By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – When Paul Mann thinks of historic downtown Albion, he longs for the Main Street of the early 1970s, an image captured in this post card. The photograph shows Main Street, looking north from near State Street.
“Notice the parking meters, awnings, signs, the Rialto Theater,” Mann wrote in an email. “Shell Gas station is now the municipal parking lot. This is the Historic Albion that I remember.”
There is also a nice hitching post in the bottom left corner, in front of the former Swan Library. Mann also notes the photo includes a nice-looking 1969 Plymouth Fury.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 23 October 2013 at 12:00 am
“This is a great place to go exploring.” – Brandon Blount
Photos by Tom Rivers – Brandon Blount stands by one of the stone walls that once propped up a bridge in Waterport by the Oak Orchard River.
WATERPORT – The former Waterport Trestle is famous locally. Mention the trestle around these parts, and many people will talk about riding their bikes and snowmobiles on the elevated bridge that used to carry trains over the Oak Orchard River. The trestle has been gone for 20 years.
The stone pillars and support bases for the trestle still remain. The stone is massive.
Every fall, hundreds of fishermen pass by the trestle bases along the Oak Orchard River. Stray from the fishing path along the creek and more of Waterport’s history remains in the woods.
The stone supports for a bridge that may have been built in the mid-1800s remain next to the Oak Orchard River, about a 100-yard walk from the Waterport Dam.
Brandon Blount doubts many people venture off the worn dirt paths in one of the area’s most popular fishing spots. Locals and out-of-state anglers will crowd the area by the Waterport Dam trying to hook Chinook salmon. They may venture down a path on the east side of the river to see how the fish how are biting.
Blount, 35, grew up taking many walks in the woods with his grandfather, the late Don “Cookie” Cook, a well-known local wildlife photographer. Cookie also liked the area’s history. He found an eager ear in Blount.
Fishermen seem oblivious to all of the old stone pieces near the Oak Orchard River and their past role in holding up bridges.
About two weeks ago Blount showed me the remnants of two pieces of Waterport history. The Medina sandstone walls remain on the west side of the Oak Orchard River just north of the trestle. The walls were part of a bridge that Blount thinks may date back to the 1850s.
It doesn’t have any steel supports. One of the wooden beams remains. Blount said the old bridges were typically abandoned and left to rot while something new may have been built close by. That’s what happened in Waterport.
Brandon Blount created this map of the area just north of the Waterport Dam. He highlighted the spot of the former Waterport Trestle and two bridges that once spanned the Oak Orchard River. The trestle is the bigger red box on the bottom. An older bridge was north of the trestle and then it was replaced with one farther to the north. Blount used an image from Google Maps to create the map.
The first bridge still has a wall and a beam and a few cast iron pins that helped hold things together. There isn’t a well worn path by this. You have to battle the weeds and dodge the trees.
One of the wooden beams still sticks up. But it looks like the bugs and nature have taken a toll on the wood. This stone wall can be seen on the other side of the river. In fact, several fishermen were wading in the water not too far away, oblivious to the area’s former industrial and railroad mite.
Blount is pictured by one of the support beams that remains from a bridge that was removed long ago from Waterport.
Blount knows some people know about the bridge with the wooden beams. If you have an imagination and wander down the river, you’ll see the stone wall and the beam and you might wonder.
The second bridge is harder to find. A stone wall doesn’t stand right next to the river in plain view. Blount walked through the woods, high-stepping weeds and fallen limbs. It took a couple tries, but then he found a steel girder sticking up in the dirt. Then there were two more of them. A 5-foot-high stone wall, nearly camouflaged by the wilderness, then appeared.
A wall of sandstone is set back in the woods by the Oak Orchard River. Blount thinks it was used to hold up a bridge about a century ago.
Blount suspects this one dates from the late 1800s to early 1900s. There are other stone walls nearby that once held up this bridge that connected Park Avenue to Clark Mills Road. The walls, which tower about 12 feet high and remain solid sandstone structures, are off the beaten path.
“I’ve brought people down here who have lived here their whole life and they didn’t know this was here,” Blount said.
Blount used to venture along the river, trying to catch fish. Now he prefers to go with his camera and very little modern technology.
Nature has reclaimed much of the area around a former bridge in the woods of Waterport.
“This is a great place to go exploring,” Blount said.
Orleans Hub plans to post historical photos of the trestle and the bridges in the future. We get a lot of feedback on the “Vintage Orleans” photos. However, history is more fun to discover on foot. The Hub hopes to share more adventures about local history.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Artist Judson Smith painted a mural of a tugboat and canal scene inside the Albion Post Office in 1939.
ALBION – When the nation was gripped with the Great Depression in the 1930s, the federal government dispatched citizens for a series of paid public works projects.
One of those projects included building a new Post Office for Albion in 1937 at the southwest corner of the intersection of Main and East State streets. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Two years after the building opened, with the economy still struggling, the federal government hired artist Judson Smith to paint a large mural inside the Post Office. Smith painted a scene of the canal village with tugboat passing under a lift bridge. The scene includes a farm, stores and a factory.
The mural remains in the post office, set up high over the door for the postmaster.
The mural portrays a generalized canal village with a lift bridge, farm, stores and a factory.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – About a century ago it was touted in advertisements as “one of the largest and best refrigerating plants in the U.S.”
That was the bold proclamation in 1905 when the Albion Cold Storage Company was featured in a souvenir book of Albion businesses.
Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin dropped off a copy of the photo and the book following Thursday’s fire at the building. Frank Zicari of Albion also emailed Orleans Hub the photo from 1905, four years after the plant opened. It towers three stories above ground and also appears to include a basement.
The structure has been declared a total loss after being engulfed in flames on Thursday. Demolition crews are expected to knock down the remaining walls soon. Two of the walls were pushed over in the piles of smoldering rubble on Friday.
In the photo from 108 years ago, hundreds of apple barrels are stacked outside. The advertisement notes the building had a capacity for 75,000 barrels of refrigerated space and 25,000 barrels of dry storage.
“We use carbonic acid gas for refrigeration,” the company states in its ad. “There is no danger in case of leaks either to the fruit or persons who might be in the rooms.”
Lattin notes the cold storage had a very loud steam whistle that is pictured left of the smoke stack at right. The whistle went off at noon.
“It could be heard for miles around,” Lattin said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 October 2013 at 12:00 am
‘Gilbert Creek’ runs east of 98 in Gaines and Carlton
Photos by Tom Rivers – This unnamed stream by Ridge Road in Gaines, about a mile east of Route 98, is largely undisturbed.
GAINES – The stream doesn’t have a name, but it caught the eye of a pioneer settler on Ridge Road and the town of Gaines more than 200 years ago.
Elizabeth Gilbert and her husband, identified in historical records only as “Mr. Gilbert,” arrived with their two children and a niece in 1807. They picked a spot next to a stream near where the Gaines Carlton Community Church now stands on Route 104, close to the intersection with Brown Road.
Early settlers liked to build log cabins close to a source of water. The Gilberts chose the north side of Ridge Road, building their home where there was a rise in the land.
The cabin is long gone, but a historical marker notes the pioneering efforts from Mrs. Gilbert. Her husband died in 1808, leaving her to raise the children, and tame the nearby wilderness.
The creek at the site has never been named, but Al Capurso wants to change that. He wants it to recognize the pioneering efforts of Mrs. Gilbert.
The creek begins from feeder sources south of Route 104 near Brown Road. It then marries Procter Brook in Carlton, and then flows into the oak Orchard River.
Capurso has secured resolutions of support for naming the stream “Gilbert Creek” from both the Gaines and Carlton town boards. He has pages of signatures from residents in support of the creek naming.
Al Capurso stands on a pedestrian bridge over a stream he wants named for a pioneer settler in Gaines.
On July 7, he sent an application to the U.S. Geological Survey Unit of the Department of the Interior, the agency responsible for reviewing applications for naming geologic features in the country.
Capurso said the creek meets the Interior’s criteria for naming a creek based on three levels: The feature is currently unnamed; The stream has an independent and distinct source of flow; and it is historically significant.
Capurso has read historical accounts of the pioneers in Orleans, and Gilbert is credited with helping settlers that arrived soon after her make their new homes.
Capurso believes the stones on the creek bed are the same ones that the Gilbert family likely stood on when they moved to Gaines and built a cabin beginning in 1807.
He is hopeful the creek will officially bear her name by early next year, and a sign by Ridge Road will proclaim it as “Gilbert Creek.” Capurso is working on the wooden sign that will match the one for Procter Brook at the Cobblestone Society Museum.
He thinks honoring a pioneer settler, and erecting a historical-looking sign, will blend in nicely with the Cobblestone Museum less than a mile down the road.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Vines have wrapped around one of the stone pillars that used to hold up the trestle in Waterport.
Fishermen stand next to the stone bases from the trestle while trying to catch Chinook salmon.
WATERPORT – The massive stone bases that once held up the Waterport Trestle are still visible 20 years after the trestle was dismantled.
But nature is on the offensive, as vines, poison ivy, and trees have migrated to the stone pillars and, in some cases, wrapped around them.
The woods and vegetation by the trestle probably hasn’t been tamed in two decades, when contractors were there to dismantle the steel structure that spanned the Oak Orchard and ran from Park Avenue to Clark Mills Road.
The river, in photos from 20 years ago, looked a little wider. But trees, plants and vines seem to be on the move.
The base of the trestle is nearly obscured in the woods near Clark Mills Road, west of the Oak Orchard River.
“The river is reclaiming its space,” said Brandon Blount, who has been walking the Oak Orchard and woods nearby for about three decades.
Blount, 35, led me on a tour of the Waterport Dam and the nearby woods last Friday. I wanted to see what was left of the trestle, and I was curious to see if there were any remnants of two old bridges that show up in photos from a century ago.
Blount grew up in the area and took a lot of walks as a kid with his grandfather, the late Don “Cookie” Cook, a local outsdoorsman and photographer. Blount is an outdoor photographer himself.
Gary Fleckenstein shared this photo of the Waterport Trestle in the late 1980s, a few years before the structure was taken down. The stone bases remain at the site.
He used to walk across the trestle, which could be a harrowing experience because some of the wooden beams were missing or rotted. There were no railings up there.
Blount remembers the excitement of the adventure on the trestle and walking the grounds below. But now he prefers to walk by the river and explore the woods as a form of peaceful meditation.
Blount remembers when the trestle came down in 1993. It felt like a death in the family, the loss of a treasured and beloved icon for the area.
Blount walks past one of the stone bases of the trestle.
He has kept two iron spikes that he found in the woods from the old railroad that used to pass overheard.
Thousands of fishermen, many from out-of-state, will pass by the stone bases this fall while they try to hook some of the massive Chinook salmon that make their run to the Oak Orchard River to spawn.
Many of the anglers probably are clueless about the history at the Waterport Dam with the former trestle and the hydroelectric power plant that opened in 1920 and remains in operation today.
A lot of fishermen pass by the stone pillars that supported the trestle.The stone bases include Medina sandstone in the middle but the outer piers look like granite.
The stone bases for the trestle are remnants of the site’s former industrial glory, when trains chugged by on the elevated bridge.
It is a fascinating spot down by the dam, and heading a quarter-mile walk going north. The trestle’s base supports run in a line from near Park Avenue to Clark Mills Road.
Most local folks know about the trestle. They don’t need signs and interpretive panels to explain that the stone once held up a steel structure that carried trains across the river.
A view from on top of one of the stone bases that helped hold on the trestle. This photo was taken near the parking lot by the Waterport Dam.
But keep heading north from the trestle and you discover big walls of sandstone that once held up a bridge. One of those stone walls still has an original wooden beam sticking up. This was an old bridge about 100 yards north of the trestle.
Keep walking in the woods and you’ll find the remains of the second bridge. I don’t think a lot of folks know about these.
I should have a story and photos of the bridge remnants later today or tomorrow.
RIDGEWAY – In this photo taken during March 1903 we see students who attended school at District 13 in Ridgeway.
This one-room schoolhouse was located at Jeddo on Ridge Road just east of the Orleans-Niagara County Line. It includes students from grades 1 to 8.
Miss Clute, the teacher, is standing directly left of the tree. Students in the picture include: Harold Waterbury, Howard Havens, Georgie Bane, Snella Collins, Ruth Bateman, Chester Eaton, Thurman Bayne, Ray Lewis, Cora Payne, Theron Beck, David (unknown last name), Sarah Springer, Homer Beck, Howard Eaton, Erma Bateman, Eulalie Bayne, Ray Housell, Burt Webb, Gennie Case, Velada Beck, Hildreth Foster, Jessie Fitzgerald, Girtie Collins, Arthur Havens and Winifred Payne.
The two women to the right are Ruby Payne and Kittie Fitzgerald.
Note the flag pole from the woods. An outhouse is also visible behind the school.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Stone pillars next to the Oak Orchard River, in front of the Waterport Dam, were used to hold up something, either a bridge or the trestle for the railroad.
A beer can looks tiny compared to one of the stone pillars near the Waterport Dam.
CARLTON – My trip Sunday evening by the Waterport Dam was full of wonder, and not just because of the 30-pound Chinook salmon that were being caught.
The area by the dam includes a row of massive stone pillars. They held up something big back in the day. I’ve heard about the old Waterport trestle that was removed about 20 years ago. I assumed the trestle must have stood on these stone pillars.
But I saw an old postcard of Waterport online today and it appears the trestle wasn’t next to the dam. I think there was a bridge there and these pillars were used to support that span that crossed the Oak Orchard River. (I don’t have permission to use the image or I’d post it on Orleans Hub.)
If anyone has historic photos or more information about the trestle and the old bridge by the dam, please send them to me at tom@orleanshub.com or drop them off at the Pennysaver and we’ll scan them in. The address is 170 North Main Street.
The town of Carlton web site gives some background on the “Ho-Jack” Line, which opened in 1876 and carried freight until 1978. (Click here to see that write-up.)
The Waterport Dam was built between 1917 and 1919 and the hydroelectric power station opened in 1920. It continues to be in use today.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 October 2013 at 12:00 am
WATERPORT – Gary Fleckenstein was flying a plane in the late 1980s when he handed his camera to his passenger, Larry Grimes, who snapped the photo above of the Waterport Trestle and the power plant.
Fleckenstein sent the photo to Orleans Hub after today’s article about the stone pillars near the dam. (Click here to see that one.) I was at the dam yesterday and wondered about the row of stone supports. I figured it was for the trestle, but an old photo of the area showed a bridge nearby, so I wasn’t sure what the pillars held up.
Both the trestle and the bridge have been dismantled. Fleckenstein’s photo clearly shows a trestle stood near the Waterport Dam and power plant.
The trestle was removed about 20 years ago. He also sent along this photo he took of the trestle from the western end looking east/northeast. He notes the pylon foundations are clearly visible.
Fleckenstein says about a quarter-mile downstream are more bridge foundations that seem to predate the trestle. I’m going back down Friday with a guide to get more pictures of the remnants of these engineering works and important historical landmarks.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Bob Brown stands next his wife Deborah while praising his ancestors, including Orleans County pioneer Bathshua Brown, for settling in an area that was such a dense forest it was known as the Black North.
CARLTON – Bob Brown often thinks of Bathshua Brown, who 209 years ago was left to tame a forest, start a farm and raise a family, all without her husband Elijah. He died on a boat while the family moved from Sodus to near the Oak Orchard River not far from Lake Ontario.
“Her most important piece of equipment was an ax,” Brown said today when the family dedicated a peace garden, part of a trail of gardens that has emerged to celebrate more than 200 years of peace between the United States and Canada.
Each of the peace garden sites tell a story, recalling life from two centuries ago. The garden at Brown’s Berry Patch includes an interpretive panel. It notes the family’s eight generations of work as farmers. It focuses on Bathshua Brown and her “pioneer tenacity.”
When Bathshua and her 12 children settled in Carlton, the area was a dense forest. Trees were thick the area was known as the “Black North,” because the sun could barely penetrate the dense canopy, Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin said.
Former State Assemblyman Charlie Nesbitt served as master of ceremonies during the dedication of a peace garden today at Brown’s Berry Patch.
This marker notes Brown’s Berry Patch is now part of the Bicentennial Peace Garden Trail.
“The early days were not comfortable,” Lattin said. “It took a great deal of tenacity to get through the early days.”
Bathshua was a determined woman. The family had already met hardship. The interpretive panel at the new garden tells the family’s story. Before Elijah died on the journey to Carlton, he and his wife rented a farm off Fishers Island off the shore of Connecticut. They lost all of their livestock, possessions and buildings to a British captain in 1776 during the Revolutionary War. The Browns moved to Sodus before purchasing the farm in Carlton in 1804 from the Holland Land Company.
“During the War of 1812 the British had several armed vessels on Lake Ontario to hinder commerce along the south shore,” according to the panel. “During one of the raids a British captain foolishly found himself captured and subsequently brought up to Bathshua Brown, the matriarch of the area. To her surprise he was the same captain who plundered the family on Fishers Island. Bathshua gave him three choices: be turned over to the American forces at Ridge Road, let her sons have at him, or return to his ship and never come back to this area again. He chose to leave and was never seen again.”
Bathshua and her pioneering spirit is also noted on a historical marker in front of Brown’s Berry Patch.
Bob Brown said he thinks of her hardships and how they compare when he gets annoyed when a cell phone doesn’t work or when there are other minor inconveniences.
“As a society we need to stop and count our blessings,” he said.
The garden shares an inspiring story of Bathshua Brown. It also highlights a beautiful and fun area with the farm market and adventure course at Brown’s Berry Patch, said Paula Savage, the Peace Garden Foundation president.
Paula Savage, the Peace Garden Foundation president, congratulates Bob and Deborah Brown for creating a honorary peace garden at Brown’s Berry Patch. The Brown’s garden has been recognized by the Peace Garden Foundation and is now part of a peace garden trail.
She helped create a peace garden in Batavia last year. There are 18 in New York state, and they highlight the friendship between the U.S. and Canada, she said.
The gardens tell stories, and that heritage can be a draw for tourists, said Wayne Hale, the Orleans County tourism director. Counties and regions are tapping heritage tourism as an economic development tool, he said.
“It’s all about the story,” he said.
Former State Assemblyman Charlie Nesbitt served as master of ceremonies for the garden dedication. Albion High School student Elijah Van Epps sang the United States anthem while student Zach Shaffer sang the Canadian anthem.
State Assemblyman Steve Hawley presented the Browns with a citation for working to create the garden and for choosing to celebrate peace between the two countries.
LYNDONVILLE – Our view in this photo in the 1930s shows a huge pile of apples behind crates at the Lyndonville Canning Company.
One of the plant’s products was applesauce, which was sold with a label bearing the letters VB. This stood for Visher Brothers, who owned the canning factory. The two letters also doubled for “Very Best.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 September 2013 at 12:00 am
Annual Ghost Walk draws 500 to Mount Albion
Photos by Tom Rivers – Albion student William Pecorella portrays William Barlow, the man who designed the County Courthouse and numerous other distinctive local buildings.
Chey-Rain Eagle depicts Elizabeth Proctor, the third wife of John Proctor, who is considered the “Paul Revere of Gaines” for riding his horse and alerting residents all the way to Lewiston that the British were coming.
ALBION – Some prominent Albionites in business, politics and community affairs in the 19th Century returned Saturday during the annual Ghost Walk at Mount Albion Cemetery.
The Albion drama program told the stories of 15 Albion residents who are buried in the oldest part of the cemetery, which opened in 1843. Students dressed in period costume and portrayed some of the Albionites, including perhaps Albion’s most famous native son, the Honorable Sanford Church. He served as lieutenant governor, state comptroller and chief judge of the Court of Appeals.
Not all of the Albion residents on the Ghost Walk achieved great success and acclaim. Students featured two children – Jane Lavery and Lydia Harris – who perished in the Main Street bridge collapse on Sept. 28, 1859.
Alyssa Lawrence tells the story of Jane Lavery, who was 16 when she died in the bridge collapse in 1859.
Joe Madejski portrays Sanford Church, who rose to the highest levels of state government in the mid-1800s.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 September 2013 at 12:00 am
At least 15 died when bridge collapsed
ALBION – It’s our darkest day, Sept. 28, 1859.
It was supposed to a joyous, fun-filled occasion. The annual Orleans County Fair drew waves of people to Albion, and the celebration included a wire-walker, who would attempt to walk across the canal. A rope was strung just west of the Main Street bridge, reaching from the top of a hotel to a block of stores.
There was a wire-walking frenzy back in those days. Jean Francois Gravelet, “The Great Blondin,” walked across Niagara Falls on a tight rope on June 30, 1859. A bunch of copycats sprang up, including one in Albion three months later during the county fair.
The Main Street bridge was packed with 250 people and five horses to watch a wire walker, “a young adventurer from Brockport,” according to a newspaper account. The wirewalker didn’t get far. With a mass of people crowding to see the spectacle, he made it 10 feet. Then the wooden bridge gave out, plunging the crowd into the canal.
At least 15 people died, and many more were maimed and seriously injured.
Here are some of their names:
Perry G. Cole, aged 19, Barre
Augusta Martin, aged 18, Carlton
Mrs. Ann Viele, aged 36, Gaines
Edwin Stillson, aged 16, Barre
Joseph Code, aged 18, Albion
Lydia Harris, aged 11, Albion
Thomas Handy, aged 66, Yates
Sarah Thomas, aged 10, Carlton
Harry Henry, aged 22
Ransom S. Murdock, aged 17, Carlton
Adelbert Wilcox, aged 17, West Kendall
Sophia Pratt, aged 18, Toledo, Ohio
Thomas Aulchin, aged 50, Paris, C.W.
Jane Lavery, Albion
Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin and the Orleans County Historical Association put up a marker near the canal in 2002, noting the canal tragedy. I would like to see the community do more, to remember these children, young mothers and other county residents.
I think a memorial fountain by the canal between the two lift bridges in Albion would be a more fitting recognition of this horrible event. The fountain would also beautify the canal and help draw people to the downtown area.
But this is more about paying our respects.
Albion students are doing their annual Ghost Walk today at Mount Albion Cemetery from 5 to 9 p.m. I know Jane Lavery, who died in the bridge collapse, will be featured.
The bridge collapse was widely covered from newspapers throughout the country. To read accounts from the tragedy, click here.
ALBION – Pictured here in the summer of 1943 are employees of the Birdseye Lab, which was located on South Main Street in Albion. The back of the lab building appears in the background. The McNall Funeral Home is to the far left.
Front row, from left: Charlie Byrne, Sy Pomper (s), Ruth Adamy (s), Fern Chase (s) and Jessie Nenni. Back row: Hunter Cohen (s), Helen Collins, Bill Lee, Helen DiJuilio, W. Enzie and John Swenholt. The (s) signifies the person was a summer worker. Dr. Dykstra, supervisor, was absent from the photo.
Note the glass bottles of Coca-Cola in this picture, which was taken when the employees were on break.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 25 September 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Most of our Vintage Orleans features are from a century ago. This one isn’t even quite a year old. It shows Albion’s Main Street while it was lit up with incandescent light bulbs.
The village has replaced about 30 of the those lights with new LED technology that use far less power and give a softer glow. The lights also have new globes that help direct the light downward.
A Hub reader, Wayne Burlison of Albion, took this photo last December. I didn’t have a pre-LED photo to compare the new lights with. Thanks, Wayne.
