Gabriels, New York

Gabriels is a hamlet in the Town of Brighton in Franklin County, New York inside the Adirondack Park near Paul Smiths, New York. The village grew up around a cure facility for tuberculosis,The Gabriels Sanatorium, 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 Smiths 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 grew up as the commercial center around 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, New York. In 1961, New York Central abandoned the Adirondack Division from Malone Junction to Gabriels.^[1]

Today, the hamlet remains the commercial center for the town of Brighton, with a Post Office, small businesses, a Roman Catholic Church, and farms.^[2]

References

1. ^ Collins, Geraldine. The Brighton Story, Being the History of Paul Smiths, Gabriels and Rainbow Lake, Lakemont, New York: North Country Books. 1977
2. ^ Town of Brighton History Net