Monthly Archives: April 2021

Two Centuries of Building Schools

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We read that Painted Post had a school before it had streets. Public schools (and later public libraries) were precious to the hearts of New Englanders and northeasterners in our country’s earliest days. Massachusetts required towns to maintain schools back in the 1640s, lest “that old deluder Satan” ensnare people through ignorance. They had established Harvard in 1636, and a printing press two years later. John Eliot devised the “Massachusett” tongue into writing, and by 1663 was publishing Bibles (Up-Biblum God). Not just migration and culture, but the Northwest Ordinance, enacted by Congress in the 1780s, required public schools north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi.

As I look at things, it seems to me that there have been six or seven main waves of school construction here in our area.

The first, starting around 1800, is the wave of one-room schools. Some of these would operate for about 150 years. At the height there were pushing 400 such schools in Steuben County, and Town of Bath alone had 25. That seems like a lot until you remember that they had to be spaced so that small children could walk there.

In these schools one teacher would instruct all levels, while striving to keep order among those who were not directly engaged. Cooktown School in Bath (now Head Start) is the oldest local school building still used as a school. The school in Hornby Forks is a museum, while Steuben County Fair and Heritage Village of the Finger Lakes have one-room schools where they welcome visitors and conduct sample classes.

Approaching and following the Civil War we get the “academies” – essentially private schools offering a higher level of education, especially including college preparation, that the one-room schools couldn’t manage. Prattsburgh, Hammondsport, Naples, and Penn Yan all had such schools.

As the new century approached we began to see union schools, graded schools, and public high schools… sometimes by taking over the academies, as happened in Prattsburgh and Hammondsport. New schools went up in Bath, Howard, Greenwood. Cohocton, North Cohocton, Bradford, and many other local communities.

After the Great War, it was clear that even the newest of these schools couldn’t prepare children for life in the 20th century. New York State financially supported centralized schools, and modern new buildings went up in Savona, Campbell, Addison, Woodhull, Jasper, Bradford, Corning Northside, Bath, and Painted Post. Prattsburgh got a new school too, after the old academy burned down. It’s still in use a century later, along with the Savona, Campbell, and Addison schools. The Bradford and Northside schools are gone, but the others are still standing, though now put to other use.

You’d think that the Great Depression would have put school construction on hold, but Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal moved millions of families from relief rolls to payrolls by supporting new construction. Cutting-edge schools rose in Hammondsport (where they even had television, in 1936), Avoca, Arkport, Howard, Cohocton, Canisteo, probably Troupsburg, and possibly Greenwood. (All still exist, all except Hammondsport, Howard, and Greenwood are still schools.) Bradford got an addition, while Prattsburgh (still in use) got an addition AND a renovation.

With these marvelous new schools of the 20s and 30s, communities and educators might have felt that they’d finally “arrived.” But they hadn’t reckoned with the Baby Boom growth of school-age population, OR the lightning-fast advances in technology. By the 1950s new schools were going up in Corning, Painted Post, Hammondsport, Bath, and Wayland, though they often kept the older schools still in use. By 1961, the one-room schools were all gone.

And it still doesn’t stop – Bath and Bradford have built new since the Baby Boom, while others have added on. With many of our schools now a hundred years old, no doubt we’ll see some of them replaced as time goes on. But we owe a round of applause for our ancestors – going back to the 1630s – who built and sacrificed for times and generations far beyond what they could imagine.

Steuben County — 225 Years!

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Happy birthday, Steuben County! Steuben was created 225 years ago, by separating territory from Ontario County. Land agent Charles Williamson, founder of Bath and a tireless promoter, had pushed the project through the legislature.
The County was much bigger back then, but it only had six legal municipalities – officially Towns, or as I sometimes call them “supertowns,” since all the municipalities of Steuben… and parts of four other counties! – were created from these original six.
BATH originally included what’s now Bath, Urbana, Wheeler, Prattsburgh, Pulteney, and Avoca, plus parts of Cohocton and Howard. This is the area that gave us Glenn Curtiss and several of our U. S. Representatives, besides hosting the county seat and county fair, giving birth to our grape and wine heritage, and becoming an incubator of fish culture.
CANISTEO included today’s Canisteo, Greenwood, West Union, Hornellsville, Hornell City, and parts of Jasper and Troupsburg, not to mention Almond, Alfred, Andover, and Independence (all in today’s Allegany County). This was the beating heart of railroading for our region, and is still significant in that field.
DANSVILLE covered our modern Dansville, Fremont, and Wayland, with parts of Howard and Cohocton along with North Dansville and Ossian (Livingston County) plus Burns (in Allegany). Here we find the gorge of Stony Brook, and much of our rich muckland.
FREDERICKSTOWN (now Wayne) was spelled just about any way you wanted. All that’s left in Steuben County are the Towns of Wayne and Bradford. But it also included what we know as the Schuyler County Towns of Tyrone, Reading, Orange, and some of Dix, AND the Yates County Towns of Barrington, Starkey, and the part of Jerusalem covering most of Keuka Bluff. Keuka, Waneta, and Lamoka Lakes largely bound Wayne and Bradford.
MIDDLETOWN is now Addison. Back then it stretched over today’s Addison, Cameron, Rathbone, Thurston, Tuscarora, and Woodhull, plus parts of Troupsburg and Jasper. With Major General W. W. Averell, and the men of Troupsburg who suffered exactly 50% casualties, “Middletown” contributed mightily to saving the nation in the Civil War.
PAINTED POST is now the Town of Corning. Besides that Town it covers our Hornby, Campbell, Erwin, Corning City, Lindley, and Caton. Besides being the seat of our glass industry, old Painted Post also has our only institution of higher education, SUNY’s Corning Community College.
And that ain’t all! Our sheriff’s office is also 225 years old! Some of our sheriffs have been very prominent men, including Dugald Cameron, for whom a Town was named. John Kennedy and John Magee were heroes in the War of 1812. Magee, who also served two terms in Congress, was the last sheriff to be appointed and the first to be elected… not to mention building the 1831 Magee House, formerly Davenport Library and now the Steuben County History Center. When WVIN radio host Dave Taylor-Smith was blocked by his doctor, Sheriff Jim Allard stepped up on less than 24-hour’s notice, and became the first person other than Dave to “jump in the lake” (Salubria) to raise “Tyrtle Beach” funds to support youth programs.
And don’t stop yet! Benjamin Patterson Inn also got its start in 1796. Charles Williamson had it built and installed “Hunter Patterson” to run it, offering a hostelry that would prove a key link in the European development of the area. It’s now Corning’s oldest building, at the heart of Heritage Village of the Southern Finger Lakes, showing local life in days gone by – all the way back to when George Washington was president. I’m a member! Have been for twenty years! You might like it. I sure do.

Carnegie Libraries (and Where to Find Some!)

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One 19th-century man brought about important changes in the landscape and the intellectual life of America. We can still see his work right here where we live.

ANDREW CARNEGIE was a Scottish immigrant who started out poor and worked his way up – WAY up. When J. P. Morgan asked what Andrew would take for Carnegie Steel, Andrew quoted him a billion dollars. Morgan paid up without dickering, and U. S. Steel was born.

Not really ready to retire yet, Carnegie said “the man who dies rich dies thus disgraced.” After a career that included piling up cash and crushing the workers, he now set out to give away as much money as he could manage, and do all the good he could in the world. He opposed U. S. imperialism, even offering to personally buy the Philippines and set them free. He set up the Carnegie Foundation, which still is a major founder of worthy causes.

And he donated libraries to thousands of communities, mostly in the U. S. but flung as far as Mauritius and Fiji.

Three of them are still in use as libraries here in our area. Hornell Public Library (1911) was the first purpose-built library in Steuben County, and remained so for over 60 years. It’s a lovely beaux-arts building at 64 Genesee Street, still presenting its original front to the world… additions are discreetly hidden in the back.

There have been internal renovations during the COVID-enforced closure, and I haven’t seen the new arrangements yet. But at least until recently it was still possible to discern the original arrangement, designed for the days when staffs were very small. The work space and circulation desk sat in the center, so the clerk could keep an eye on the whole 360 degrees of the library. Mr. Carnegie paid $25,000 for design and construction. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Penn Yan Public Library (214 Main Street, 1905) started out as an even older, though much smaller, Carnegie library. The old front is the original portion – it’s been added to considerably over the past 120 years, and the entrance is now on the far side, facing the parking lot. Much of the original space is now the children’s section, and if you search the library walls you may find the architect’s original painted rendition of what Penn Yan’s exciting new library was going to look like.

Andover Free Library (40 Main Street) opened in 1913 thanks to a $5000 Carnegie grant, and also thanks to the local builder who twice sent designs back to the Elmira architect, until they had plans for a TEN-thousand dollar facility, which the builder erected for Mr. Carnegie’s five. He even had $250 left over, which provided for a furnace. And the library’s still in use today.

Elmira had a large exciting $70,000 library, somehow successfully combining federal-style and Greek-revival forms, from 1921 to 1973. In 1973, of course, it was devastated by the “Hurricane Agnes” flood. The new Steele Memorial Library opened in 1979, but the original library survives and thrives as the Chemung County Chamber of Commerce (400 East Church Street).

Mr. Carnegie also donated a library to Alfred University. It’s been superseded by a larger, more modern facility, and is now a university office building (Carnegie Hall – honest). It’s a contributing structure for the Alfred Village Historic District, placed on the National Register in 1992.

Binghamton Public Library (78 Exchange Street) opened in 1904, thanks to a $75,000 Carnegie grant. From the design stage it was planned and executed as a combination library and community center. Broome County took over in 1985, and a modern new facility (more than three times the size of the original) opened in 2000. It’s now home to the Culinary School for SUNY Broome Community College.

There are also Carnegie libraries nearby in Olean (now a restaurant), Salamanca (law office), and Warsaw (still a library!). Go for a drive. Check out some libraries – all different, since Mr. Carnegie did not issue plans! OR require that his name go on the building!

Interesting Church Buildings (and Where to Find Some!)

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For the past couple of months we’ve looked at fun architecture – octagon houses, geodesic domes, diners, cobblestone buildings, railroad stations and more – and where you can find some interesting ones within a reasonable drive. This week we look at that ubiquitous feature of the landscape in western culture – churches.

“Where there is a church, there is civilization,” says Lord Peter Wimsey in The Nine Tailors. But they’re so commonplace that unless you’re specifically interested, you probably pass on by without noticing.

Some, though, cry out to be noticed. Arch Merrill called Bath “the grande dame of the Southern Tier,” and two monumental 19th-century churches buttress that title.

ST. THOMAS EPISCOPAL CHURCH (122 Liberty) has the oldest edifice (1869) among the Bath village churches. The massive stonework construction, the towering needle of the spire, the dramatic slope of the roofs all seize the eye. Stained-glass windows and Renaissance paintings contribute to the experience of the main worship space, which seats 500 people.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (6 East Morris) has a similarly massive edifice of native stone, erected in 1877. Apparently the idea at one time was to have two steeples, but the asymmetrical arrangement of a steeple and a turret works even better. With the green park of Pulteney Square in front and looming cliffs behind, 1st Presbyterian has an arresting setting. The church is also justly famed for its INTERIOR, and its sanctuary designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany… check for drop-in tours on summer Wednesdays. Both churches are on the National Register of Historic Places, and on the Bath random-access tour; look for small signs with QR codes out front.

Across from the Episcopal church, CENTENARY METHODIST (3 West Washington) has a 1970s sanctuary of decidedly modern design, with huge abstract stained-glass windows. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH of Hornell (28 Church Street) also has a very modern design for its 1963 sanctuary, linked with a much older facility.

While First Baptist and Centenary Methodist emphasize angularity, ST. JANUARIUS CATHOLIC CHURCH in Naples (180 North Main) emphasizes curves, flow, and organics. The roof swoops like a wave at sea, while curved concrete walls are pierced with colored randomly-set oval windows, letting in the light while suggesting the grapes whose vines surround the church. It’s a brilliant modern jewel on the historic mantle of Naples.

Two churches have been mentioned in earlier blogs, but warrant a second look. The jewel-box Episcopal CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD in Savona (33 Church Street), with its fieldstone base and broad shingled front, is impressive from any angle. And GARRETT CHAPEL on Keuka Bluff (5251 Skyline Drive) is an exquisite stone structure in a sylvan setting overlooking the lake.

What about your good old-fashioned New England-style country church (probably painted white)? Most any country drive will take you past a smorgasbord of them. We’ll mention TOWN LINE CHURCH, (8343 Steuben County Road 119) with its old-fashioned double front doors (left over from the Puritans, who linked central aisles with Catholicism). Town Line has lost its steeple over time, which makes a pair with the former HARRISBURG HOLLOW METHODIST, (Robbins Road and Harrisburg Hollow Road) which has kept its steeple but lost its church! Community members lovingly tend the steeple, which was just recently refurbished, and now stands Narnia-like in the hills between Bath and Wheeler.