Historically Speaking

How Do You Spell Schenectady?

Schenectady or SKENECTADA is the only city in the world with this name. It’s a Mohawk Indian word for “Beyond the Pine Plains,” a reference to the sandy Pine Barrens (Pine Bush) that lies between Schenectady and Albany. Originally, Skenectada was used to describe Albany (Fort Orange) before Arent Van Curler and company settled our present area in 1661 and adopted the name. There are close to 100 different spellings of Schenectady found in Dutch documents, old deeds, and publications. Schenectady is known world wide, mostly due to the contributions of General Electric, Westinghouse, and American Locomotive, which earned the city the slogan, “The city that lights and hauls the world.” You would be surprised how well known the name really is!

It has been said that an anthropologist visiting an Alaskan Inuit tribe during the 1940’s was trying to explain where he was from to the natives. After much frustration he threw up his hands and shouted “Schenectady.” At that moment the entire tribe broke out in applause and laughter. The startled anthropologist was brought into an igloo where the leader pointed to a radio with “Schenectady, NY” - in raised letters - along the front of it. He finally made contact!