Once upon a time, it was just an inconsequential hamlet in Hornellsville. Then the Erie Railroad came through, and by 1851 Erie had located its main repair shops in the isolated settlement. The little hamlet became a much bigger place, and then an incorporated village, and then the City of Hornellsville, finally changed a few years later to our modern City of Hornell.
*This was a pretty prosperous place, thanks to the railroad. Shade trees lining the streets inspired the nickname “Maple City.” An electric trolley line ran around and about in the city, and even dipped into a “subway” under Main Street, and connected with Canisteo.
*The young city had monumental churches, a Catholic hospital, a Catholic orphanage, an armory, an impressive school system, multiple bands, and a very busy Y.M.C.A. Manufacturers made silk, and even “Ferris wheels.” Maude Adams, John L. Sullivan, Tom Thumb, and even Oscar Wilde trod the boards at Shattuck Opera House. (No clue, unfortunately, what Oscar thought about Hornell.) Aviation pioneer Charlie Day went to Hornell High School. Former flying star Blanche Stuart Scott ended her broadcasting days on Hornell radio, and future TV star Bob Crane started his.
*For many years Hornell held its own annual fair to rival the one in Bath. The fairground made a convenient landing place in 1916 when Ruth Law flew in non-stop from Chicago in an open biplane, setting the American distance record and the world women’s distance record. Cal Rodgers stopped in Hornell on America’s first coast-to-coast flight (which took three months).
*U.S.S. Hornell, a tug in the “Erie Navy,” once plied waters of the Port of New York. For many years Hornell was home to minor-league baseball – future all-stars Don Zimmer and Charlie Neal both played for Hornell in 1950.
*The 1935 flood shattered the city. New Deal flood control programs insured that 1972 wasn’t as bad, but three men surveying damage were killed in a helicopter crash. The flood also spelled doom for what was then the Erie Lackawanna Railroad… which meant declining population and prosperity in Hornell.
*Things have come back since then – not to the glory days of the Erie, but then railroads just aren’t what they used to be. Alstom is busy manufacturing and assembling traction engines, railway cars, and passenger locomotives. The Hornell Erie Depot Museum is a “must visit” for railfans. The city’s peak population was 16,300 in 1930 (also pretty much the peak of railroads), and 8,600 in the latest census.
*It’s gratifying to stroll around the city center, where the streets and the sidewalks are wide enough to give you a fine feeling of openness. I wander in and out of antique shops (rooting out old comic books) and little eateries, and if I really want to know the time, I check the town clock.
*A few steps away from the city center the 1916 post office, no longer in use, is an imposing edifice from the age of imperialism. It was created under the watchful eye of Steuben County native James A. Wetmore, Acting Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department. A little farther down Seneca Street is the still-active 1894 armory. Off a little on Genesee Street is Hornell Public Library, in its lovely 1911 Carnegie Building.
*Hornell has a downtown walk-in movie theater… a daily newspaper (our sister publication, the Evening Tribune)… a Catholic school (St. Ann’s Academy)… Steuben County’s only formal Jewish congregation (Temple Beth-El)… a much-loved St. Patrick’s Day parade… and the longest-serving mayor (Shawn Hogan) in New York history. (His father was mayor too.) Hornell is well worth a stop and a stroll. I like it there. Maybe you would too.