Danby, NY

Danby is the primary hamlet and a census-designated place within the Town of Danby, in southern Tompkins County. NY 96B runs through the center, seven miles south of Ithaca, and the hamlet sits in the valley at the headwaters of Buttermilk Creek. The creek runs north toward Buttermilk Falls, Cayuga Inlet, and Cayuga Lake, so Danby's position is read through water as much as road distance.

The Town of Danby's current map is a working town system: Town Hall, the board, library, fire district, highway department, historian, and West Danby Water District all sit in the same local-government orbit. The CDP is in Ithaca City School District, which ties the hamlet to the larger city seven miles north. USGS studies of the Upper Buttermilk Creek and Danby Creek valleys also track the groundwater used by homes, farms, and businesses. Danby is the place at the head of that watershed, with Ithaca close by and the creek carrying the landscape downhill.