Elsmere is a hamlet of the town of the Bethlehem

Bethlehem, New York

Bethlehem is a town in Albany County, New York, USA. The population was 33,656 at the 2010 census. The town is south of Albany. Bethlehem includes the following hamlets: Delmar, Elsmere, Slingerlands, Glenmont, Selkirk, South and North Bethlehem. U.S. Route 9W passes through the town...

 in Albany County

Albany County, New York

Albany County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England . As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. The hamlet is a suburb of the neighboring city of Albany

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

. From the northeast to the southwest it is bisected by New York Route 443 (Delaware Avenue) which is also the main street

Main Street

Main Street is the metonym for a generic street name of the primary retail street of a village, town, or small city in many parts of the world...

 and a major commuter route into Albany. Delaware Ave is also home to most of the office and retail locations in Elsmere, including the largest- Delaware Plaza. Residential buildings tend to be on side streets north and south of Delaware Ave.

History

Elsmere is situated along the old Delaware Turnpike, today Delaware Avenue (NY Route 443). Suburban residential growth began to displace the rural farmland starting in 1928 when the Delaware Avenue Bridge opened across the Normans Kill

Kill (body of water)

As a body of water, a kill is a creek. The word comes from the Middle Dutch kille, meaning "riverbed" or "water channel." The modern Dutch term is kil....

, this connected Elsmere directly to Albany. Prior to this commuters to Albany needed to travel on the narrow winding older roads through Normansville

Normansville, New York

Normansville is a hamlet in the town of Bethlehem and a neighborhood in the city of Albany, Albany County, New York. The entire area was one hamlet in Bethlehem until the portion north of the Normans Kill was annexed by Albany in 1916...

 and cross a smaller lower bridge. The original center of the hamlet was the corners of Elsmere and Delaware avenues. Today Delaware Avenue from the bridge over the Normans Kill to the abandoned railroad bridge over Delaware Ave, marking the unofficial border with Delmar, is heavily commercialized with retail and offices. Many of the businesses occupy houses converted to commercial use. Delaware Plaza, built in 1955, is the unofficial "center" of town.

Location