758 in New York. 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 Broadalbin?
One place: the Hotel Broadalbin (listed 2011).
How old are the homes in Broadalbin?
23% of Broadalbin’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
