Car insurance in Camillus, New York rates a town of roughly 25,300 people on the western edge of the Syracuse metro area. It was founded on March 8, 1799, and named for Marcus Furius Camillus, a Roman general credited with saving Rome from a Gallic siege — making this the only town anywhere in the United States that carries the name.

That trivia doesn't move a premium one way or the other. What does matter is more ordinary: an incorporated village inside the town's borders, an old canal-era mill corridor along Nine Mile Creek, and a state highway that carries commuters into Syracuse every morning.

A Name Rome Never Saw Repeated

Camillus's early settlers picked the name in 1799, decades before most of the rest of the country had settled on its town names at all. No other American town has ever adopted the same namesake, which makes Camillus, New York a genuine one-of-one — a fact local historians note more often than most insurance quotes ever will.

What New York Still Requires

None of that history changes the legal floor. Every Camillus driver carries the same 25/50/10 liability minimum required statewide: $25,000 in bodily injury coverage per person, $50,000 per accident, and $10,000 in property damage. Because New York is a no-fault state, a Camillus policy also needs at least $50,000 in Personal Injury Protection per person, plus Uninsured Motorist coverage matching those 25/50 bodily injury limits.

Camillus at a glance: population ~25,300 · founded 1799 · only U.S. town with this name · Village of Camillus incorporated inside the town · Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct is a National Register site · 25/50/10 minimum liability · $50,000 no-fault PIP required · NY-5 runs through Fairmount and the village.

Nine Mile Creek and the Erie Canal's Mill Era

When the Erie Canal reached Camillus in 1825, Nine Mile Creek became the town's industrial engine — as many as 19 mills drew power from the creek and shipped their output straight onto the canal. The Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct that once carried the canal over the creek still stands and now sits on the National Register of Historic Places, alongside the Wilcox Octagon House.

A rail line from Syracuse to Auburn opened through town in 1838, layering a second transportation era onto the first. None of that canal or rail history reads as a flood zone or an active risk today — it's a historic backdrop more than a pricing input, though it does explain why the village grew up exactly where it did.

NY-5 and the Fairmount Corridor

NY-5 runs east-west across the town, feeding commuter traffic between Camillus and downtown Syracuse every weekday. NY-173 crosses NY-5 near the Fairmount hamlet, and NY-174 crosses it again closer to Camillus village, with NY-321 meeting the corridor further out at Bennetts Corners.

That concentration of intersecting state routes along a single commuter highway tends to produce more low-speed merge collisions than a town without through traffic would see. A garaging address right on the NY-5 corridor can price a notch differently than one tucked into a quieter residential pocket off West Genesee Street.

What Camillus Drivers Actually Pay

There isn't a standalone rate table for Camillus the way there is for Syracuse proper. The town shares the broader Syracuse-area market, which averages around $97 a month for liability-only coverage and $165 a month for full coverage. Whether an address sits inside the incorporated Village of Camillus or out along the NY-5 corridor can shift that number more than the town-wide average alone would suggest.

  • Note the village or town line: an address inside the Village of Camillus can rate differently than one just outside it, even on the same street.
  • Ask about SUM coverage: the mandatory $25,000/$50,000 UM minimum is thin against a serious crash on a commuter corridor like NY-5.
  • Flag West Genesee School District enrollment: some multi-policy discounts key off district or municipality, so confirm it's listed correctly.
  • Re-shop at renewal: a quote from a year or two ago may not reflect current claims data along the NY-5 corridor.

For more on how much coverage to carry above the state floor, see our minimum vs. full coverage guide.

Camillus may be the only town in America carrying its name, but its insurance market looks a lot like its Onondaga County neighbors: a 25/50/10 floor, a no-fault PIP requirement, and a rate that tracks the exact street — village, Fairmount, or NY-5 corridor — more than the town-wide average or the history behind the name.