Gabriels, New York
Gabriels is a hamlet in the town of Brighton in Franklin County, New York, inside the Adirondack Park near Paul Smiths. The village developed around a tuberculosis cure facility, the Gabriels Sanatorium, which was opened in 1897 by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy. The land was donated by Paul Smith and W. Seward Webb. The site was later purchased by Paul Smith's College. The site was sold to the Department of Corrections in 1982. The Department of Corrections' Camp Gabriels closed in 2009.
Both the sanatorium and the hamlet were named for Catholic Bishop Henry Gabriels of Ogdensburg, New York. The hamlet developed as the commercial center on a train depot serving the Adirondack Division of the New York Central line. The station existed primarily to deliver vacationers to the nearby resort at Paul Smiths. In 1961, the New York Central abandoned the Adirondack Division from Malone Junction to Gabriels.
Today, the hamlet remains the commercial center for the town of Brighton, with a post office, small businesses, a Catholic church, and farms.
