History of Clifton Knolls

  The opening of the Adirondack Northway made it possible for those who worked in Albany to live in Clifton Park where land and taxes were inexpensive. Developer Robert Van Patten began to acquire the land that would become Clifton Knolls in the 1950's. This land originally consisted of four farms. The Heath Peck farm made up the section on the south side of Clifton Park Center Road and the farm house still stands on the north side. This part of Clifton Knolls also included the rear portion of the Walter Gifford farm and the Greenlea Farm owned by Irving Peck along Vischer Ferry Road. Irving Peck's farmhouse also still stands on the southeast corner of Greenlea Drive and Vischer Ferry Road. The fourth farm was owned by Vincent Secada, better known as Jimmy, and comprised that portion of Clifton Knolls just north of Grooms Road and just east of the stream that feeds the Stony Creek Reservoir.

   It was Jimmy Secada that developed the ponds near the present Barney Road clubhouse. He stocked Barney Pond with fish and sold fishing permits to city folk who came out to spend the day. He insisted that the ponds be preserved when he sold his land to Van Patten. Secada was a Spaniard and wanted some of the new streets named for places in his native homeland which explains the street names on what was the property he sold. Van Patten often provided a new home to the sellers of the property he acquired. He built houses for both Heath and Irving Peck, but Jimmy Secada, who remained a bachelor, had no use for a fancy house. He agreed to an apartment upstairs in the Barney Road clubhouse. Until his death in 1990, he could be seen driving about town in a Cadillac sedan with the license plate "Secada", purchased with the money Van Patten paid him.

   Van Patten built the houses in assembly line fashion, street by street starting in the northwest corner of Clifton Knolls. There were no contracts and only a handshake sealed the deal between Van Patten and the buyer. Originally the homes had no names. The ranches were simply referred to as the 4-bedroom and the 3-bedroom. The two colonials began to cause some confusion because they had the same number of rooms and soon acquired the names of their framing foreman Hank Graves the "Hanks" and Stan Marrick the "Stans". In later years the names were formalized by realtors as the "Hanks" became the Hanover Colonial, the "Stans" became the Standish Colonial, the 4 bedroom ranch became the Executive Ranch and the 3-bedroom ranch the Raised Ranch.

   When Van Patten began Clifton Knolls in 1960, Clifton Park was a very rural community with a population of only 4500. The Shenendehowa School District had only been formed 10 years earlier, centralizing the one room school houses in the various Hamlets. The first Shenendehowa campus school didn't open until September, 1953.

   The first family moved into Clifton Knolls around Christmas 1960 on upper Beechwood Drive. By Christmas 1961 the first Directory listed 38 families. By August 1962 Clifton Knolls boasted 80 families in the Directory and Van Patten invited this nucleus to form a community group; out of which developed the Civic Association. The Civic Association grew out of the softball games, potluck picnics and playground/pool events that had been organized through impromptu word of mouth gatherings. A constitution was drawn up and the Clifton Knolls Civic Association was officially incorporated in October, 1962.

   As Clifton Knolls continued to expand, the Clifton Knolls Civic Association fostered our involvement in civic affairs, the growth of the school system and of course our social calendar by sponsoring Wine & Cheese Parties, Horse Shows, Flea Markets, Halloween Parades, Field Days, Scout Troops, Dinner Dances, Garage Sales, and Santa's Ride Through. By 1964, there were already 270 families in residence and the area defined by Tamarack Lane, Beechwood Drive, Locust Lane and Hemlock Drive was essentially complete. Imagine the impact that growth had on the rural farming community from which it sprang. From this starting point the development spread south and east with the last homes being completed on Majorca Lane and south of Valencia Lane. Ten years later in 1974, the original Clifton Knolls development was about built out with 775 homes.

   Mill Creek began in 1985 with the first homes on Orchard Park Drive built by Ron Kellerhouse. In 1988 the Michaels Group continued construction of the Mill Creek development, named for the old saw mill once on Stony Creek. By 1992 there were eleven members of the Clifton Knolls Civic Association from Mill Creek with the first Director from Mill Creek appointed in 1993. Negotiations with the Town of Clifton Park and Robert Van Patten, Jr. continued through the early 1990's over formation of the Clifton Knolls Park District with the Park District land turnover agreement signed in September, 1993. The Clifton Knolls Civic Association name was formally changed to the Clifton Knolls Mill Creek Civic Association in 1999. In a few years we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the beginnings of Clifton Knolls and we hope that our neighborhood continues to foster ties between neighbors and a sense of place in our little corner of the Capital District.

   We'd like to acknowledge the work of former Town Historian William Washington with Paul Smith and present Town Historian John Scherer upon which this short history is based.



The original Barney family farmhouse was located about where the pool and clubhouse are today. It was later the home of Jimmy Secada. Barney road was originally configured along the Barney farm road which extended from Grooms to Moe Road.



The aerial view of the Shenendehowa campus was taken around 1970 looking south over Route 146 in the foreground. The surrounding developments include Calico Colony on the right and Clifton Knolls at the top.



This 1965 map of Clifton Park shows the initial street layout of Clifton Knolls about in the center of the picture. Can you imagine the impact the development brought to the otherwise rural farming community that existed here.



This 1910 picture of Grooms Tavern shows the site of the first Clifton Park town board meeting in 1828. The building is just west of our development at the corner of Grooms and Sugar Hill Road.


Local History Links

Brookside Museum (11 miles)
National Bottle Museum (11 miles)
National Museum of Racing (20 miles)
National Museum of Dance (20 miles)
Saratoga National Park (22 miles)
Institute of History & Art (22 miles)
Baseball Hall of Fame (75 miles)
Fort Ticonderoga (84 miles)