Ever been to Clarence? Neither had we.
*Clarence lies on State Route 5, the straight shot between Batavia and Buffalo. When we decided we wanted to spend a couple of days visiting New York’s second-largest city (see last week’s column!), we cast about for a place to stay, and Clarence fit the bill very nicely.
*Despite its proximity to Buffalo, Clarence is a rural town, with no incorporated villages. Driving along three-lane Route 5, much of your way on both sides is lined with old stone walls (or stone fences), often with meadow or woodlot behind them. It’s not just an affectation, either, for they line the country lanes too. Almost next to our motel was an old dairy barn, and working farms endure. A bike/hike trail runs south of the highway, then across and off to Akron.
*The settlement of Clarence Center is a very pleasant hamlet, and we enjoyed breakfast one morning on the porch of the Clarence Center Cafe. Even though the Cafe is on the corner of the main intersection, the meal was peaceful (perhaps because we had missed the school buses).
*The stretch along busy Route 5 is known as Clarence Hollow, and at the eastern end of the stretch you can see why, as the road dips down from the plateau. Clarence Hollow is largely linear, lying along both sides of the road. The high school is here, with its “modern” clock face in the tower. This where we ate dinner twice (at Gianni Mazia’s Pizza & Pasta), and breakfast twice (at Emily’s Family Diner), and enjoyed them all.
*While a business community along Route 5, and 13 miles from Delaware Park in Buffalo, by nature is going to get a good deal of transient traffic, we were delighted to see the dining rooms packed with local folks who were clearly steady, happy customers. While there were a Kwik Fill and a Sugar Creek, the “chain” establishments were otherwise missing, giving the place a “home” feel (much like Hammondsport).
*(If you need some chains, just slip down Route 5 to the north-south Transit Road, or Route 78. There you’ll find Panera, Applebees, Barnes & Noble, Dairy Queen, and plenty, plenty more. That’s also where the three-lane turns to four-lane.)
*Even our motel, the Clarence Inn, was “unchained”… my wife continuing her success at finding us interesting, pleasant, well-priced, vintage but up-to-date places to stay.
*The town hall campus, off Goodrich Road, includes a VERY nice modern public library, and a lovely arboretum where you can stroll or jog the paths, scaring the killdeer and enjoying the fountain’s spray on a hot summer afternoon.
*Despite being a rural town, Clarence has made its mark. Over the years five members of Congress have made Clarence their home. Joan Baez lived here, and so did Joyce Carol Oates. An early priest in a German-speaking parish went on to become a Catholic bishop, and then the first American bishop to be named a saint.
*Having previously lived in Vermont, Rhode Island, and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, we were repeatedly struck by how flat the country is around Clarence. The dome of the sky took on a different character for us, with huge cloud banks stretching almost 180 degrees.
*Two more items to mention. First, for those (like me!) who go in for that sort of thing, Dave & Adam’s Card World is just down the road at Transit and Sheridan… a huge, clean well-lighted space purveying trading cards, comic books, sports memorabilia, and all sorts of pop culture treasures.
*Second, the Clarence Hollow Association has produced a brochure-sized visitors’ guide, and it is a model of its kind. It has the advantage of concentrating on the single-axis Route 5, but I just cannot say enough about how helpful this is, and how easy to use. (In my work I’ve seen a lot of visitor’s guides, and this one’s small but outstanding.) The map is perfect and unambiguous, the features laid out in numerical order, side streets and traffic lights clearly marked… bravo, Clarence Hollow Association!