Tourism is a major part of our region’s economy, going back to shortly after the Civil War. Over a century and half attractions change, and some well-loved ones simply slip away. I tried to pull together a list of attractions that either visitors or local folks might have loved, in time gone by… sticking only to those that are still within living memory.

*Probably the best-remembered feature at Lakeside Amusement Park, in Pulteney, was a slide that rose high and stretched long.  You slid down the slide until it dumped you into Keuka Lake.  People rode the slide again and again, and why shouldn’t they?  Sad to say it’s only a memory, and the Lakeside Restaurant is about all that’s left of the park nowadays.

*The heyday of Keuka Hotel (in Wayne) was during the 19th century, when guests arrived by steamship, stayed for weeks, and had all amusements laid on at the site.  But even well into the 20th century Keuka Hotel packed ’em in for such acts as Hoagie Charmichael, or Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians.  On the landward side, you could play miniature golf.  But probably what most people remember is dancing and/or roller skating in the pavilion over the lake.  Once when I was director at Curtiss Museum an out-of-the-area visitor, whose family used to summer on Keuka, was talking about the pavilion; the front desk volunteer remarked that she used to go there too.  They exchanged names, and it turned out that they had danced together, in the pavilion over the lake at Keuka Hotel, forty years before.

*Sandford Lake near Savona used to be a popular swimming area, with a raft to swim out to and dive off of.  The lake is mostly for fishing or birding nowadays, with hunting and picnicking along the shores.

*Sensibilities are different now than they used to be… thank heaven.  Elim Bible Institute (now in Lima) used to be in Hornell.  And from what I read in a 1940s tour guide to New York state, no visit to Hornell was complete without dropping in at the institute to gawk at people speaking in tongues and otherwise showing physical manifestations of the spirit.  Apparently Elim didn’t object, perhaps figuring that the visitors would get a much-needed dose of preaching along with their voyeurism.

*The Museum of Glass has been around for over 60 years, and it sort of overwhelms memories of the days before.  But, even before the Glass Center opened, the 200-inch trial disc for Mount Palomar (now an anchor feature at the museum) was an attraction in Corning.  It lay in a domed building, just large enough to hold it, on the Centerway Square.  You could buy souvenir reproduction discs.

*From 1925 to 1985 local folks made the pilgrimage to Roseland Park in Canandaigua for summer fun.  If you really liked your visits, and you don’t mind ANOTHER pilgrimage, you can visit Roseland’s carousel at the Carousel Center in Syracuse, or ride the Skyliner wooden roller coaster once again in Altoona.  The current Roseland Water Park capitalizes on the name and its nearby location, but is not the same institution.

*In the days when the road from Addison through Jasper to Canisteo and Hornell was a far more significant route, an impressive feature of the ride was the Wigwams in Jasper.  The fine example of midcentury roadside architecture welcomed visitors to view a large collection of Native artifacts, not to mention having a meal and getting gas (not necessarily in that order).  The Wigwams still stands, and Jasper Historical Society is hoping to make it open by appointment.

*Ah, Bath Drive-In… so sorry to see you go.  Catching a flick there made you feel like summer would last forever.  When my wife worked at Bath Chamber of Commerce a man called from Massachusetts to see if Bath Drive-In was still open.  He had gone there as a kid, and now he made a trip to bring his own children down so that they could experience it too.  When I posted a photo on the Steuben County Historical Society Facebook page thousands of people viewed it, and dozens made nostalgic comments.  Drive-In, gathering dusk, the screen finally lighting up… summer.  Forever.

*(There was also a drive-in near Painted Post, and another [the Starlight] between Arkport and Hornell.  And the Elmira Drive-In still offers general-interest shows.)

*What did I miss? Put it down in the comments!