Town History

The Town of Torrey is located on Seneca Lake in Yates County in the Finger Lakes district of New York. Settled in 1788 by members of Jemima Wilkinson's Friends Society seeking to found a New Jerusalem, Torrey became a township in 1851, the last of nine townships established in Yates County.

With a land area of less than 40 square miles and a population of less than 1,300, Torrey is one of the smaller towns in the county. Torrey contains one village, Dresden, notable as the birthplace of Robert Ingersoll, orator, freethinker, and opponent of fanaticism.

Distinctive features of the Torrey landscape include the extensive 17 miles of Seneca Lake shoreline, and the many pristine farms and vineyards that constitute well over 72 % of the area of the Town. The agriculture is small scale market gardens, truck farms, and dairy farms, and an increasing proportion is organic. A majority of the agricultural enterprises are family owned, many by members of the large Mennonite community in Torrey. The vineyards on the slopes above Seneca Lake supply the half dozen wineries making up Torrey's contribution to the Seneca Lake Wine Trail that winds down Route 14. The quality of locally produced wines, particularly the Rieslings, has been recognized by an increasing number of national and international prizes over the past several years, and by the praise of connoisseurs who collect Torrey wines for their cellars.