POTSDAM  , a

village of St Lawrence county, New York, U.S.A., in the township of Potsdam, on the Raquette river, about 68 m . N.E. of Watertown . Pop. of the village (1905) 4162; (1910) 4036; of the township (1905) 8992; (1910) 8725 . The village is served by the New York Central & Hudson River railway . It has a public library and is the seat of a state Normal School (1869), an outgrowth of St Lawrence Academy (founded in 1810 by Benjamin Raymond and maintained by him until 1816, when it was incorporated); of the Thomas S . Clarkson Memorial School of Technology (1896), founded by his sisters in honour of Thomas Streatfield Clarkson (1837–1894); and of the Crane Normal Institute of Music . The village has a considerable trade in dairy products . In the neighbourhood are extensive quarries of the well-known " Potsdam sandstone," the uppermost division of the Cambrian system, described as a " fine-grained sandstone cemented with silica," and very durable . The House of Parliament at Quebec, All Saints Cathedral at Albany, New York, and many other public edifices were built of this stone . The " Ten Towns " of St Lawrence county, including the township of Potsdam, were sold by the state in 1787 . The first settlement was made on the Raquette river, close to the present village, in 1803; the township was incorporated in 1806 and the village in 1831 . Potsdam was named after Potsdam in Prussia because of the occurrence in each locality of reddish sandstone .