What started with an effort to update the Elizabethtown website has turned into the Essex County, New York, seat rebranding itself as “Hometown of the Adirondacks.” But hasn’t fellow North Country community Glens Falls been called “Hometown USA” for more than 80 years? Turns out there is plenty of hometown vibe to go around.
Elizabethtown’s town supervisor said the new branding is a starting point for community expansion.
“This is how we’re preparing ourselves for a growth spurt. The branding piece is to kind of get people interested and looking at us ‘cause we’re one of the last towns inside the Park that has the ability for growth and expansion. So the website and the rebranding is the place where we’re starting. The ultimate goal is to bring to the town housing, business and services.”
Town Supervisor Cathleen Reusser said the new website includes government and business information, event listings, history and tips on how to take advantage of recreation opportunities.
The Northern Forest Center helped the town develop and formalize the Hometown of the Adirondacks label. Adirondack Program Director Leslie Karasin says the website is the first incarnation of the brand.
“It says this is a place that cherishes and loves what it has been about for a long time but it’s also a place that is looking towards the future, appreciating its natural amenities and assets. The Hometown of the Adirondacks I think really points to the notion that it’s a place that people can call home and make a place for themselves.”
The community is also officially embracing the addition of a new nickname, which derives from its longtime and still kicking nickname, “E-town.”
Website manager Paige Cotter Saltamach was part of the committee that worked on the new branding.
“That’s kind of where the rebrand started. That was definitely a stepping stone. It was certainly a greater conversation but we all kept coming back to it being our hometown. It’s where people come home. Even people who went away they end up coming back to Elizabethtown.”
Farther south, and just outside the blue line that marks the boundaries of the Adirondack Park, Glens Falls has been known as Hometown USA for 82 years. In 1944, Look Magazine published photographs of the town and gave it that moniker. Mayor Diana Palmer was in her office working on getting the magazine’s four-page spread enlarged to be displayed in the City Hall lobby and says the community still embraces the nickname.
“It does mean quite a lot to people here. They called us Hometown USA in 1944 because of our community’s efforts to help with the war effort and the community spirit of everybody pitching in. And I think that is still the cornerstone of what makes Glens Falls, Glens Falls.”
So with two “hometowns” separated by about 70 miles, there’s a bit of playful competition.
E-Town’s Reussir:
“It’s not in the Adirondack Park.”
Cotter Saltamach breaks in.
“And E-town is in the word hometown. Our hometown feeling, or wording even, was more focused in the Adirondack Park and Essex County in particular. To be quite frank though, I had no idea that Glens Falls went by that.”
Mayor Palmer counters:
“Interestingly, we didn’t manufacture that phrase. It was given to us. You know, our communities are in different locations. We are the gateway in the foothills of the Adirondacks and we’ve held this Hometown USA moniker for 80 years. I am not concerned and more power to Elizabethtown. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone.”
