Piermont, New York


Piermont is a village incorporated in 1847 in Rockland County, New York, United States. Piermont is in the town of Orangetown, located north of the hamlet of Palisades, east of Sparkill, and south of Grand View-on-Hudson, on the west bank of the Hudson River. The population was 2,510 at the 2010 census. Woody Allen set The Purple Rose of Cairo, a fictional film within The Purple Rose of Cairo in Piermont.
The village's name, in earlier years known as Tappan Landing, was given by Dr. Eleazar Lord, author, educator, deacon of the First Protestant Dutch Church and first president of the Erie Railroad. It was derived by combining a local natural feature - Tallman Mountain - and the most prominent man-made feature of the village - the long Erie Railroad pier.

History

cuts through the north end of the Hudson Palisades, providing easy access to the fertile valley of the unnavigable upper Hackensack River. "Tappan Landing," "Tappan Slote", or "Taulman Landing," as the little port on the Hudson River was called, thus became the original port for southern Orange County. The valley in the Palisades created by the creek also provided a way for the Erie Railroad to easily reach the Hudson, and the railroad built a long pier in 1839 as its principal terminal. The pier and the nearby mountains suggested a new name for the community, which was incorporated as a village in 1850. During World War II the pier was the ferry terminal to which troops from Camp Shanks marched and were then transported to New York Port of Embarkation piers for transfer to overseas transports bound for the European Theater. A memorial plaque notes that history at the pier.
Late in the 20th century, Piermont became a modest tourist attraction for day-trippers from New York City, particularly those bicycling on Bike Route 9.

Piermont Station

, located on Ash Street, is a Victorian Stick style structure built in 1873 which served as Piermont's stop for the former Erie Railroad line, which went from Nyack, New York, to Jersey City, New Jersey. The Erie Railroad line stopped running through Piermont in 1966. The rail branch was abandoned in the 1970s as a result of railroad consolidation.
The exterior of the building was renovated to its original architecture and French gray, light-green and oxide-red color scheme in 2006 by the . They replaced the roof and installed a new cupola. The train station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Piermont Fire Department

Piermont Fire Department, Rockland County department 13, is an all-volunteer fire department, providing fire, EMS, and water rescue services, and is located on Main Street. Piermont is one of the few districts in Rockland County having a Dive Rescue team, providing water rescue services from the Tappan Zee Bridge to the Palisades.

Piermont hand-cranked drawbridge

The Piermont hand-cranked drawbridge, also known as the Sparkill Creek Drawbridge, was originally built in 1880 by the King Iron Bridge Company, a company from Cleveland, Ohio, that constructed more than 10,000 bridges over six decades. The hand-cranked drawbridge is used as a pedestrian walkway providing a link to Tallman Mountain State Park. This bridge is the only hand-cranked drawbridge in Rockland County and perhaps in the United States. Back in the day, fishermen on sloops heading up and down the creek got out of their vessel, cranked up the drawbridge, sailed across, got out of their vessel and cranked down the drawbridge for vehicular traffic. The whole bridge was dismantled piece by piece, sent off-site for restoration and restored to its original state after a complete forensic analysis. Allan King Sloan, the great-great-grandson of the company's founder, provided some of the information that is on the historical marker nearby and attended the dedication ceremony on August 7, 2009.

Geography

Piermont is located at .
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of, of which is land and, or 41.74%, is water.
Piermont is on the west bank of the Hudson River, south of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,607 people, 1,189 households, and 672 families residing in the village. The population density was 3,878.9 people per square mile. There were 1,320 housing units at an average density of 1,964.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 78.75% White, 4.72% Black, 0.19% Native American, 7.79% Asian, 5.49% from other races, and 3.07% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11.62% of the population.
There were 1,189 households out of which 25.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.7% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.4% were non-families. 35.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.19 and the average family size was 2.87.
In the village, the population was spread out with 19.2% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 32.7% from 25 to 44, 30.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.3 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $61,591, and the median income for a family was $89,846. Males had a median income of $50,659 versus $43,176 for females. The per capita income for the village was $43,731. About 3.0% of families and 9.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.5% of those under age 18 and 4.4% of those age 65 or over.

Notable residents

Historical markers