A Brief History
The historically rich bedroom community of the Town of Dickinson is home to institutions and attractions such as Broome County's most popular park.
Otsiningo Park offers visitors soccer and softball fields, sand volleyball courts, a large children's playground, community gardens, picnic facilities and a trail along the wooded bank of the Chenango River. The park derived its name from the Indians who lived there in the 18th century.
A long-time historical landmark in the Town was the Alms house, which was part of the former Broome County Poor Farm. Beginning in the 1830s, the farm's 123 acres fulfilled the state requirement that each county have a public-supported home for the poor. The farm served a wide range of people, including unwed mothers, the disabled, the mentally ill and alcoholics, before it was turned over to be farmed by county inmates in the 1920s. The farm and home closed in the 1960s. It then served for years as a building on the campus of Broome Community College, with classrooms and offices.
Today, the town has grown along Upper Front Street with development of a movie theater, restaurants and hotel. Smaller businesses continue operating in the Old Front Street district.
Dickinson is also home to facilities for the Broome County Sheriff's Correctional Facility, Broome Tioga ACHIEVE, Broome Developmental Center, Broome Tioga BOCES, Cornell Cooperative Extension Broome County and SUNY Broome, which was built around a glacier-generated pond.
2010 Census figures put the population at 5,278.
The community's children attend schools in the Binghamton, Johnson City and Chenango Valley school districts.
Supervisor Michael Marinaccio can be reached at the town at 723-9401.
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2021 Guide to County, City, Town & Village Officials
