Vestal, New York

History[edit]

The first European settlers arrived in Vestal around 1785.


The central area of Vestal, near Route 26 at Choconut Creek, was the site of an indigenous village of the Ochugnut tribe of the Tuscarora people. During the American Revolution, a squad of soldiers from the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, under the command of Lt. William McKendry^[9] were sent to engage the tribes, when possible, and destroy their homes and crops. During the summer of 1779, the squad did burn at least two villages without encountering resistance, including one situated in what is now nearby downtown Binghamton (the Chenango, at the confluence of the Chenango and Susquehanna rivers), and the Ochugnut (Choconut) at the site of Choconut Creek near present-day Vestal High School.


This campaign during the American Revolution was initiated following Indigenous predations against settlers, presumed to have been carried out by tribes forming part of the Iroqouis alliance. This hostile activity against settlers was encouraged by the British. However, some evidence indicates that at least some of the indigenous people were actually Tuscarora— who fled from North Carolina after wars in 1711 and the War of 1763. This community was actually sympathetic to the American cause, siding against the rest of the Iroquois confederation. See Sullivan Expedition or external links for more information on the role of Upstate New York in this conflict.^[10][11]


Following the war, several European families settled in the area near the town of Union. The town of Vestal was formed from the southern half of Union in 1823.


In 1901, on June 8, Vestal was the location of a huge explosion of dynamite aboard a train of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. A second train crashed into that train from behind while it was taking on water. The trains were destroyed and twelve trainmen were killed and injured. So many curiosity seekers came to view the scene that extra trains had to be run to bring them to it.^[12]


The history of the town is closely related to its neighbors, Binghamton, Endicott, and Johnson City. During the 20th century, Vestal served as a residential suburb to emerging industries in its area, such as Endicott Johnson Corporation, IBM, and Lockheed Martin. In 1954, the state of New York broke ground on a new 387-acre (1.57 km²) campus for Harpur College in Vestal.^[7][13][14] The college, part of the SUNY system, moved from Endicott to Vestal by 1961, and has since grown significantly and been renamed Binghamton University.^[7]


The Kopernik Observatory & Science Center^[15] is a public observatory in Vestal opened to the public on 16 June 1974 by the Kopernik Society of Broome County to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish: Mikołaj Kopernik) in 1973.^[16] It is one of the best-sited and best equipped public observatories in the Northeast United States.^[17][18][19]


During the 1990s, Vestal became the major retail center of the Southern Tier region of New York, with many large shopping centers such as the Town Square Mall, Parkway Plaza, Shoppes at Vestal, and Campus Plaza being built along the Vestal Parkway (NY Route 434), which became one of the busiest roads in the area. Vestal's historic central business district is located along three blocks of Front Street, still lined with small shops.


The Drovers Inn and Round Family Residence and Vestal Central School were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.^[20]