Page 4 of Route 206 Drive

Page 4 of Route 206 Drive ........ Downsville is located in the Town of Colchester

At the outskirts of Downsville, we are making a quick detour to the left onto 'Old Route 206' to take the newly rebuilt Covered Bridge crossing. It is a 174 foot covered bridge, originally built in 1854. Every Year in June, Downsville is celebrating its 'Covered Bridge Festival.'

Downsville Covered Bridge Cemetery. It is enclosed by a stone wall, and its over 200 graves date from 1796 to 1899. ------------------------>

A little bit of Downsville history:

Downsville became an industrial and commercial center in the 1840s, replacing Colchester just downstream on the Delaware river. By 1880, Downsville had 20 retail and service establishments as well as a tannery, grist mill, cigar and furniture factories, and later a shingle mill. Its opera house eventually became a movie theater.

Before the railroad reached here in 1905, Downsville had stage coach connections with villages up and down the river and also with Walton. The upstream communities ceased to exist after the building of the dam, and the resulting loss of population had its impact here.

Source: Mary Robinson Sive: Lost Villages. Historic Driving Tours in the Catskills. 1998, Delaware County Historical Association, Delhi, NY.

Downsville Campgrounds & Cottages

Colchester Community Church ---->

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Colchester Community Church

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