Gail Blass Wolczanski

Around the Village of Chatham Gail Blass Wolczanski

In 1811, William Thomas built a tavern at the one busy site where the Albany and Hartford Turnpike intersected the Lebanon and Hudson Turnpike, and the village of Chatham was born. A store catering to stagecoach passengers soon followed in 1815. By 1850, the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad and the Western Railroad were established within sight of the tavern's central square. Shortly thereafter, Solomon Crandell's store and post office on the main street was receiving customers' mail addressed to Chatham Four Corners. There was a new school, three hotels, two churches, a gristmill, a foundry, several retail stores, two publications, and a village doctor. The Columbia Bank was founded in 1859 in response to the volume of trade and manufacturing in the village. Paper mills, iron foundries, wagon manufacturers, shirt factories, agriculture, and freight train service all helped to propel the development of the village of Chatham.