Montgomery Village is a pretty and peaceful community with green parks, quiet tree lined streets, historic Colonial and Victorian homes, churches, and buildings, and a charming main street of Victorian stores and an historic wrought iron clock tower.
Home to about 4,000 residents, Montgomery has an ethnically diverse and interesting population, many of whom have lived here for generations. The increasing numbers of newcomers have brought a lively and urban sensibility to this quiet community, which has great eateries, a thriving and sophisticated local arts scene, and a small hospitality industry catering to weekenders from the big smoke.
To live in Montgomery is to be part of a real community, a place where people look out for each other and volunteerism thrives. Residents value the historic character of their village, getting together to care for its parks and buildings and to celebrate its past.
Location
Montgomery is in Orange County, New York, about 60 miles north of New York City. The Orange County Airport sits on its southernmost border and Steward International Airport is about 3 miles away on the other side of I 84 from the village.
New York City and Jersey City are each about 60 miles south of Montgomery Village, and Peekskill is about 20 miles east across the Hudson River. Paterson is about 35 miles south.
Geography
Montgomery Village covers 1.39 square miles and is a small green community surrounded by farms.
Jobs
Upstate New York is a prosperous region, and Orange County is no exception. Supported by a diverse range of industry and commerce, the local economy also benefits from the region’s proximity to New York, one of the nation’s primary economic centers. Montgomery’s Steward International Airport provides supportive infrastructure to businesses.
Housing
Historic Montgomery Village has many lovely homes with historic character, from charming wooden Victorian villas to handsome brick colonials and early nineteenth-century houses. Many reflect the ethnicity of their original inhabitants; Dutch architectural details are especially prevalent. Montgomery is definitely the place to find homes with interesting features like pretty stained glass windows, gingerbread detailing and the like, and homes tend to be well cared for in this community. Another plus is the abundance of old trees and shrubs in this historic settlement.
Recreation
Montgomery has many lovely parks and ample recreational opportunities. The downtown Veteran’s Memorial Park has basketball, baseball, and a recreation center that hosts most of the activities on the village’s summer recreation program.
The Wesley Hall Senior Center (also downtown) offers an excellent range of activities for seniors.
Winding Hills Park on the outskirts of the village is a lovely wilderness area with hiking trails and a camping ground and a river for fishing and boating.
A little further afield, Harriman State Park to the south (on the border between Orange and Rockland Counties) is New York State’s second largest park, with 31 lakes and reservoirs, 200 miles of hiking trails, three beaches, two public camping areas, a network of group camps, and miles of pretty streams and scenic roads. Camping, hiking, swimming and fishing are popular in summer and snowmobiling, skiing, and ice-fishing are enjoyed in winter. An abundance of wildlife in the park makes it a special place to visit year round.
The Hudson and the Delaware rivers are short car trips away and both have parks and historic spots along their banks, not to mention ample kayaking, canoeing and boating spots.
The Palisades Interstate Park Commission cares for the nearby section of the Palisades mountain range and the nicest local spot to visit is the Bear Mountain State Park, a beautiful wilderness area along the Hudson River that has miles of hiking trails, a pool for swimming in summer and ice-skating in winter, and a handsome stone inn.
The Hudson Valley has an abundance of good golf courses, and one of the best is Montgomery’s own Winding Hills Golf Club. A beautiful 18-hole course next to the local campground, Winding Hills has mature groves of trees between fairways and a well-designed course. The club’s 4-star restaurant has been voted one of the Hudson Valley’s top ten restaurants, serving fresh local produce in an elegant setting.
Stony Ford Golf Course is another superb course, an 18-hole with a championship par 72, a mens par of 72, and a women’s par 73.
Montgomery also has a good Golf-Ski Center in the village.
Special Attractions/Events
Montgomery is a community minded town, whose citizens are civic minded and neighborly. The local fire department and fire police are eagerly staffed by volunteers. The town’s Chamber Music Orchestra is fully funded by generous local patrons so that locals may enjoy many free concerts throughout the year. Volunteers also staff a Senior Lunch program for those in need. Much of the town’s charm is due to its residents, caring citizens like the local girl-scout troop who just finished landscaping around the town’s Memorial Gazebo (the gazebo honors those who lost their lives during the World Trade Center attack).
Many community events center on youth sports (baseball and basketball in particular) and seasonal celebrations. “General Montgomery Day” each September attracts more than 20,000 visitors to downtown Montgomery for a fantastic day of local history, music, and crafts, fun sports and fireworks.
Interesting Facts/Historic Buildings and Places
Montgomery is an historic settlement that dates back to the early seventeen-hundreds, when Palatines from Germany began to arrive and settle on Indian land, clearing it for farms. Dutch, Scots, and Irish followed and agriculture flourished. The village grew rapidly and boasted the earliest post office between Goshen and Kingston. Incorporated in 1810, Montgomery was the second community ever to be incorporated in Orange County.
The early settlers named their community Wards Bridge, for the local miller who built the first bridge across the local Wallkill River, connecting local farms to his mill. Soldiers returning home after the Revolutionary War successfully petitioned for the name change to honor General Richard Montgomery, an Irish-American who lost his life in the battle of Quebec, and Wards Bridge became Montgomery not long after the village’s incorporation.
Italian immigrants began to arrive with the turn of the twentieth century, and they brought their own valuable contribution to the local pioneering tradition of hard work, generosity, and charity upon which Montgomery was built.
Today, many local residents and business owners still bear the names of their hard working forebears, and many historic buildings still stand, including the old post-office, the beautiful colonial brick Village Hall, and the nearby barbershop, which still sports its old rotary dial telephone.
- NUMBER1EXPERT™ 
