Claverack-Red Mills, NY

Claverack-Red Mills, usually called Claverack, is a Columbia County census-designated place in the western part of the Town of Claverack, about two miles from the Hudson River. The 2020 census counted 953 residents. The name joins two hamlets: Claverack, a crossroads on Routes 9H and 23/23B, and Red Mills, which formed around water power on Claverack Creek. The valley's farms, roads, and creek made this a natural place for trade long before the modern highway map. Claverack College operated from 1779 to 1902, and the old village still carries the imprint of schools, mills, churches, and historic houses.

Red Mills sits just east of Claverack hamlet, while Hudson, the river, and the Taconic foothills shape the wider setting. Buttermilk Falls and the creek country add a little drama to an otherwise agricultural landscape. Claverack-Red Mills's local scoop is a Hudson Valley community that is really two old hamlets sharing one census name, joined by roads, water power, and a long school history.