Binnekill - You Are Not Alone

By Don Rittner, Schenectady County and City Historian

You read it every other week but have you ever wondered about

where the word “Binnekill” comes from? The term is not unique to

SCCC or even Schenectady, although the root word is Dutch in origin.

There is a Binnekill Creek in Buffalo, although that is redundant since

“kill” in Dutch means creek! In Upper Schodack Landing (Rensselaer County)

there is a Binnekill, a narrow stream that flows south to the south tip of

the island. In downtown Margaretville in the Catskills, the Binnekill is a

small stream that runs behind the storefronts in downtown Main Street.

Ulster County has a Binnewater near Rosendale. There’s even a Binnekill

Mountain House nestled in the Catskills. Close to home in the Town of

Colonie, the Binnekill is a little river that runs between Breaker Island

and Menands.

So you may have guessed by now the Binnekill is a flowing body of water and

not too long ago Schenectady’s Binnekill ran behind SCCC.

“Binnen” or “binne” is a Dutch word that means inside/within, or interior.

The Binnekill is what the Dutch referred to as a backwater portion of a

stream, or remnant of an old streambed. It also means the “stream between,”

and in our case it was the part of the Mohawk River that separated mainland

Schenectady from Van Slyck Island which SCCC is part of now (the Binnekill

was filled in behind SCCC in recent years).

During the early part of the 19th century, where the athletic fields and parking

lots are located, was the lower terminus of the Inland Navigation

Company, the earliest commercial enterprise westward in the Mohawk Valley.

It began in 1795 by the Schuyler family and for 30 years was a successful

commercial venture which led the way for Schenectady to become a famous

boat building community, making bateaux (flat bottom boats), “Durham Boats” –

larger double pointed bateaux’s, and a large cargo boat known as the

“Schenectady Boat.”

The entire shoreline in back of SCCC was lined with warehouses and companies

that flourished here and was called the Harbor, until a disastrous fire in 1819 destroyed

160 buildings over a period of two days. The construction of the Erie Canal a few years

later killed any reason to rebuild the harbor, as new warehouses and businesses sprung

up along the Erie and took advantage of the canal’s easier navigation westward.

You could say that at the present time Binnekill means flowing words!!