Sodus Point Village

Wayne County, New York

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Sodus Point Village Hall is located at 8356 Bay Street, Sodus Point NY 14555.
Phone: 315‑483‑9881.

Sodus Point Village was incorporated in 1858.

Beginnings [1]

The Cayuga Indians were the first to realize the potential of the bay as a harbor and the name Sodus may be an interpretation of an Indian word for bay. The area was first settled by Captain Charles Williamson who founded the village on the site of Sodus Point in 1794. He was an agent for the great British land syndicate headed by Sir William Pultney and felt that the bay possessed great commercial possibilities. The settlement grew quickly but was later burned by the British in 1813.

A few decades later, the rebuilt village became one of the "busiest stations on the Underground Railroad" due to its strategic location. Late in the 19th century the village became a tourist mecca. The excursion steamers which plied Lake Ontario between Rochester and the Thousand Islands stopped at Sodus Point. The electric and steam suburban railroads brought thousands of special weekend excursion trains from points such as Rochester, Syracuse and Elmira.

By the mid 1870s it appeared to many that Williamson's great dreams for the port might finally be realized. The reason for this optimism lay in the completion of the Ontario and Southern Railroad which linked the port to the Pennsylvania, New York Central and Ontario Lake Shore Railroads.

  1. Robert Englert, New York State Division for Historic Preservation, The Customs House, Sodus Point, New York, nomination document, 1980, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.

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