Round Lake Village Hall at 49 Burlington Avenue, Round Lake NY 12850.
Phone: 518‑899‑2800.
In the 1960s the Round Lake Association was dissolved and the residents petitioned for incorporation as the Village of Round Lake; the petition was granted and the new village became a legal, political subdivision of New York State in 1969.
Beginnings [1]
The scenery of the valley of the Upper Hudson between Troy and Saratoga is bordered easterly by the distant range of the Green Mountains and a wide foreground of undulating hills. Westerly a continuity of high land limits the view of the open country beyond. The landscape along the river spreads itself in brooky meadows, arable fields, and short stretches of woodland. As far as Mechanicville, the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad runs between the Champlain Canal and the Hudson. North of the village, the road, by a reverse curve like the letter S, bends westwardly around the south side of Round Lake, and passing the station extends northwesterly to Ballston Spa.
Round Lake, three miles in circumference, is picturesquely environed by gently sloping hills, woody knolls, and grassy meadows. Long Lake, four miles westward, disembogues by an outlet into Round Lake, which discharges its water through Anthony's Kill into the Hudson, seven miles eastward.
The grounds of the Round Lake Association, about two hundred acres of land, lying west of the lake, are in the town of Malta, in Saratoga County, New York, nineteen miles from Troy, seven from Mechanicville, six from Ballston Spa, and thirteen from Saratoga Springs. The highway on the east side of the grounds runs through Maltaville, a mile northeast of them, and through Jonesville, three miles southwestward.
The attractive features and noticeable conveniences of the camp- meeting grounds at Martha's Vineyard induced Joseph Hillman, of Troy, in the summer of 1867, to interest a number of other prominent Methodist laymen in forming an association to purchase an eligible site for a camp-meeting and to provide suitable accommodations for the people attending it. A location along the Troy and Boston Railroad was first searched for, but in consequence of the unwillingness of the officers of the company controlling it to accede to certain proposals made them, the line of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad was then explored for one. Of the places visited none seemed so desirable as a partly-wooded extent of ground between the railroad and Round Lake, seven miles north of Mechanicville.
On September 4th, 1867, the undertaking was further advanced by Joseph Hillman, who that day sent invitations to many Methodist ministers and laymen residing within the limits of the Troy Conference requesting them to attend a meeting to be held on the selected grounds at Round Lake, on Friday, September 20th, and informing them that the morning and afternoon trains from the north and south would stop there then.
Joseph Hillman, the projector of the enterprise, on May 5th, 1868, obtained the passage of the act by the Legislature of the State of New York, constituting him and his associates the first trustees of the Round Lake Camp-meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the Troy Conference.
The first meeting of the trustees was held at the office of Peck & Hillman, in Troy, on May 4th, 1868. Joseph Hillman was elected President of the Association, Charles W. Pierce, Vice-President, Edgar O. Howland, Secretary, and George Bristol, Treasurer.
Nearby Towns: Ballston Spa Vlg • Ballston Town • Clifton Park Town • Halfmoon Town • Malta Town • Milton Town •