When the post-office was established here is uncertain; but it is believed that this and the office in New City are the oldest ones in Clarkstown. In early times the mail, in the summer season, came from New York to Tappan by boat, thence to this place overland, then to New City and Haverstraw, and back by way of Rockland Lake. In the winter, when the river was covered by ice, it came all the way from the city overland, and of course was not always "on time." Afterward, arrangements were made to have it come by way of Nyack. At the present time it is carried by the West Shore Railroad, and this undoubtedly gives better satisfaction than any previous arrangement.
The office was for many years known as Clarksville; but when the turnpike was cut through the village it was changed to Nyack Turnpike, and so remained until a few years ago, when it assumed its present title. In consequence of these several changes in the name of the post-office, the village is known by any of the three names mentioned above, and sometimes is spoken of as Clarkstown. The railroad station, a short distance east of Mount Moor, still remains the name of Nyack Turnpike.
Three hotels, two stores, two wheelwright shops, two blacksmith shops, a butcher shop, a harness shop, and two coal yards, besides what has been already mentioned, make up the business part of the village. Of the hotels, Knapp's, built thirty five years since, by Thomas Warner, is the oldest. To this additions have recently been made, and it is now kept by Abram Knapp. The Mount Moor Hotel was built about ten years ago; David Storms is the present proprieter. The West Shore House was built about six months ago, and it is owned by Charles B. Benson.
History of Rockland County by Rev. David Cole, D.D. 1884
Mount Moor
The West Shore Railroad was constructed through the area in the 1870's. By the 1880's, Commodore Vanderbilt, and his son William had absorbed the West Shore and many other small railroads into the New York Central System. The Vanderbilts had powerful political influence and often exerted this power for their own purposes. So it was with the naming of West Nyack. The Railroad wanted to appear to service the important river port of Nyack, and sought to change the name of the hamlet from Mt. Moor to West Nyack. There was one slight problem. West Nyack already existed - in the area where the Nyack Turnpike (now Route 59) descended from the Nyack highlands to the shore of the Great Swamp. This is the area from Mountain View Avenue and Waldron Avenue west to Greenbush Road (and later to Route 303). The railroad arranged for that hamlet to be renamed Central Nyack, thereby permitting the relocation of the name West Nyack to the railroad station and its adjacent hamlet development around Clarksville Corners.
