de Laetsburgh, Later Known as t’Greynen Bosch (Greenbush)

Culturally, the Poesten Kill might seem to be just one of the many westward-flowing streams that drain Rensselaer County, a county dominated by waterways that divide rolling hills. On close examination however, the Poesten Kill holds a special place.

Consider the earlier outlying farm built across from Fort Orange by 1632 on the south side of Mill Creek at de Laetsburgh, later known as t’greynen bosch (Greenbush, the pine woods) and is now within the Rensselaer city limits. Like the Poesten Kill it also had mills, homes, a brewery and tavern, and a Dutch Reformed church and parsonage.

A ferry was established there and later colonial soldiers were often mustered under the protective eye of the fort across the river. The ferry continued to be controlled by the Van Rensselaer family until the nineteenth century providing easy and regular transportation between the Greenbush and Albany.

So it was that Greenbush was settled before the Poesten Kill, but with its close association to Albany by ferry, it could hardly be described as frontier; The City of Rensselaer was once known as East Albany.