With only 3,500 residents, Highland Mills is a truly neighborly town, small enough to have a real community spirit and large enough to function well, with good schools, ample recreational facilities and events, a good public library, and a comfortable local economy, largely based on retail.
Part of the town of Woodbury (total population 9,000) alongside Central Valley hamlet, Highland Mills is a pretty town with Woodbury Creek at its foot and the Schunnemunk Mountains at its back. There are many lovely parks in town, including the beautiful Woodbury Common, the Harriman State Park is only 3 miles to the south, and majestic Bear Mountain State Park is only about 15 miles away.
Location
Together with the hamlet of Central Valley, Highland Mills makes up the town of Woodbury, which is in southeastern Orange County, New York. Often called the “Gateway to Orange County,” Woodbury is just off the intersection of Route 6, Route 17, and Exit 16 (Harriman) of the New York State Thruway (I 87). Harriman State Park is about 3 miles south of Highland Mills and the western border of the U.S. Military Academy at Westpoint is about 1 mile east.
Ramapo is just 15 miles south of Highland Mills, Newark is 43 miles south, and New York City is 50 mile south.
Geography/Terrain
Highland Mills is in a beautiful part of New York State, woodsy and semi-rural in character with the huge Harriman State Park directly to the south and Westpoint directly east.
Nearby Spring Lake and Saltzmans Lake are nice places to picnic and fish in summer and ice-skate in winter, and the Hudson River is about 10 miles to the east.
Jobs
While most residents of Highland Mills still choose to commute to New York City or surrounding communities for work, many find employment close to home. By far the largest regional employer is the Woodbury Common Premium Outlet Center, which has over 200 stores selling upscale designer brands. People come from miles around to shop at the center, which is also a major regional tourist attraction. Educational, health and social services provide much of the remaining employment in Highland Mills, followed by finance and real estate, and there is also a small manufacturing sector.
Housing
While Highland Mills has been around since the late seventeen-hundreds, much of its real estate is relatively recent mid-to-late twentieth century built. Despite this, homebuyers may find historical homes, especially those from Victorian times. Many older homes are somewhat smallish, in keeping with the community’s early popularity as a holiday destination for families from New York City.
Recreation
Highland Mills is part of the Town of Woodbury, which has two excellent swimming and recreational facilities and several attractive parks. Highland Mills itself has Brickley Field, a small park with a basketball court and ball field, and the Earl Reservoir. Popular with local families, the reservoir has a lovely sandy beach and a diving platform out in the center of the lake; you can rent paddle boats and go fishing. Earl also has tennis and basketball courts, baseball and soccer fields, and a brand new roller hockey rink.
Adjacent Central Valley (also part of Woodbury) has a small lake with three diving boards at differing heights and an anchored raft. Part of the pond is divided into swimming lanes and part has been designated a fun play area for children. Picnic tables and game space is housed in a large pavilion, and there are tennis and basketball courts and fields for baseball and soccer.
The Woodbury Parks & Recreation Department coordinates a wide range of fun recreational activities for town youngsters and senior citizens throughout the year, including bus trips to plays and a fantastic summer concert series. The Woodbury Senior Citizen center is a great place to meet new friends and enjoy a wide range of activities.
Harriman State Park is about 3 miles south of Woodbury. The second largest park in the New York State parks system, Harriman has 31 beautiful lakes and reservoirs (3 with easy to reach beaches), over 200 miles of scenic hiking trails, biking and bridle paths, hundreds of streams and ponds, well appointed campsites, a visitors center and museum, and many different indigenous wildlife species.
Bear Mountain State Park is not much further from Highland Mills (about 15 miles away) and is a wild and wonderful wilderness area along the Hudson River with good hiking trails, a pool for swimming in summer and ice-skating in winter, and a handsome stone inn.
Locals love their golf and there are a number of fine courses in the Hudson River Valley region, the closest being the Central Valley Golf Club, which has a beautiful 18-hole course and attractive nineteen-twenties clubhouse.
Special Attractions/Events
Highland Mills, and the town of Woodbury that encompasses it, is a beautiful, green, family friendly community, small enough to be truly safe and neighbourly and large enough to have good schools and ample recreational and civic facilities.
Apart from its good schools, pretty green neighbourhoods and abundance of local parks, lakes and state parks, Woodbury’s largest attraction would be the massive Premium Outlet Center at Exit 16 of the N.Y.S. Thruway. Shoppers come from miles around to shop at the well over 200 stores, the majority of which sell upscale brands like Sachs, Liz Claiborne, and Tommy Hilfiger.
People are also moved to relocate to Highland Mills because of its comparatively affordable real estate and proximity to primary economic centers.
Residents celebrate various holidays together with fun events and the local historical society meets regularly in the town hall.
Interesting Facts/Historic Buildings and Places
Highland Mills first came into being in the late seventeen-hundreds, when it was know as “Orange Post Office”. As the prosaic name suggests, the hamlet was a small post and supply center for what was then a thriving wheat growing, milling, and tannery region. Residents changed the name to Highland Mills in 1824; local historians assume that they wanted a title that was more representative of local industry.
The Town of Woodbury was created in December, 1889, its boundaries encompassing Highland Mills along with the neighboring hamlets of Central Valley and Woodbury Falls. Today people still refer to Highland Mills and Central Valley as places, but references to Woodbury Falls have largely disappeared, along with the falls that once were there.
Historians dispute where the town got its name, but the two primary theories are that it was derived from “wode”, the Dutch word for wood (many early settlers were Dutch), or that it was named by early English settlers in honor of a famous British family, the Woodburys.
Throughout the eighteenth century, flour and grist mills supplied most of the local employment, but as time went by, the Highland Mills region became an increasingly popular holiday destination for city dwellers. Woodbury became famous for its fly fishing and fly rod manufacturing, and was home to both the Payne and Leonard rod companies.
While much of the local real estate is mid-to-late twentieth century built, some historical homes and buildings remain in Woodbury.
On the hill overlooking Woodbury Common stands the elegant Arden House, a nineteenth century mansion built by E.H. Harriman, the railroad tycoon, as a summer home for his family.
The local library was built in 1923 by Charles E Rushmore (Mt Rushmore was named after him), a prominent attorney and one of the first locals ever to commute to New York City.
The Gatehouse, a local landmark, is the only remaining building from Proctoria, a famous early twentieth century estate that was demolished to build the U. S. Military Academy at Westpoint.
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