Named after Daniel D. Tompkins, governor of New York and vice president.
Tompkins (1774–1825), governor of New York from 1807 to 1817, founded a settlement here in 1815. He was elected vice president the following year and served from 1817 to 1825. In 1817 he built a dock at the foot of today’s Victory Boulevard and began a steam ferry service to Manhattan. In colonial times the place was known as the ‘Watering Place’.