Haydens Dam- A Follow Up

 I had posted this view before, but two more views of this dam have come into the Society's collection, so I wanted to offer an update.

In case you missed the earlier post, Hayden's Dam was located upstream, or south of Hayden Road, which is two miles south of Port Byron. The dam, which dates back to before 1830, was used to power Hayden's Mill which was located on the Outlet here. It was also used power Beach's Mill which was located in the village. When the mill burned in 1857, the millrace was taken over by the State to feed water into the Erie Canal.
 

This photo was taken from the Hayden Road bridge, looking upstream. The trolley bed can be seen along the left bank of the Outlet, and if you look upstream, you can just make out the dam. When these photos were taken, Hayden's Mill had been torn down to make way for the trolley line. Hayden's Mill would have been fed by a mill race on the left side of the view.

Here is an another view of the dam. The little building to the right was the gate house that controlled the flow of water into the mill race. The goal of building a mill race this far up the valley was to get good head at the mill wheel. The head is the amount of energy that the water can exert on the mill wheel. Between Hayden's Dam and the village, there is 20 feet of fall, which is what was needed to turn the massive wheel at Beach's Mill. In short, it took two miles of mill race to get the power needed to run the mill. The State didn't need head to fill the canal, but since the race was in place, it made sense to use it. The building basically contained the on / off valve for feeding water into the canal.

And here is the view today, looking upstream from Hayden Road.

Hayden's Dam was one of four dams built across the Outlet in Mentz.

Two Views of the Old Mill Pond

The Blog is going to feature a number of never before seen postcards and some that we have seen before. We thank Hellen Davies for this gift, as these postcards are in almost new condition and as clear as I have ever seen in a 100 year old photo.

Our first two were of the old Mill Pond that was located just south of the village, and provided water to the I.R. Warren mill and the old water works that was at the end of Mill Street. This dam, at least the location of it, goes back to around 1814, when it provided water power to the first mills built in the Town.

But here we see so much more, as we can see the houses and buildings that were located where the Town Highway Garage and the Medical Center are now located. As we can see the trolley line, we know that these were taken sometime in the 1920's, or at least before 1935.

Wilt's Mill and Erie Canal Aqueduct

It is not too often that I get to see a Dayharsh original, but here is one of Wilt's Mill. It has the raised lettering in the lower right corner that shows it was made by Mr. Dayharsh all those years ago.

Standing on the Green Street bridge, we are looking upstream along the Owasco Outlet (south) toward the mill, mill dam and Erie Canal Aqueduct. The dam had a very low head, only a two or three feet. We can see that boards were placed on top to help increase the depth of the pool above.

By the end of 1917, the aqueduct would see its last boat and the canal would be closed. The mill was torn down in the fall of 2012.

Hayden's Dam

This is a nice image taken around the Port Byron area, but not of Port Byron. Of course, if the postcard printer had put down "Hayden's Dam, Mentz, NY", no one would know where this was.

This photo is of a dam that goes way back to the 1820's. The dam was built by Charles and Amos Parks to back up water in the Outlet to run a small mill near the site. It was located just south of where Hayden Road crosses the Outlet.   In 1830 when John Beach was constructing his large mill in Port Byron, he built a two mile long canal to receive water from this dam in order to get enough water pressure to turn his mills large wheels. We can still see the remains of this canal (mill race) today.

After the mill burned in 1857, the State took over the mill race to direct water into the Erie Canal. The little building you can see on the far bank covers the gate that allowed water into the mill race and canal. The foundation for this building can be seen even today from Rt 38. Not much of the dam remains today. If you happen to be walking up the Outlet, you might stumble over one of the iron spikes used to nail the dam together.

St John's Church

A view of St John's that I have never seen before. Don Gallagher wrote;
"Rochester Street in foreground. Left to right- Episcopal Church, St John's R. Catholic Church, then Wellington (Bill) Bush home. Owasco Outlet on right side of picture. The Episcopal Church was torn down and a house built there. The Bill Bush home was torn down and a two story cement block building was erected there. This picture was probably taken in the late 1920's or early 1930's."

After I wrote the above post, I ran this photo with the following in the Auburn Citizen;

I really enjoy seeing photos of Port Byron and Mentz that are not the usual downtown scene. The photo I include today shows the Wellington Bush home, which was located next to St. John’s Church on Rochester Street. We also get a nice view of the Episcopal Church.

This is part of the Gallagher collection that I have been featuring on the Lock 52 Historical Society blog. Don wrote that the photo was taken in the 1920’s or 30’s and that the house was later torn down to be replaced by a two story cinder block building. (The block building was seen in the 1950’s air photo I featured last year.) After checking, I see that Wellington lived in this home in 1920, but lived in Wolcott in 1915. Wellington was listed as owning a repair shop.

In doing a quick search for Mr. Bush, I think Don may have gotten the date a little wrong. It is clear in the photo that Rochester Street is in its current location. After checking, I see that in 1929 Mr. Bush was involved in a dispute over the State taking his property so they could straighten Rochester Street. So I think the photo might date from the late 1930’s, or even into the 40’s. It has been such a long time that things were changed that we might forget that Moore Place and a part of River Street was once Rochester Street.

And after the article ran in the paper, Lucille Hitchcock called to say that this house was moved, not torn down. It was on the corner of King and Rochester until a few years ago, when it was torn down. I then found, quite by accident, this newspaper account. (PBC August 14, 1947) This just goes to prove that you shouldn't take everything as written in stone, even if it is written on the back of a photo.

 

For all you canal buffs out there, this house is sitting in what is now a parking lot that was built over the Clinton's Ditch canal aqueduct.

Wilt's Mill

As of October 22, 2012, Wilt's Mill, the Green Street icon, was no more.

The Outlet and School - 1957

This photo was taken in 1957 by a Canal Society of New York State member who was photographing existing canal structures. But so much more can be seen. The auto garage on the banks of the Outlet next to St John's; the old Creamery; the church next to the school; the old aqueduct stonework; the arch from the first aqueduct; the Coal Yard, and so on. See what you can find. Click on the photo to make it larger.