[4] Also hindering a unified town image is that North Greenbush consists of parts of four different school districts, only one of which (a one-room schoolhouse) carries the town's name; two fire departments (Wynantskill and Defreestville); and three ZIP Codes (City of Troy, City of Rensselaer, and Wynantskill).

[4] North Greenbush is home to the southern part of the Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) campus, including the Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, home to the Tri-City ValleyCats minor league baseball team; the RPI Tech Park; the La Salle Institute; the New York State National Guard Armory, headquarters for the Rainbow Division; and various Rensselaer County government institutions.

The earliest settlers, in the early 1620s settled in Bath, a part of the town annexed to Rensselaer in 1902.

[5] Defreestville was originally called Blooming Grove until approximately 1830, when it was changed due to confusion with another Blooming Grove, in Orange County,[6] it was named Defreestville for David M. De Freest and family who owned a tavern there.

[6] Snyders Lake was developed as summer residences and continues to lack a central business district.

[4] During the 20th century, North Greenbush would begin to see more development due to an improved transportation infrastructure which led to increased suburban residential, office, and retail growth based on the automobile.

The older, narrower, winding residential parts of the road were bypassed and is today's Bloomingrove Drive.

[4] This suburban growth would be encouraged by the construction of Interstate 90 (I-90) and the Patroon Island Bridge in the 1960s, making North Greenbush an easy commute to Albany.

[4] A connector highway will eventually also go from Exit 8 parallel to US 4 north through the RPI Tech Park and meet US 4 near Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) at the Troy city line.

[7] But as time progressed, opposition grew in response to concerns about potential impacts on traffic and the environment.

The western section of the town is steeply sloped and cut by various ravines; the clay bluffs rise between 100 and 200 feet (61 m) above the river with little to no flood plain.

The west town line is marked by the Hudson River with Albany County on the opposite shore.