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New York County
Fulton County, New York
Gloversville's glove manufacturing empire and the southern Adirondacks - from Gloversville's extraordinary dominance of American glove manufacturing (at its peak in the early 20th century, Fulton County produced roughly 90% of all leather gloves made in the United States - the city's tanneries and cutting rooms employed thousands and made "Gloversville" one of the most accurately named cities in America) to the Sacandaga Reservoir's Great Sacandaga Lake recreation and Johnstown's Sir William Johnson colonial heritage.
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Office: Fulton County Emergency Management / Fire Coordinator’s Office – 231 N. Perry Street, Johnstown, NY 12095 | (518) 736-5858
Services: 911 Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for all fire, law enforcement, and EMS dispatch countywide, staffed 24/7 by 14 full-time and 4 part-time dispatchers; free Fulton County Emergency Management App for alerts and preparedness information; non-emergency line (518) 736-2100.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: NY-30A and NY-29 serve Johnstown, the county seat, in the Adirondack foothills
Transit: Limited; primarily auto-dependent – confirm current regional options directly with the county.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Fulton County Planning Department – 1 East Montgomery Street, Johnstown, NY 12095
Notes: City of Johnstown (33-41 East Main Street, (518) 736-4011) and Town of Johnstown ((518) 762-7070) issue their own separate in-town/in-city permits – town jurisdiction is distinct from the city.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Fulton County Veterans Service Agency – Johnstown, NY
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Johnstown Public Library – 38 South Market Street, Johnstown, NY 12095 | (518) 762-8317
Services: Public library serving the city and surrounding Fulton County area with community programming and digital resources.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Fulton County’s twin cities, Johnstown and Gloversville, are genuinely known together as the “Glove Cities” – from roughly 1880 to 1950, the two cities produced an estimated 90% of all gloves sold in the United States, and Gloversville in particular earned international recognition as the “Glove Capital of the World,” its hundreds of tanneries and factories fed by the region’s hemlock forests (essential for tanning) and abundant water; the craftsmanship remained relevant even in modern times – leather produced in Gloversville was genuinely used for Team USA’s gloves at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics; the industry also shaped Hollywood history in an unexpected way, as young immigrant Sam Goldwyn worked in Gloversville’s glove trade before co-founding Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM); Johnstown itself was founded in 1760 by Sir William Johnson, the British Crown’s superintendent of Indian Affairs in colonial New York, who built his manor estate, Johnson Hall, there in 1763 – the house is preserved today as the Johnson Hall State Historic Site; Johnstown is also genuinely the birthplace of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the pioneering women’s rights activist and president of the National Woman Suffrage Association
Notes: Fulton County’s genuine identity as America’s historic “Glove Capital,” combined with its status as the birthplace of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the seat of colonial official Sir William Johnson’s estate, makes it one of the more distinctive industrial-heritage counties found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Fulton County GIS – accessible via fultoncountyny.gov, ESRI-based mapping including GPS/CAD/UAV programs
Parcel Search: Fulton County Real Property Tax Service – Johnstown, NY
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Fulton County Communications Division
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: Fulton County Regional SPCA – 356 S Kingsboro Ave, Gloversville, NY 12078 | Donation drop-off hours: 7–9 AM and 4–6 PM
Services: A 100% volunteer-run, donation-funded shelter serving Fulton, Montgomery, and Hamilton counties; recently awarded $500,000 in NY State Companion Animal Capital grant funding and undergoing a facility expansion; adoption fees $250 (dogs) / $325 (puppies under 10 months), roughly two-week processing time.
Related: Town of Johnstown Animal Control – (518) 762-7070 ext. 100; dog licensing requires current rabies vaccination and spay/neuter certificate.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Environmental Complaints: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Region 5 – dec.ny.gov
Notes: Contact your specific municipality directly for current refuse collection and recycling program details.
NOTES
Johnstown and Gloversville, Fulton County’s “Glove Cities,” genuinely produced roughly 90% of America’s gloves for 70 years, and Johnstown is the real birthplace of women’s rights pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and shelter pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Fulton County
Fulton County is southern Adirondack New York’s leather heritage county – a community whose glove manufacturing dominance created one of the most specialized industrial economies in American history.
Gloversville (population ~14,000) at its early 20th-century peak produced roughly 90% of all leather gloves manufactured in the United States. The tanneries’ chemical waste created significant environmental contamination in the Cayadutta Creek and Mohawk River that persists as a remediation challenge. The Fulton County Museum documents this extraordinary industrial heritage.
Johnstown (the county seat, population ~8,000) was established by Sir William Johnson – the British colonial superintendent of Indian affairs – and was one of the most significant pre-Revolutionary communities in the Mohawk Valley.
Great Sacandaga Lake – a 29-mile-long reservoir – provides boating, fishing, and summer recreation for the region.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Fulton County Real Property Tax Service at 2714 State Highway 29, Suite 1, Johnstown, NY 12095, phone 518-736-5507. Appeal to Board of Assessment Review.
Courts & Legal
Fulton County Surrogate’s Court at 223 W. Main Street, Johnstown, NY 12095, phone 518-736-5695, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK
223 W Main St, Johnstown, NY 12095
(518) 736-5555
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Fulton County Surrogate’s Court, Johnstown (probate case files – see Probate section above).
The 1772-73 Fulton County Courthouse, NRHP-listed, is the oldest continuously used courthouse in New York State – a highly significant local landmark.
Local societies
No dedicated Fulton County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Fulton County Surrogate’s Court Fulton County Office Building, 223 West Main Street, Johnstown, NY 12095 (518) 736-5691
Fulton County is in New York’s Mohawk Valley region, seated in Johnstown. The 1772-73 Fulton County Courthouse – originally the Tryon County, then Montgomery County Courthouse – is the oldest existing courthouse still in use in New York State and one of the oldest in the country, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
New York probate and estate administration is governed by the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act (SCPA) and handled by the Surrogate’s Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled. New York has 62 counties, each with its own Surrogate’s Court.
Voluntary Administration / Small Estate Affidavit (SCPA Article 13) – available when the decedent’s PERSONAL property (not real property) has a gross value of $50,000 or less, excluding certain property automatically set aside for a surviving spouse or children under 21 (EPTL 5-3.1). Owning real property does NOT disqualify an estate from this process – only the personal property counts toward the $50,000 cap. The filing fee is just $1.00.
Probate – required when there’s a valid will and the estate exceeds the small-estate threshold or involves real property.
Administration – required when the decedent died intestate (no will); the Surrogate’s Court appoints an administrator following the statutory priority order under SCPA 1001.
Step 2: filing for probate or administration
File the will (if any) with the Surrogate’s Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled, along with a probate or administration petition.
The court issues Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (without a will) to the appointed fiduciary.
The fiduciary notifies creditors and beneficiaries and inventories the estate’s assets.
Debts, expenses, and any required New York State Estate Tax are paid.
The fiduciary distributes the remaining assets according to the will or New York’s intestacy law and files a final accounting to close the estate.
What it costs
Voluntary Administration filing fee: $1.00.
Full probate/administration filing fees vary and generally scale with estate value.
UNIQUE TO NEW YORK: New York imposes its own separate state ESTATE TAX. For 2026, the New York basic exclusion amount is $7,350,000 – estates at or below that owe no state estate tax. New York has an unusual “cliff”: if the estate’s value exceeds the exclusion by more than 5% (over $7,717,500 in 2026), the ENTIRE estate becomes taxable from the first dollar. No portability between spouses. Rates range from about 3.06% to 16%.
New York has no separate state inheritance tax.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
522 N Perry St, Johnstown, NY 12095
(518) 736-5518
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
BOARD OF ELECTIONS
223 W Main St, Johnstown, NY 12095
(518) 736-5540
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Public Health Department
4238 State Hwy 30, Johnstown, NY 12095
(518) 736-5720
Social Services
4 Daisy Ln, Johnstown, NY 12095
(518) 736-5605
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Fulton County Public Health Department – (518) 736-5720
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Johnstown
Population: 53,000
Established: 1838
Tier: 3
Public Records
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