Whether known as Petanock, Tawasentha, Godyn's Kil or Norman's Kil (Norwegian's Creek in Dutch), this meandering stream figures prominently in Bethlehem history. Though patroon Kiliaen van Rensselaer contracted earlier to have mills built where the lower falls meet the Hudson, the first permanent settler on the mainland was Albert Andriesen (Bratt after 1670) of Norway. Albert came in 1637 and lived 49 years conducting a tobacco farm and mills along its shores. His neighbors were farmer and miller Pieter Winne (de Vlamingh, the Fleming) and fur trader Teunis C. Slingerland. Scot Archibald McCormack bought land in 1787 on both sides of the Normans Kill that reached to McCormack Road. The road's hollow, where it drops down to the creek, was for a time called "Molasses Hollow" for the molasses that once spilled here. Barrels of the stuff rolled off a tipped over cart and broke on the way down the hill. People scurried to capture the precious sweetener in any way they could.

The Normans Kill forms the northern border of the town. The Normanside Country Club covers a fair length of a creek and offers a glimpse of its once pastoral nature. In May of 2000 a landslide along its slippery clay slopes carried a produce stand down with it and prompted a major reshaping of the Delaware Avenue overpass area.