One of the earliest attractions on Lafayette Street was the Utica Opera House. Below are a few photos of the building and stage, as well as an ad for upcoming shows.
The theater's seating and stage appears able to support productions of most sizes. What glorious sounds no doubt came from this stage.
When the Opera House burned down, business must have flowed to the other theaters in the city. Here's a sampling of their advertising in 1912 when the Hotel Utica began construction on the Opera House's former site.
And so rose the Hotel Utica.
It would be difficult to not spot the Hotel Utica from the ground or the air. The tallest building in town at one time, the structure was built in 1912 on the site of the old Utica Opera House just a block from the Busy Corner. The photo above is from a 1948 document that lauded the future of Utica and listed its advantages in a modern economy.
On the left, I would guess the photographer was standing in front of the W. T. Grant store across from Daws' side entrance on Bleecker Street when he turned and aimed his 35 millimeter single lens reflex over the roof of the 1954 two-tone Buick and took this shot. His haste resulted in a slightly out of focus photo, but for our nostalgiac purposes we are thankful nonetheless.
I wish I had more photos of the hotel's interior. These are from years ago. I don't know if the recent remodeling changed much of the lobby, but I kind of hope not.
Miss Pauline Buck
Gifford,
Maine
c/o Mrs. Rogers
July 17, 1922
Dear Pauline,
Here for the night. Go through the Mohawk Valley tomorrow and in Albany for the night. Shall see the state capitol. Saw the state penitentiary at Auburn, NY today. Thru the Berkshires Thurs. Then on to Boston, Plymouth, up the Mass. coast and to Portland if you can come, We looked for a letter from you at Syracuse.
The post card's author would have enjoyed a sumptous meal at the Hotel Utica and a comfortable night. Lucky for him and all of us the proposed motel pictured below was never built. Ugly.
And a final note on Lafayette Street. I've moved the photo of Maher Brothers Clothing from the Bleecker Street post when I was finally able to determine the store was not on the corner of Bleecker and Charlotte, but instead was on the corner of Seneca and Lafayette. I found a 1950 map-direcctory and have copied the pertinent portion below. Notice the A&P on the map as well as the
bank up the street on the corner.
A Maher Brothers ad from when they were on Franklin Square at the Busy Corner.
Sep 14, 2014
Alan Q. wrote:
The great job of creating a small mecca in the downtown area in the Liberty Bell Park has now become an over grown unkept garden with bushes, flowering plants and trees dying. Even the mural of a giant sunrise which was created during Ed Hanna's reign of power is now a very ugly mural of pealing paint and fallen bricks. The fountain has been broken for a few years to costly to repair. Two more store's closed downtown one of which was a cell phone type store which only opened and year ago. It was located next to the closed Oneida National Bank building downtown.
