Biohazard Cleanup Near Vale Schenectady, NY

Schenectady is a city in eastern New York and the county seat of Schenectady County, with a population of 67,047 at the 2020 census, making it the state's ninth-most populous city.

Schenectady was first settled in 1661 by Dutch colonists of New Netherland on the south side of the Mohawk River, and its name derives from the Mohawk word 'skahnéhtati,' meaning 'beyond the pines.'

Schenectady was incorporated as a borough in 1765 and chartered as a city in 1798, and it sits near the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers.

Schenectady has about 29,200 households according to Census Bureau figures for 2020-2024, averaging 2.22 people per household.

Schenectady is nicknamed 'The Electric City,' and its motto, 'The city that lights and hauls the world,' honors its two great manufacturers, General Electric and the American Locomotive Company (ALCO).

Thomas Edison moved his Edison Machine Works to Schenectady in 1886, and when General Electric was formed in 1892, Schenectady became its headquarters and remained a GE company town for over a century.

Schenectady's population peaked at 92,061 in 1950, when GE and ALCO dominated its economy.

Schenectady is home to Union College, founded in 1795 as the first college chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York, whose grounds were the first planned college campus in the United States.

Schenectady's Stockade neighborhood, the city's original Dutch colonial settlement along the Mohawk River, is one of the oldest residential districts in the United States.

The General Electric Realty Plot, a roughly 90-acre historic district built from 1900 for GE executives and scientists, contains some of the first all-electric houses in the United States and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.