Adams, NY

Named for President John Adams, the Jefferson County town of Adams includes a village of the same name south of Watertown. Settlement began around 1800, and David Smith built a sawmill at the village site in 1801, giving the place an early industrial beginning. The village and the surrounding town share one name, a useful detail when following addresses in this part of northern New York. Interstate 81 runs north and south through Adams, with three interchanges connecting the town's older roads to the regional highway map. The village and those highway connections give Adams two overlapping local centers. A presidential name, a sawmill story, and a major through highway still fit together here.