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Benefit from a business location far from city life... nestled within the amenities of a Victorian Village.

Walk a block to enjoy a great selection of restaurants with an international flavor... browse in Potsdam's specialty shops... stop by the Post Office... conduct your lunch hour banking... or enjoy a break in the gazebo overlooking the beautiful Racquette River.

There is a lot you can do within a five-minute walk or drive, like pick your kids up at school, ship a package from our UPS center, browse our bookstores, take advantage of convenient business services, or receive quality healthcare at Canton-Potsdam Hospital.

Potsdam is within 20 minutes of the St. Lawrence County offices in Canton and within 30 minutes of four higher education campuses -- Clarkson University, SUNY Potsdam, St. Lawrence University, and SUNY Canton College of Technology. Enjoy the many leisure activities available in the scenic Adirondack Mountains to the south or the mighty St. Lawrence River to the north in less than an hour. Or take in a professional hockey or baseball game at our international neighbor cities of Montreal or Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, in less than two hours.

Potsdam welcomes new and expanding businesses. Clarkson University's Downtown Campus Business Center is located within Potsdam's Empire Zone - providing a number of tax and investment incentives. As the commercial center for the county, you will enjoy a trade area of over 45,000 people, including more than 7,000 college students, and an able and available labor force that's ready to work for you.

Your business will benefit from the availability of an educated labor pool comprised of faculty, staff, students, and the general population in the Potsdam area. With a solid investment in research each year, Clarkson University is able to provide you with a source for technical and educational skills virtually unsurpassed in the U.S.A. Through contractual arrangements with the University's research units, your business has an outstanding opportunity to tap into this extensive research potential. In addition, Clarkson places a great deal of emphasis on experiential learning as a key element of student education - with those students available for internships or co-ops with your company.

History

The very history of Potsdam, New York, is intertwined with tales of the Clarkson family. In November 1802, David M. Clarkson was among several associates who purchased a 10-mile square piece of land located between the St. Lawrence River and the Adirondack Mountains.

Within six years of Potsdam’s founding, a sandstone quarry opened and sandstone blocks were being put to use in building constructions throughout the village and beyond. Potsdam sandstone was used in the construction of the Parliament buildings in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, as well as in numerous buildings located in New York City and Washington, DC.

The Clarkson quarry was opened 4 miles south of the village in 1877 by Thomas S. Clarkson. In 1894, he lost his life while trying to save one of his workers at that quarry. It was in his memory two months later that Clarkson University was established by Thomas S. Clarkson’s three sisters. The school’s first building, Old Main, was built of Potsdam sandstone in 1896 and still stands at its original site on Main Street. This building marked the beginning of the village campus in Potsdam.

The first freshman class at the Thomas S. Clarkson Memorial School of Technology included eight men and four women. Six courses of instruction were offered and, by 1907, Clarkson was offering bachelor’s degrees in mechanical, civil and chemical engineering. Clarkson began as a co-educational school; however, since no women applied for admission in 1907, it became a single gender college and remained as such until 1964.

Thomas Clarkson’s nieces tried to have the entire college moved to the Hill campus, the site of their childhood home, through the provision of $1.5-million dollars by 1929. The stock market crash later that year caused the endowment to shrink to less than $500,000 so plans for moving the college were put on hold for over 30 years.

Following World War II, Clarkson admitted hundreds of returning veterans to its student ranks - so many, in fact, that they had to rent space in the New York State School for the Deaf in Malone, NY. For the next five years, Clarkson underclassmen spent their first two years studying in Malone before moving to the Potsdam campus for the remainder of their education.

With the dramatic increases in student numbers, the Clarkson Board of Trustees realized the college needed to expand its facilities and spent the next 20 years doing just that. Snell Hall, formerly part of the neighboring State University of New York campus, became classrooms and office space. While dormitories were constructed on the Hill campus, expansion was also occurring at the downtown site:

Peyton Hall, 1948, for Chemical Engineering
Damon Hall, 1949, for Civil Engineering
Clarkson Hall, 1961, for Electrical Engineering
Lewis House, 1951, for a student union

In 1967, expansion plans moved to the Hill campus with the addition of the Science Center, and was joined in following years by the Educational Resources Building, Indoor Recreational Center, Cheel Campus Center, the Rowley Lab, and the Center for Advanced Materials Processing (CAMP). Now, 70 years after receiving the first funds to move the college to the Hill campus, Clarkson has completed most of that transition.

As a result, a new transformation is underway on the downtown campus - as classrooms evolve into office space ... laboratories become home to entrepreneurs instead of freshmen ... hallowed halls are filled with dreams of building new businesses.

Clarkson University's evolution has opened new doors to you, as you begin your quest for business growth and development. Welcome to Clarkson’s past... and your future.