History & Culture · Hudson Valley
Rochester's Accord and Kerhonkson Story Runs from Canal to O&W Rail
In Ulster County's Town of Rochester, the D&H Canal and later O&W Railway explain Accord, Kerhonkson, and Alligerville's historic pattern.
Published June 24, 2026 · Last verified June 24, 2026
Ulster County’s Town of Rochester is a canal-and-rail town if you follow the hamlet names. Friends of Historic Rochester says the Rochester Patent dates to 1703 and that the town was incorporated in 1788. The D&H Canal then brought prosperity along its route, with local locks at Alligerville, Port Jackson, later Accord, and Middleport, later Kerhonkson.
After the canal era, the right-of-way was sold to the New York, Ontario and Western Railway. The O&W reached the area in 1902 and helped boarding houses, bungalow colonies, and tourism grow. Accord and Kerhonkson are not just names on Route 209; they are canal and railroad places with preserved historic districts and layered Catskill-edge settlement.
That helps when people confuse the Town of Rochester with the City of Rochester upstate. Here, the local story is Ulster County hamlets, canal beds, railroad afterlife, old resort patterns, and Catskills-edge roads.
Friends of Historic Rochester gives the public doorway into that layered history.
Once you know the D&H Canal and O&W pieces, Accord and Kerhonkson feel less like scattered names and more like parts of one town story.