Seneca Falls

Seneca Falls (population 9,140 per 2010 Census) is a hamlet in Seneca County. The name honors a series of waterfalls in the Seneca River (now submerged), around which the hamlet was founded. By 1818, local canals had bypassed the falls, facilitating navigation. Connection with the Erie Canal came in 1828. Seneca Falls became a manufacturing center.

It was also a center for reform activism. Future suffrage leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton and dress reform promoter Amelia Bloomer lived there. In 1848 Seneca Falls hosted the first Woman’s Rights Convention, a trigger for the suffrage movement. Today Seneca Falls honors its past with public and private historical attractions.