Rensselaer

Town in Rensselaer County, east New York; population (1990) 8,300. It is situated on the east bank of the Hudson River, across from Albany. The modern town was formed from the union of the villages of East Albany, Greenbush, and Bath-on-the-Hudson in 1897. It flourished as a centre for the New York Central and Boston and Albany railways as well as a lumber port, and as a manufacturing centre, producing dyes, chemicals, concrete, and textiles. It is also a residential suburb of Albany.

It was settled in the early 17th century in the Dutch patroonship (estate) of Rensselaerswyck; land granted to Kiliaen Van Rensselaer by the Dutch West India Company (1630). This most successful of all patroonships lasted until 1685, when the British governor converted it into an English manor. Fort Crailo (1704), erected here to protect the region against hostile American Indians, is now a state historic site.