The locale has always been referred to as a neighborhood of New Windsor. In the 19th century, it became known as Vail's Gate, after John D. Vail, a former postmaster and keeper of the Blooming Grove Turnpike tollgate. For the same reason, it was also earlier called Tooker's Gate. Vail served as the first postmaster of the New Windsor post office, established on April 10, 1850, being named the Mortonville Post Office. The name was finally changed to Vails Gate Post Office, which led to the apostrophe permanently dropping from the name. Efforts to change the name of the hamlet to Mortonville, after the Morton family, residents of the Ellison House, never occurred.
Vails Gate is located at . According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of, all land.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 3,319 people, 1,421 households, and 861 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 3,330.5 per square mile. There were 1,459 housing units at an average density of 1,464.1/sq mi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 72.34% White, 11.87% African American, 0.39% Native American, 4.19% Asian, 7.17% from other races, and 4.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 19.31% of the population. There were 1,421 households out of which 28.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.4% were married couplesliving together, 11.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.4% were non-families. 32.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.98. In the CDP, the population was spread out with 23.0% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 16.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.6 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $39,851, and the median income for a family was $44,485. Males had a median income of $38,636 versus $31,019 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $22,967. About 7.8% of families and 10.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.3% of those under age 18 and 1.9% of those age 65 or over.
