While real estate is proverbially about location, community growth and economic development is often about transportation. Steuben County got its start and grew thanks to river transportation, then crashed when the Erie Canal rerouted the traffic.
We didn’t really recover well until the Erie Railroad main line came through in the early 1850s, quickly followed by its Rochester branch. We can see the impact of this new technology from the fact that there are two cities and 14 incorporated villages in Steuben County – and except for Hammondsport, every one of them was on the Erie Railroad.
Railroads made enough of an impact to leave their marks on our modern-day maps. In addition to the Erie, our other major line was the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western, or DL&W… the two lines merged in 1960 to form the Erie-Lackawanna. This helps explain why Bath has an Erie Avenue, a Delaware Avenue, a Lackawanna Street, and a Railroad Avenue. Wayland has Lackawanna Street AND Lackawanna Avenue.
Canisteo has Depot Street, and Almond (Town of Hornellsville) has Depot Road, while Cameron has Depot Street and Railroad Street.
What we now call Denison Parkway in Corning used to be Erie Avenue, with multiple tracks running right down the thoroughfare. Corning has a different Erie Street now, plus a Delaware Avenue and a Lackawanna Street. (In 1942, there was also a Lackawanna Avenue.) Then there’s Roundhouse Lane, running to where the old Fall Brook-New York Central roundhouse stood. Trolley Lane, which skirts Denison Park on two sides, memorializes the days when the trolley connected Corning, Elmira, Watkins Glen, and Painted Post.
Hornell of course was a major center for the Erie Railroad, and site of the line’s main repair shops, so it’s unsurprising that the Hornell map still shows Erie Court and Erie Avenue. There’s also a Depot Street, a Delaware Avenue, and a Shawmut Drive, for the Pittsburg and Shawmut, which ran up the western edge of the County. Division Street perhaps notes the fact that Hornell was the meeting place of two divisions on the Erie Railroad. Transit Drive may recall the trolley line that joined Hornell with Canisteo.
Of course these types of names spread out much farther afield than Steuben County. Those approaching Rochester from the south encounter Lehigh Station Road, while the Fairport area has Railroad Mills Road. Auburn has Train Drive, Cortland’s got Delaware Avenue, Elmira has its Erie Street, its Junction Street, its Railroad Avenue, and its Pennsylvania Avenue (which might refer to the railroad or the state). Geneva offers Railroad Place and Honeoye Falls enjoys Lehigh Street, while Ithaca has Delaware Avenue. Part of Horseheads is named Holding Point.
Many communities have a Canal Street (Geneva, Elmira) that goes way, way back. Some (Hornellsville) have an Airport Road that’s relatively recent. But LOTS of towns have names remembering railroads and their glory days. Which tells us which form of transportation most deeply touched people’s individual lives.