Saint Dominic

**Saint Dominic** is a city in Albany County, US. The city is considered a large suburb of the much larger Linelin City, located downriver. The two cities share a combined urban region, with little to no countryside separating the two cities. Saint Dominic is the second largest city by population in the state.

The city is one of the major corporate hubs of the region, with companies including Necpo and GreenSource Solutions headquartered within the city. The home of the Linelin Cougars, Allstate Field (formerly Glenwood Field) is located within the city limits of Saint Dominic. The city is also known for its historic old town located along the Linelin River, on which the famous 19th-century river barge the *Grand Elizabeth* is docked.

Saint Dominic was founded in the 1850s as two small settlements called Peddlersville and Saint Dominique. The two towns were founded around the same time and quickly grew into one another, but only Saint Dominique would become a official town. Many of the buildings in Saint Dominic's old town were constructed around this time, many of them warehouses and offices for various shipping firms. Many wealthy businessmen who worked in Linelin City (which was a much larger and more populous settlement) began building vacation estates along the Linelin River within the area of Saint Dominic as early as 1870, forming a large tract of ritzy riverfront settlement along the shore between Linelin and Saint Dominic. Although initially within the limits of Saint Dominic, the land would later become the outermost area of Linelin City and be named Lexington Heights. In 1901 Saint Dominic achieved city status, and in 1916 the Albany County Electric Railway Co. built a extensive trolley line between the two cities that fostered the urban growth which ended up combining the two cities into one metro area by the 1950s.

## History

Early settlement in the region was by the Ispiquitt Native American tribe who built a number of villages in the region. These natives would ride in simple canoes and would fish in the Linelin River for food. Many of their artifacts, including arrowheads, simple dishware, and jewelry are occasionally discovered while digging around Saint Dominic. The land in which Saint Dominic was built on came first into possession of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.

The earliest settlers in Saint Dominic were mainly people hailing from the eastern United States, who founded the town of "Peddlersville" in the 1840s or 1850s. By this time, the city of *Linelin* had grown somewhat into a minor regional center for the timber and grain trade. Peddlersville was located in the countryside surrounding Linelin, and was a small hamlet that was located at the intersection of two dirt roads. In 1852 the town had a schoolhouse, trading post, and feed store and had a population of 15. Linelin had a population of about 1,200.

Between the founding of Peddlersville and 1875, a town called Saint Dominique was founded near Peddlersville. It was said the settlement was founded by french immigrants, who built a wooden church to Saint Dominic of Osma that is now located in the Saint Dominic Riverfront Park. The veracity of the story of Saint Dominique's founding are debated, but the community appeared in the 1880 census and had a population of about 105.

As Linelin began to grow exponentially beginning in the 1880s, many wealthy grain and timber magnates found themselves buying riverfront properties between Peddlersville-Saint Dominique and Linelin City. These estates fell within the jurisdiction of Saint Dominique following its formal recognition as a town in 1879, making them a valuable asset to the town's revenue. By the 1890s Peddlersville had become a distant memory, and "Saint Dominic" was a growing outer suburb of Linelin City, hosting many warehouses and offices along its waterfront. In 1901 Saint Dominic formally became a city.