8 New York Laws From the 1800s That Are Somehow Still on the Books

Guess which one is real: A law that requires a local permit before professional sports teams can take the field on a Sunday, or a citywide ban on humming in an elevator?

You’ll have to continue reading to find out.

These are the New York laws from the 1800s that are somehow still on the books.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Statutes and how they’re enforced can change, so confirm the current text with the New York State Legislature’s website or a licensed attorney.

1. Vendor’s Exemption From 1894

Some sidewalk vendors in New York City never have to show the permit everyone else needs.

It’s not because an officer looks the other way.

It’s because a state law from 1894 says they don’t have to.

Lawmakers wrote the exemption for disabled Civil War veterans who needed a way to earn a living.

It let them sell goods from a hand-pushed cart on any street or in any park in the state without asking the city for a separate permit.

New York City fought the rule in court for decades.

Veterans kept winning.

The exemption now covers any honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected disability, and it’s still written into New York’s Section 35.

A vendor on Fifth Avenue can rely on a rule older than the automobile.

2. Every State Job Still Needs a Test

Landing a job with New York State government still runs through the same idea lawmakers wrote into law in 1883.

Pass a competitive exam, or don’t get the job.

The rule followed the assassination of President Garfield by a disappointed office seeker.

New York became one of the first states in the country to build hiring around exams instead of political favors.

Years ahead of most states.

State agencies still recruit and certify workers through competitive civil service exams today, the same framework that 1883 law set up.

Nobody skips the exam, no matter who you know.

3. Niagara Falls Almost Went Private

By the 1870s, private mills and toll booths crowded right up to the edge of Niagara Falls, charging visitors just to reach a clear view of the water.

New Yorkers pushed back.

After more than 15 years of public pressure from the Free Niagara movement, the governor signed a law in 1885 creating Niagara Falls State Park, the nation’s first state park.

Nearly a century and a half later, the park still belongs to the public, not a toll booth.

4. Nearly 3 Million Acres, Forever

Just east of Niagara, lawmakers were fighting a bigger battle over the Adirondack and Catskill forests, which loggers were clearing at an alarming pace.

In 1885, New York passed the Forest Preserve Act, then locked the idea into the state constitution in 1894.

The wording hasn’t changed since it took effect on January 1, 1895.

Not one word.

Forest Preserve land inside the Adirondack and Catskill parks must stay forever wild.

The legislature can’t lease, sell, or log a single tree on it without New York voters approving a constitutional amendment first.

A governor can’t do that either.

5. Sunday Games Still Need a Permit

For decades, New York flatly banned public sports played for money on Sundays, a holdover from the state’s 19th-century Sabbath laws.

Play ball on the wrong day, and organizers risked a fine.

That ban is still technically the rule.

Under a Sabbath-era statute still on the books, a paid Sunday sporting event needs a local ordinance allowing it.

Even then, nothing can start before 1:05 p.m.

That’s why New York teams spent decades scheduling around Sunday mornings, long after most fans forgot the reason.

Not a minute sooner.

6. Burial Law From Before the Civil War

In 1847, more than a decade before the Civil War began, New York passed the Rural Cemetery Act, letting private, non-religious groups form nonprofit corporations just to run a cemetery.

Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery and dozens of others exist because of that single law.

It's not a museum piece.

New York's current Not-for-Profit Corporation Law still names the 1847 act by its original chapter number.

Cemetery corporations formed under it still answer to that same basic structure.

A law older than the Civil War still governs how a cemetery can buy land.

7. New York's Constitution Still Bans Betting

The delegates who wrote New York's 1894 constitution didn't dabble in gambling reform.

It banned nearly all of it outright: Lotteries, bookmaking, pool-selling, and every other kind of wager the delegates could think to name.

That ban is still the default rule today.

The state lottery, off-track horse racing, charity bingo, commercial casinos, and mobile sports betting are all legal now.

Every single one needed its own amendment carving an exception out of that 1894 clause.

The exception is what's legal.

The rule is still no.

8. One Law Made Five Boroughs One City

Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island used to run as separate cities and counties, each with its own government.

Then Albany passed one law.

The state legislature approved the charter for the City of Greater New York on May 4, 1897, merging all five into a single city that took effect January 1, 1898.

Brooklyn ranked among the largest cities in the country at the time, still a separate city from New York.

Its leaders fought the merger hard.

They lost.

Brooklyn hasn't had its own mayor since.

Not Every Old Law Survives

New York doesn't leave every old law standing forever.

A statute from 1907 that made adultery a crime stayed on the books for 117 years, rarely enforced and mostly forgotten, until state lawmakers finally repealed it in 2024.

That repeal took an actual bill, a floor vote, and a governor's signature.

No sweep. No schedule.