St Pauls Episcopal Church

The real photo postcard gives us a good view of the P.E. Church (Protestant Episcopal) (also called St Paul's) that stood on Rochester next to St. John's Catholic Church. I had posted another view of St John's here that shows the house and church.
So when was the church torn down? I can't find it in the paper.

Baptist Church

 Two postcards of the Baptist Church. The real photo post card is from the collection that Hellen Davies donated to the Society. Compare the two and see what is different.

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.

High School Picnic

 These two photos are of the same group, taken at the same time. Maybe somebody moved? Anyhow, the only hints we have is the label, P.B.H.S. and on the back it says; Port Byron H.S. Picnic.

It also lists Reba Pinkney, Chancey Henery, and Leslie Blake. A bit of research finds that Leslie Blake was a 16 year old man in 1910, and Chauncey Henry was 17 in 1910. Reba remains a mystery. I can find a Pinckney and Pinkney family in Mentz about that time, but no Reba. I don't know who was who, either.

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.

Utica Street bridge

Here is a view of the Utica Street bridge over the old Erie that I have never seen before. Thanks to Bill Hecht for passing it along.

It was taken from the east side of the bridge and is looking west. The towpath is on the right or north side of the canal.

Seeing this, I never realized how much of a bend the canal took at this point. The Main Street bridge can be seen in the background, as can the steeple of the Federated Church.

This post has a look from the other side of this bridge.

Main Street Bridge

Here are two postcards of the same scene. Well, basically the same.

The top photo was sent along by Bill Hecht and was taken from the towpath looking east toward Main Street and you can see the Utica Street bridge in the background. It is interesting to see that there was a road leading down to the towpath.

The bottom photo was taken from the Main Street bridge. The large barn was a warehouse.

There is nothing left of this scene today. The canal, bridges, and buildings are all gone.