Slingerlands Historic District (Additional Documentation)

Slingerlands is a linear hamlet strung along about a mile of New Scotland Road in the Town of Bethlehem, Albany County, with short stretches of Bridge Street and Mullens Road. Its 102 contributing buildings include large houses on generous lots, a Gothic Revival Methodist church built in 1871, a converted school, and a former industrial building turned residential. The oldest building began around 1790, and several Greek Revival farmhouses date from the early settlement period. Development accelerated after the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, routed through Slingerland family lands, was completed here by 1869. Victorian villas followed from the 1870s, many with three-sided bay windows under prominent gables, colorful slate roofs and towers in Italianate, Queen Anne and Stick styles. A later phase brought bungalows, Colonial Revival houses, and Cape Cods, often built on subdivided lots. The Tollgate Ice Cream building of 1949 is closely tied to the hamlet's identity.