Town of Sharon
A Short History of the Town of Sharon
Submitted by Ron Ketelsen of the Sharon Historical Society
The Town of Sharon, called New Dorlach by its German settlers, is located in the northwest corner of Schoharie County, New York. From 1772 to 1795, it successively belonged to the counties of Tryon, Montgomery, and Otsego before being included in the new county of Schoharie in 1795. The new town was named Sharon, after Sharon, Connecticut.
The Village of Sharon Springs was incorporated in 1871, bringing together the former hamlet of Rockville, located on a rock ledge along the present Route 20, and the summer resort surrounding the mineral springs lying in the ravine below. The village its 900 feet above the Mohawk Valley, offering pure air, magnificent views, and access to a variety of rural life.
Native Americans were the first to use the springs of Sharon for medicinal and healing purposes. The springs gush from the bed of a small brook and from a steep wooded slope on its margin. Within a short distance of each other are five different springs: a sulfur spring, two different magnesia springs, a chalybeate (iron) spring, and the blue stone spring containing elements considered valuable for the treatment of eye diseases.
By the mid-1800s the Springs had become world-famous. Sharon Springs reached its peak as a health spa in the 1920s when it boasted some 60 hotels and boarding houses that accommodated over 10,000 guests. Sharon Springs has hosted many of the rich and famous including U.S. Presidents Martin Van Buren, the Vanderbilts, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D Roosevelt, the Van Rensselaer family, Charles Dickens, James Fennimore Cooper, Oscar Wilde, the Macys of NYC, movie producer Steven Spielberg, Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, Mindy Cohen, and Rosie O’Donnell.
Two major thoroughfares, the Great Western Turnpike (Route 20) and the Loonenburg Turnpike (now partially abandoned) serviced the area. Both were constructed in 1811. Visitors also came by boat to Canajoharie, transferring to stagecoaches for the final leg of the journey. A spur of the Delaware and Hudson railroad ran through the village from Cobleskill to Cherry Valley from 1870 to 1956.
In 1994, the area encompassing the mineral springs and the surrounding resort hotels and rooming houses was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
