Here's the Busy Corner in the snow. You're looking north, with the triangular Devereux Building forming Franklin Square.
I'm not sure if the above photo was taken in Utica, but it was labeled "The Blizzard of 1888. It was not unusual for people to come out after a storm and help each other by shoveling out residences as well as businesses. Shoveling in a large group must have been fun. I suppose.
Pell Street in New York City. Except for the very tall building in the background, this could be Utica and that is why I chose to run it.
How about that, a beer truck convention!
Above a modern photo of the Utica Club brewery. I don't know if its official name is West End Brewery or F.X. Matt Brewing Company, etc.
Below, a brewery tour in progress.
A very serious train wreck in Boonville around 1900.
Below, the Parkway tennis courts at an earlier date, probably the 1950s. Below that is the armory on the Memorial Parkway where Albany Street crosses. It is now occupied by the U.S. Army National Guard. There were two armories in Utica at one time, the first was on Rutger Street on the edge of Steuben Park. And the one pictured below, called the Cavalry Armory. Horse stalls were still intact the last time I was in the building in the 1960s. When I asked the "General" at the time why they didn't tear out the stalls and make better use of the space, he responded that in the event of a nuclear attack, cars and trucks might not work or gas might not be available. But horses had won wars for thousands of years. I don't know if he was serious.
Below is the Country Day School, adjacent to where Utica Mutual Insurance Company would one day reside. When Notre Dame high school opened for boys only in the fall of 1960, construction on the new school building on Burrstone Road was just getting started. So ND's first classes of 1961 through 1964 spent the '60-'61 school year here, in the most unbelievable dump one could imagine. The place was mess and smelled of dead flies throughout. For good reason, the auditorium was infested with them and their dead bodies littered the floor like a black snow fall. It wasn't easy to get to on the bus either, on the very end of the New Hartform Genesee Street bus route.
MVTI (later MVCC) had held classes there before us and I don't know when the original school for the children of the elite closed it doors. But I always wondered what those kids died of.
Here's another photo of the Country Day School below, with a group of children large enough to be the entire student population. Although the boys are wearing coats and the girls jumpers, Including the younger students in the front of the group, I don't think they're from a nearby Catholic school. To my knowledge, the buildings were torn down shortly after Notre Dame High School spent the one year there. in 1960-1961. I have to assume these kids were students at the original Country Day School. There appear to be faculty sprinkled on the edges far left and far right. No nuns.
Their dress would not have been unusual at a private school in the 1950s. The girls' uniforms are an example. Although I remember the nuns at our Catholic schools saying the purpose of uniforms was to thwart dress competition in which those with less family money would be at a disadvantage, the real reason probably was to make us and our parents feel exclusive. As in special.
I've over-enlarged the photo for more detail. Use the horizontal scroll bar to see everyone.
Both photos bring back memories. Certainly the school and grounds appear much better taken care of in these photos than their condition in 1961. I believe the Xaverian Brothers who taught us were also responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the place. I remember no janitor on board. And with their full teaching loads, they may have been hard pressed for time. They would have no doubt lacked any motivation to do much to a school headed for perdition while their new school on Burrstone Road occupied their thoughts. I can almost see Brother Basil hanging out the second floor window of the Physics classroom smoking his cigar.
This scene could certainly be in east Utica.
Below, J. Conrad Max Coal Company is listed in the 1913 City of Utica Directory at 240 Genesee Street, but I don't know how the number were arranged at that time.
Below, I haven't the slightest idea where this building was located.
Office of the Daily Observer, later merged with the Herald Dispatch (which was a merger) to form the Observer-Dispatch.
Photo from late 1800s.
Bicyclists on Broad Street on a Sunday afternoon, 1890s. With a wheel that size and the pedals fixed in relation to it, the cyclist's speed was probably limited by how fast his legs could go up and down. Had he been able to install a modern coasting hub on the bike, the higher speed attained would have no doubt been dangerous.
Pictured below is the old Faxton Hospital.
And the new .....
I believe the Fraser Store above is the building I knew as Woolworth's in the 1950s. I came to that conclusion after studying a number of photos and analyzing the windows and their layout.
Above, winter comes to the Fort Schuyler Club on northwest corner of Genesee and Court Streets
On the right is a barber's window on the Busy Corner.
This is a super enlargement from a large glass negative and the detail is superb.
Above Above is an infant's orphanage.
The legend on the bottom of the card below reads "State Lunatic Asylum, Utica, NY." Quite a building and quite an architectural curiousity, the State Hospital was of immense proportions.
Early sketch of Utica around 1800, Mohawk River in foreground flowing past developing Baggs Square.
A few years later, now showing division of John and Genesee Streets as they leave Baggs Square.
A mill at NY Mills.
Here comes another road.
Harry Simmonds. You'll find his story as a new addition to the People of Utica. Scroll down to the bottom of the post when you get here:
http://godontheground.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-people-of-utica.html
