Amenia, NY

Amenia is a Dutchess County hamlet and census-designated place at the meeting of U.S. 44 and Routes 22 and 343. The present settlement grew at crossroads once called Payne's Corners and Ameniaville, then picked up speed with Amenia Seminary in 1835 and the railroad in 1851. The old school site now holds the Amenia Historical Society, which keeps family files, maps, photographs, and other pieces of town history. Amenia's name was coined in 1762 from a word meaning "a pleasant place," but its clearest local story is practical: a crossroads, a school, a rail line, and a hamlet still sitting inside the larger Town of Amenia.