North Hornell, NY

North Hornell is a village in Steuben County on the north bank of the Canisteo River, directly north of the city of Hornell. The 2020 census counted 732 residents. New York Routes 21 and 36 run together through the village, carrying the local connection between Hornell, Canisteo, and the Southern Tier. Big Creek and the hills east of the village help define the other edges, so the place is a narrow river-and-road settlement.

The village grew in the early 1900s as homes were laid out along Seneca Road. Developers once imagined hotels, parks, and public schools there, and Elmhurst Park even had a dammed lake for boating and picnics before the 1935 flood broke it apart. Residents formally incorporated North Hornell in 1924, voting to keep a separate village government. Today the village office, public works, and neighborhood streets sit next to Hornell’s larger services. North Hornell is a small independent place with a city at its doorstep and a river doing the boundary work.