Honeoye, NY

Honeoye is a hamlet and census-designated place at the north end of Honeoye Lake in the town of Richmond, Ontario County. It sits about 33 miles south of Rochester, along U.S. Route 20A and Honeoye Creek at the bottom of Honeoye Valley. The name comes from the Seneca word ha-ne-a-yah, commonly rendered as “lying finger” or “where the finger lies.” The lake and its name connect the present community to the older Seneca history of the valley.

The 2020 census counted 723 people in the CDP, while the village area serves a much wider rural and lakeside population. Honeoye has grocery, hardware, auto-parts, restaurants, professional offices, churches, a fire station, library, park, beach, and state boat launch. Honeoye Central School provides K–12 education in one building, and the lake keeps the calendar moving from summer boating to winter ice fishing. Bristol Mountain and Hunt Hollow bring cold-weather visitors, while farms and lake businesses carry the rest of the year. Honeoye is a place where a small main street meets a Finger Lake, and both are working parts of the surrounding countryside.