Spotlight on: Riparius in Warren County
Originally named Folsom Landing and then Riverside, this town has been around for 200 years.
Riparius has always been oddly fascinating to us. It sits on the banks of the Hudson River and seems so unassuming, but it has a lot of history behind it. Whenever guests visit, we like to take them over the bridge at Riparius; they can’t believe they are crossing the same Hudson River that the GW Bridge spans.
The hamlet of Riparius straddles the towns of Johnsburg and Chester. It’s not entirely clear when a settlement on this site was established, but according to the Town of Johnsburg, the first incarnation was called Folsom Landing, named for Jonathan Folsom, who owned land on both sides of the river. Savvy businessman that he was, Folsom established a ferry on his well-positioned property to take travelers across the Hudson as a shortcut from Chester.
Riverside Train Station. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. Photo by Steve Ackerman
Around 1870, the Adirondack Railway Company established a stop called “Riverside” on what would have been the western side of Folsom Landing (you can see the roof of the train station on the lower left side of the video). Did Folsom sell them that land? We don’t know. But, the Adirondack Railway linked Saratoga to North Creek and was a vital artery for conveying materials and people to and from the ADK.
Here’s another intriguing tangent in this story, Dr. Thomas Clark Durant, vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad, was responsible for building the Adirondack Railway. After Durant's death, it was taken over by his son, William West Durant, who sold it to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company in 1889. That’s right; the same Willam West Durant is responsible for designing and constructing so many ADK Great Camps. So it’s probably not much of a coincidence that a stagecoach line was established to take passengers 28 miles (45 km) to Durant properties at Blue Mountain Lake and further by water to Raquette Lake.
Okay, we’ve gotten ahead of ourselves, back to Riverside. So, by 1870, they have a train station on the west side of the Hudson, designating the location as “Riverside.” In 1872, the townspeople had enough of Folsom’s ferries and agreed to build a one-lane suspension bridge, naming it the Folsom Landing Central Bridge, with wooden towers at each end at the cost of $15,000 and operate it as a toll bridge. So they are tired of Folsom’s ferries but still name the bridge after him — go figure.
Toll rates were three cents to walk across the bridge (about $1.14 today), five cents ($1.90 today) to lead a horse across, fifteen cents ($5.71) for a team of horses, and thirty cents ($11.80) for a tally-ho (stagecoach). We are almost sure there was no EZ-Pass in those days. The bridge will now take travelers to and from the Adirondack Railway train station (and not Mr. Folsom).
Fourteen years later, on February 24, 1886 (now they get all specific about dates?), Riverside gets its first post office, established in the D&H Railroad Riverside station. And it appears one of the first things the officials at the Post Office did was change the town’s name to Riparius. Apparently, by that time in NYS, several villages were using the name “Riverside,” most notably in Buffalo and Long Island.
In 1919, Warren County purchased the original bridge and replaced it with a single-lane 309-foot-long camelback truss bridge. In 2003, that bridge was replaced with a two-lane truss bridge that could better accommodate vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. It’s a handsome bridge if you haven’t seen it in person.
Over at least 150 years, Folsom Landing/Riverside/Riparus was the site of many endeavors, including:
A grain store
Encampment for methodist ministers
Bowling pin manufacturer
Standard Oil Company plant
Bottling works
Creamery
As far as we can tell, nothing stuck except the town's importance as a spot for crossing a river. We go over the bridge often and are always tempted to stop and take pictures of the beautiful Hudson River. It’s one of our favorite views in the ADK.
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