Gloversville City

Fulton County, New York

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Gloversville City Hall is located at 3 Frontage Road, Gloversville NY 12078.
Phone: 518‑773‑4542.

Neighborhoods

Beginnings [1]

Gloversville was slow to develop as a community. The first permanent settlement, known as Kingsboro, was established shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War. The earliest settlers were Yankees from New England, some of who were peddlers and tinsmiths. These Kingsboro Yankees loaded packhorses with tinware and a stock of "Yankee notions," trading and bartering with outlying settlers and Indians for deerskins. Leather finishing, especially the manufacture of leather mittens and gloves, was first developed as a specialty by New Englanders who arrived in the area ca. 1806-1809. Rapid clearing of forests for lumber and tanbark gave rise to the derisive name of "Stump City" by 1816. From modest beginnings, the community grew rapidly after the 1830s. Incorporated as a village in 1853, Gloversville was a thriving manufacturing community of 3000 population by the eve of the Civil War. The Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad constructed in 1870 provided further impetus for industrial expansion of the local leather trade. By the time Gloversville became a city in 1890, over 80 percent of the leather gloves made in the United States were being manufactured there. Between ca. 1875 and 1920, great fortunes were made by Gloversville's entrepreneurs, resulting in extensive new construction and civic philanthropy.

  1. Smith, Raymond W., New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, Gustav Levor House, nomination document, 2005, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.

Nearby Towns: Bleecker Town • Johnstown City • Johnstown Town • Mayfield Town • Mayfield Village •


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