Ghent, NY

Ghent is a census-designated place and hamlet in the Town of Ghent, Columbia County, along New York Route 66. The 2020 census counted 623 residents. Route 66 runs southwest toward Hudson and northeast toward Chatham, and Kline Kill forms part of the local landscape. The CDP is the compact settlement at the center of a much larger rural town, so its streets, farm roads, and old railroad properties define the local picture apart from the town-wide statistics attached to the name.

The surrounding Town of Ghent was formed in 1818 from pieces of Chatham, Claverack, and Kinderhook, but the hamlet's best-known landmark comes from the railroad era. The Bartlett House, built around 1870 as a railroad hotel, stands on Route 66 and now houses a kitchen, bakery, and cafe. The old Ghent station site and the route toward Hudson keep the hamlet tied to Columbia County's transportation history. It is a small hamlet within the town, not the whole Town of Ghent.