Sparrow Bush, NY

Sparrow Bush is a hamlet and census-designated place in the Town of Deerpark, about four miles northwest of Port Jervis. The local post office uses ZIP 12780, and NY 42 meets NY 97 here before the roads head into the surrounding Orange County hills. The name comes from Henry L. Sparrow, who owned timberland near the Delaware and Hudson Canal; locals called the tract Sparrow’s Bosh or Bosk, words tied to a slope or thicket. A post office was operating by 1827, and the hamlet’s Main Street was an important neighborhood during the canal years. Sparrow Bush is a Deerpark place whose map still carries the name of the timber tract that started it.