A history of Herkimer,
since 1788
Postcards, papers and photographs of Herkimer from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Herkimer was first settled c. 1722, in an area originally called "Stone Ridge", now the village of Herkimer. Early settlers were primarily German Palatines.
Johan Jost Herchheimer, a farmer who also engaged in trade and transport on the Mohawk River, settled in the German Flatts District of Albany County in 1725, on the south side of the Mohawk River, within the present-day town of German Flatts, incorporated in 1788. He owned 5,000 acres (20 km2) of the land, including a strategic portage around Little Falls on the Mohawk, where his eldest son Nicholas Herkimer established a farmstead. In 1788, the town of Herkimer, on the north side of the river, was incorporated and named after him.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Herkimer’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewU. and M.V. [Utica & Mohawk Valle…, 1900: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Herkimer
See all 12 →
Herkimer, decade by decade
![U. and M.V. [Utica & Mohawk Valley] railway bridge](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/28681/dd998e07b22bed8a5d0b-s.jpg)
LOCU. and M.V. [Utica & Mohawk Valley] railway bridge1900![U. and M.V. [Utica & Mohawk Valley] railway bridge](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/28681/edcec0af715ab834bf15-s.jpg)
LOCU. and M.V. [Utica & Mohawk Valley] railway bridge1900
LOCU. & M. V. Railway bridge1901
LOCCattle grazing near a historic house1902
CommonsMain Street, Herkimer, New York (1905)1905
LOCNew Trolley Bridge1905
LOCFort Herkimer Church, built 17671905
LOCNorth Main Street1905
LOCMirror Lake looking south1905
LOCMirror Lake from Boat Landing1905
LOCU. & M.V. railway bridge1905
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as U. and M.V. [Utica & Mohawk Valley] railway bridge (1900) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (2) and the Library of Congress (10). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.