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History · Ruby

Ruby’s post office opened in 1896

Most of Ruby was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1974.

1896first post office
0on the National Register
4%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Ruby began

When was Ruby founded?

1896

The Ruby post office opened in 1896, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 918130 years
Founding year: the first Ruby post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Ruby’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Ruby are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Ruby’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Ruby’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Ruby, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Ruby yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Ruby is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Ulster County, New York, United States. The community is 6.3 miles (10.1 km) north of Kingston in the town of Ulster. Ruby has a post office with ZIP code 12475, which opened on June 2, 1896. The population was 918 at the 2020 census. One-time major league baseball player Dutch Schirick was born in Ruby on June 15, 1890. In 1921, he organized the semi-professional Kingston Colonels team. Schirick went on to become a Supreme Court judge in Kingston. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Wendelinus was founded as a mission station of St. Peter's in Rondoubt. By 1914, it had become a mission of St. Ann's in Sawkill. At that time, the congregation, o…

Its first post office opened in 1896.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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Famous people

Famous people close to Ruby

Nobody well known was born in Ruby itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

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Peter BogdanovichAmerican film director · b. 1939
R
Rufus WainwrightAmerican-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer · b. 1973
Irving FisherAmerican economist and statistician · b. 1867
Joseph MazzelloAmerican actor · b. 1983
John GloverAmerican actor · b. 1944
Edward LivingstonAmerican jurist and statesman · b. 1764
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Ulster1 historic placeC+KingstonIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townSaugerties12 historic placesA

Questions about Ruby’s history

What year was Ruby founded?

The Ruby post office opened in 1896, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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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). How TownRatings grades history →