Mystery Photo #2

Here is our second mystery photo. It is another from the Bruce Carter files. Can you place this house? At first we were thinking it was the Catholic Church rectory, but the windows don't match to photos we have of the church. Can you help?

Old Mincemeat Factory - 1972

I found a bunch of photos that I will highlight here on the blog over the coming days. These two were taken at the same time by Jesse Pingert, and come from the collection of Donald Gallagher of Weedsport. The description on the back states that the factory roof caved in during the winter of 1970. It appears that the sidewalk shelter was put there to protect anyone from falling bricks or glass. The building was removed in 1973. The wood clap building to the right remains.

Society of AKA- 1910

This photo is labeled "Society of AKA girls of the Port Byron High School June, 1910", and it is from the collection of Vera Abbie Gutchess Higgenbottom. Vera is the very pretty young lady in the back row with the mark over her head.

Centerport Aqueduct - 1957

This is the Centerport Aqueduct on April 22, 1957. This aqueduct is located about 2 miles east of Port Byron. Notice West Brutus Street as it passes under the West Shore Railroad embankment.
It wasn't long after this photo was taken that the tracks were removed. Soon, a park would be craved out of the trees and this now serves as a trailhead for the Canalway Trail.

Guidone's Hill in 1951

It is 1951 and the State is building the New York State Thruway. Lock 52 of the old Enlarged Erie Canal sits off in the weeds as the excavator eats away at Guidone's Hill.

Trolley Powerhouse

This brick building still stands on the west side of the village. It was built as the Rochester, Syracuse, and Eastern Railroad, a fast service interurban that carried passengers between the two cities from 1909 to 1931.

The term powerhouse is a bit misleading. All the power was created at a large power-plant in Lyons, NY and distributed to these powerhouses by way of large AC lines. The alternating current was run through a transformer and came out as Direct Current, which the trolleys ran on. Since DC power can only be transmitted about five miles, these powerhouses were located every ten miles along the route.

Another one of these can be seen at the Auburn City line, on Rt 38.

1947 Road Work

It's 1947 and the State is paving the highway between Port Byron and Weedsport. These photo's were sent to me by Carol Ayers.

Carol writes; “There pictures were taken from his home on 26 Rochester Street by Arthur Dixon who was a heating and plumber contractor for a number of years in Port Byron. Not sure what is going on here but I presume rebuilding Route 31 or maybe a storm, perhaps someone will know when it is in the paper.

- Looking east near the intersection of Main and Rochester Streets. On the left side of Rochester Street was where Clyde Miller had a grocery store. Later on, Walt Ware had moved his store from Main Street to this location. He had the newspaper, sold TV’s, etc. Looking over on Main Street, facing Rochester Street is where Guzzo had a pool room. Next, to the left was McNair Restaurant, on down to the Betty Lou Restaurant. The Gingsburgh Factory was up on the second floor, then on down the street was the Bob Lowe Store, who sold jewelry and mens clothing. In the foreground is the corner of Main and Rochester. On the right was Macende’s Barber Shop and in the back was Carl Smiths Garage."

- This is looking west down Rochester Street. On the right side of the street ins the Larkin residence. In the background you can see the steeples of the Episcopal Church and the Catholic Church.

Port Byron Lumber and Fuel, and the Federated Church

These photos were taken in May 1968, when the Arnold Barben, then President of the Canal Society of New York State, visited Port Byron. You can see it was 2:35pm.

Lost is the reason he chose to take photos of these sites, as the old canal is under his feet. He may have had interest in the house and red barn, which may have been canal side structures.

The church and lumber yard are gone now. The house has been greatly modified.

Tanner's Dry Dock

This photo was taken from the west side of the drydock, looking toward the construction shops. The "LOIS of Snug Harbor" is to the right, and three other boats can be seen in the drydock. Another barge on the ways can be seen behind steamer. No date was noted.
Tanner's served the canal up until the old canal was abandoned in 1918.