Page Contents for Auburn, New York

Statistics & Facts

Location

History & History-related items

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Statistics & Facts

The New York state capital is Albany.
The population of Auburn is approximately 31,258 (1990), 27687 (2010).
The approximate number of families is 12,682 (1990), 11691 (2010).
The amount of land area in Auburn is 21.727 sq. kilometers.
The amount of surface water is 0.099 sq kilometers.
The distance from Auburn to Washington DC is 278 miles.
The distance to the New York state capital is 148 miles. (as the crow flies)
Auburn is positioned 42.93 degrees north of the equator and 76.56 degrees west of the prime meridian.

Location

southwest of Syracuse in western New York. Nearby communities include Fleming, Sennett, Skaneateles, Skaneateles Falls, Owasco and Cayuga.
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History & History Related Items

Auburn was first settled in 1793 by John L. Hardenbergh, his infant daughter and two slaves, Harry and Kate Freeman. His settlement along the banks of the Owasco River was known originally as "Hardenbergh's Corners." A state prison provided cheap labor for numerous local industries. Auburn Theological Seminary, founded in 1818, also played an important role in shaping the character of the village, which adopted the name Auburn about 1806. Auburn was chartered as a village in 1815 and as a city in 1848. Its prominent citizens include Enos T. Throop, an early governor of New York State; William H. Seward, a governor of New York State and secretary of state in the administration of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson; Abner Doubleday, a Civil War figure, for whom the Auburn Doubledays baseball team is named; United States Senator Roscoe Conkling; Harriet Tubman; Samuel Blatchford, a justice of the United States Supreme Court; Allen Welch Dulles, first civilian director of the Central Intelligence Agency; John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State in the Eisenhower administration; Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., who was born in Auburn in 1918; author Samuel Hopkins Adams; Theodore W. Case, inventor of sound-on-film technology; Tony-award winning choreographer Thommie Walsh; and Marijane Meaker, who writes award-winning fiction for young adults under the pseudonym M.E. Kerr. The homes of Tubman, Seward and Case are museums of which the city is very proud. Auburn State Prison was the site of the first execution by electrocution (1890), and the assassin of President William McKinley died in the electric chair at Auburn.
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