Tag Archives: Canandaigua

Let’s Have a Wander!

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In times like these, as public and personal health – not to mention the lives of our loved ones – call on us to maintain a certain isolation, we can get to feeling cooped up and coo-coo. What can we DO with the long summer days?

In our case, we’ll sometimes go wandering. Even if you’re not up to hiking, our towns and villages offer hours and miles of pleasant ambling. While you’re wandering you can: keep a village bird list; spot (and read) every monument and historic marker; look BEHIND the houses to see which garages and other structures started out as stables, barns, or carriage houses; admire the streetside gardens, planters, and window boxes. Make up your own quarry to spot as you wander!

But WHERE shall you wander? Last weekend we enjoyed ourselves in ANGELICA (Allegany County). It’s a small but pleasing village with fine homes, not to mention the Allegany County Fairgrounds. One of the most memorable features is a large traffic circle with a park (and Saturday farmers market) inside, and five churches plus the town hall arranged along the outside. Spot the library, the veterans’ monument, and the lamppost banners that also honor veterans.

NAPLES and CANANDAIGUA (both in Ontario County) are very different communities, but they each enjoy a mile-long Main Street. Main Street in Naples is treelined, except where it’s bordered by vineyards. The Catholic church is an exciting modern design that suits the grape country, while the school would feel right at home in an Archie comic. Tree-covered ridges overlook Naples on either side.

The Canandaigua Main Street runs gently downhill into a marina at the north end of Canandaigua Lake. It’s a busy place, lined with shops and restaurants, offices and businesses, with the county courthouse at the top of the hill. (A monument honors Susan B. Anthony, who was convicted at that courthouse for the crime of voting. “I will never pay one cent of your unjust fine,” she told the judge, and she never did.)

If you’re wandering Main Street in PENN YAN (Yates County), notice when the bridge carries you over Keuka Outlet, draining that lake and filling Seneca. As you go by Birkett Mills, think about the days when the running outlet powered huge grindstones here. Notice Millie’s Pantry, whose founder was honored by President Obama for her years of work feeding the hungry. And spot the library, the oldest part of which was a gift from turn-of-the-century billionaire Andrew Carnegie.

At the other end of the lake, in HAMMONDSPORT (Steuben County), have a seat at the park in the village square and use your mind’s eye to see it in the days when Glenn Curtiss and Alexander Graham Bell would have strolled right past you, agitating ways to get into the air. Stroll down Sheathar or William Street to the lakefront with its “railroad gothic” depot, and imagine that you’re waiting for the steamboat to take you to your cottage.

Over in Schuyler County, start at the gazebo on the end of the pier in WATKINS GLEN. Spot the waterfowl in Seneca Lake, step across the (active!) railroad track, and amble down Franklin Street. Like Naples, Penn Yan, and Hammondsport, Watkins is in grape country. But it’s also auto racing country. Keep your eyes down to spot blocks in the sidewalk honoring great drivers. Lift your eyes up to spot the murals on the sides of buildings, capturing great moments in Watkins Glen racing. Soon you’ll be walking the route of those original Grand Prix road races, over 70 years ago. You’ll also be at the mouth of the Glen, that dramatic cleft that’s attracted hikers, artists and photographers for centuries. There are plenty of other places to wander. But these will get you started!

Riding (and Strolling) Routes 5 and 20

A couple of days after Christmas, feeling the need for a getaway, we took an overnight in Geneva, stretching our visit in both directions along Routes 5 and 20.

*Our family has a long history with the long road that has two numbers. In 1939, during the Great Depression, my father-in-law and his cousin drove down 5 and 20, heading from Vermont to Oklahoma, trying without success to find work in the oil fields. At each diner or gas station where they stopped, people were huddled around the radio, listening to news of the German invasion of Poland. It was the first week of the Second World War.

*Little did he know that he would one day have a daughter, and that 53 years after that trip she would be living within sight of 5 and 20, along with her husbnad and their two sons.

*We lived back then in “The Bloomfields,” and as part of our trip we took a drive through Holcomb/East Bloomfield, to find that not much has changed. The green, the church, and the cemetery still welcome visitors. But the Wireless Museum has now moved out to newer facilities on the edge of town, and the historical society is in the old place next to the church.

*One of the reasons we like Canandaigua is because Main Street has a needlework store (Expressions in Needleart) AND a comic book store (Pulp Nouveau). This, we find, is a perfect arrangement for domestic harmony! The Chamber of Commerce has a visitor’s center on Main Street, in case you want directions and information (or a public rest room).

*There’s a new and used bookstore, and the Ontario County Historical Society museum. You can see the lovely courthouse where Susan B. Anthony was tried for daring to vote. (“I will never pay one penny of your unjust fine,” she told the judge, and she didn’t, either.) The business district is busy. There are fine churches, interesting downtown commercial architecture, and a great view of the lake (though in January, you may feel the wind). We had lunch at The Villager, which is where we usually wind up when we’re in Canandaigua, because we like it so much.

*Sonnenberg Mansion and Gardens is closed this time of year, and so is Granger Homestead (historic mansions and carriage collection). But the library is open, with armchairs to sit and read, and rest rooms open to the public. If you have a card in the Pioneer Library System (as I do), you can borrow books.

*In Geneva we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, and in the mroning explored around the visitors center on the edge of the village, at the foot of Seneca Lake. Even with rain and snow lightly in the air, and wind whipping up whitecaps, we wandered the waterfront (where we once watched a mink dart around, but not that day). Our courage in the face of the weather was as nothing compared to that of the two parasurfers sailing along, zooming across the surface, occasionally losing their progress to sink completely below the waves, then rise again to full height and even higher, lifted high by the hydrofoil.

*The Finger Lakes Welcome Center wasn’t open yet, but we enjoyed the outside, with its benches and playground, and plaques set into the sidewalks recognizing inductees of the Finger Lakes Walk of Fame. Why isn’t Glenn Curtiss there? I must find out how to put in a nomination.

*Waterloo prides itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day. We strolled Main Street, enjoying the turn-of-the-century commercial architecture as far as the Presbyterian church and back, then turned down North Virginia Street to see a church that we’d spotted. This led us to the breathtaking 19th-century library, looking for all the world like an English manor house, replete with high stacks and warm lovely woodwork, and worth a visit all by itself.

*The Christmas decorations were still nice, and a hotel had a countdown set up for New Year’s Eve.

*In Seneca Falls the national sites were closed by the government shutdown, but the Christmas windows still brought smiles as we strolled Main Street. Christmas in senecal Falls means celebrating the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” said by some to have been filmed locally (it wasn’t), or to have insored the setting of Bedford Falls (possible.)

*We walked as far as Van Vleet Lake and the stone Gothic Episcopal church, where our friend Brad Benson has recently transferred from Bath to become the rector, then spent some time in the museum and visitors center, and got a good overview of the village’s development, the canal and industrial history, and changes in the watercourse. But I have to confess that I only saw one staff person, and she was just hurrying through to get to the office area.

*We drove past Montezuma National Wildlife refuge (also shut down, we suppose) to the edge of Auburn, where we finally visited Bass Pro Shops… I get numerous e-mails from them every week, but have no idea why. We enjoyed the visit, then turned back to Seneca Falss for pizza. We had headed up to Bloomfield through Prattsburgh and Naples, and now headed hime by way of Geneva, Pre-Emption Road, Bellona, Penn Yan, the East Shore of Keuka Lake, and finally back to Bath.

*Routes 5 and 20 run from Auburn to Avon, following Indian paths. Later the same corridor would carry the Erie Canal, the New York central railroad, and the New York State Thruway. It’s the Route 66 of western New York. We like to drive it. We like to visit.

Winter Fun in the Summer Towns

It isn’t summer any more. Most of the tourists have long since gone home. The boat liveries are closed, the canoes are up on racks. The beaches belong to coots and sea gulls. The ice cream shops are closed. And here we’re left, in the towns that live and die on the summer trade.

*So what about US? What do WE do, all winter long?

*Well, there’s no reason to stop visiting the summer towns. There’s actually still a lot going on. (Though you should check for winter hours.)

*In HAMMONDSPORT (south end of Keuka Lake), as long as the day’s not too windy you can still stroll the streets and appreciate the dramatic scenery of the little village in the deep cleft… a cleft that it shares with the Lake to the north, and Pleasant Valley to the west and south.

*There are a couple of antique stores still open year-round, and one just outside the village, on State Route 54.

*You should really visit the Glenn Curtiss Museum… 56,000 square feet of pioneering aviation and motorcycling history.

*You can find a comfortable chair at the Fred and Harriet Taylor Memorial Library, and open up a book. Or a magazine. Or your laptop.

*Drive up to the other end of the Lake at PENN YAN, and you’ll find two bookstores (one new books, one used books) just a block or so apart. Besides new books, Long’s also has cards, gifts, and office supplies.

*Penn Yan has a museum complex at Yates County History Center, and an art gallery at the Arts Center of Yates County… both on Main Street. Also on Main is Penn Yan Public Library, where the original part of the building was donated by Andrew Carnegie.

*Take a stroll and enjoy the architecture of the historic business district (blending into fine homes and churches), or drop down to water level and hike (yes, even in winter if conditions permit) on the Keuka Outlet Trail. At times you can watch the ice fishers on the East Branch. There’s a triplex movie theater on the edge of town.

*If conditions permit, you can walk out on the pier and the docks at WATKINS GLEN (south end of Seneca Lake). Watkins has an old-fashioned downtown walk-in movie theater (The Glen), so see if they’re playing something you’d like.

*Even when it’s chilly you can stroll the streets to see memorials for racing drivers, set into the sidewalk, and wall-art murals celebrating the Glen’s ongoing racing heritage.

*You can also stop in at the Motor Racing Research Center, to see which historic racing cars are now on show in the lobby. Go down the hall, and you enter Watkins Glen Public Library.

*Main Street has two antique shops, a fiber arts store, an art gallery, and Famous Brands.

*At GENEVA (Seneca’s north end) try out lunch at the elegant Belhurst Castle. You could also visit Geneva History Museum at the 1829 Prouty-Chew House..

*CANANDAIGUA (north end of the lake of the same name) has a comic book store, a needlework store, a used book store, art galleries, antique shops, Unique Toy Shop, and lots more… the mile-long Main Street is still a thriving site for business and shopping. You can learn a little about “olden days” at the Ontario County Historical Museum. Or you could spend some time at Wood Library… all on Main Street!

*Anyway, don’t mope. There’s still lots to do!

Take a One-Mile Walk — on Sidewalk

A couple of weeks ago, both for business and for pleasure, I made several stops in Corning that required walking from one end of Market Street to the other, and back again. Since Market is half a mile long, I did a mile walk.

*If you’re doing that walk for exercise or pleasure, you can enjoy yourself checking out all the varied architectural facades. You can take in the clock tower at the Centerway Square, and stop in next door at the visitors center in the Baron Steuben Building to use the rest rooms.

*You can get a Texas hot across the street, or smoothies down at the Soulful Cup coffeehouse. You can study the art at West End Gallery, or at the ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes. You should check out the “blade signs.” Corning is famed for these creative signs coming out at right angles to their buldings.

*There are quite a few other places around our region where you can walk a mile without having to leave the sidewalks – which can be a fun way to keep fit when the woods and fields are icy, soaked or snowcovered.

*Stand by the bandstand in BATH’s Pulteney Square, look up Liberty Street, then walk out of the park onto the Liberty sidewalk at your left (the west side). Keep walking up Liberty (crossing Washington) until you get to the Civil War statue. Walk back to the bandstand, and you’ve done a mile.

*Besides the bandstand and the statue, you’ll see the “three sisters” near the statue – three elaborate matching 19th-century homes, created in part to promote a lumber business. You pass the monumental 19th-century St. Thomas Church, across from the delightful contemporary Centenary Methodist Church.

*As on Market Street, enjoy the business facades, but recognize that many of Bath’s buildings are older, such as the 1860 county courthouse and the 1835 Bank of Steuben, almost directly across the Square. The green space in the Square has several monuments, and the dramatic First Presbyterian Church is on the south.

*In CANANDAIGUA if you use the courthouse as one anchor, the pier a mile away is the other.

*Susan B. Anthony was tried in that courthouse for the crime of voting, and fined a hundred dollars. She said she would never pay one penny of that unjust fine, and she never did.

*On your Canandaigua walk you’ll cross active railroad tracks (watch your steps), besides passing art galleries, a paperback book store, an embroidery shop, and even a comic book store. All of this depends on which side of the street you’re on, and Canadaigua’s Main Street has four lanes, plus a grassy median… so once again, watch your step!

*Also watch the “green” sidewalk features that Canandaigua has created to capture rainwater and naturally process it… a marvelous addition to the city. And, of course, if you walk north to south you just improve your view of the lake with every step.

*Start on Main Street in CANISTEO, walk up Greenwood (the old trolley route) to the elementary school and back, and you’ve got a mile. This also gives you a chance to see the famed “living sign” tree plantation spelling out the name of the village up on a hillside near the school.

*Also by the school is the very pleasant cemetery, including two 1920s gravestones appallingly inscribed with “K.K.K.” On a less horrifying note, there are also historic homes and churches on Greenwood Street, plus the businesses and churches down on Main Street and the village green area.

*So – want a little exercise, but at your own rate, with frequent breaks allowed and a good surface underfoot? There are plenty of one-mile walks available in our communities. We’ll look at some more, another time.

Wanna Buy Some Books?

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More than half a millenium ago Chaucer wrote about the Clerk (or learned man) of Oxenford. He wears threadbare clothes, his horse is as thin as a rake, and he himself is so thin he looks hollow.

*Ah, but he has books… TWENTY books, in a day when every one was painstakingly copied by hand, and hardly anyone could read. Few institutions had twenty books back then. His “library” (kept right next to his bed) represented a fortune, and whenever he scraped up some money, or even when he could borrow some from friends, he bought even more… not as investments, but because “Gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.”

*Books are far far cheaper today, but no less wonderful. If like the clerk (and like me) you like to prowl around ferreting out more books to buy, where can you go?

*Well, if you want the big-box big selection, complete with cafe, there are Barnes & Noble stores in Elmira/Big Flats, in Ithaca, and in Rochester. The Rochester selection is a little smaller, since it doubles as the U of R bookstore, but also includes a nice sampling of books by U of R faculty and alumni. Besides, you can just walk up the block from Strong Hospital, if you have someone spending time there. (This store also makes a good break if you have to drive up to Rochester to meet the train or do some business.)

*The only independent new-book store in the four-county region is Long’s, on Main Street in Penn Yan. If you like bookshops, take a ride out there. You’ll be impressed by their selection. There’s also a very good local-history section, and a large selection of cards, gifts, and office supplies. If you’re there on a summer Saturday, you’ll find a sidewalk farmers’ market out front.

*Across the street is a used bookstore, Belknap Hill Books, though in my experience the hours there can be whimsical. A block or two down Main is Books Landing, a friendly used-book place in a welcoming space, with a great selection of used jigsaw puzzles.

*Also on the used-book side, try The Paperback Place on Main Street in Canandaigua, or Autumn Leaves on The Commons in Ithaca. Autumn Leaves has a magnetic effect on me whenever I’m in town. It’s a large store for used books in a university community. There’s ALWAYS something interesting.

*That’s also true at Book Barn of the Finger Lakes, out between Dryden and Ithaca. Just prowling through the place is half the fun.

*Over on Geneseo’s Main Street, Sundance Books has held its own for decades.

*Henrietta Library has a year-round book sale room. Dormann Library in Bath has its Wednesday “book barn” on the grounds whenever weather suits. Libraries in Corning, Ithaca, and Hammondsport have significant sales from time to time.

*If you want graphic novels, go to heroes Your Mom Threw Out (Elmira Heights), Comics for Collectors (Ithaca’s Collegetown) or Pulp Nouveau (Canandaigua).

*Each of these towns is interesting in and of itself, and there’s always someplace not too far away to get ice cream. Take a ride. See the sights. Buy some books.

On to Ontario!

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One of the great mysteries of western New York is: why doesn’t Ontario County touch Lake Ontario?

*Well, the answer is that once upon a time it did. When Ontario was created, back in 1789, it included all or part of 11 modern counties.

*What’s left has a special place in my heart, as we lived in Ontario for the first two years of our residence in New York state, in “The Bloomfields.” In 1939 my father-in-law and his cousin drove down Routes 5 and 20 on their way from Vermont to Oklahoma, hoping vainly to get work in the oil fields. At every stop they made, a knot of men huddled around the radio, listening to news of Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Little did he think that six decades later he would have a daughter, a son-in-law, and two grandsons living along that route.

*“Five-and-twenty,” which is a single road, was our first road west, following the “natural corridor” route later exploited by the Erie Canal, the New York Central Railroad, and the New York State Thruway. Our son Josh and I first drove this from west to east, heading from Lima back to Vermont. As we approached Canandaigua we gaped to see a golden dome resplendent in the sun and topped by a statue. “Is that some Mormon thing?” we asked. It’s the county courthouse, of course, but a gold star to my eighth-grade son, with no background in Mormonism or in western New York, for knowing that Ontario County is the birthplace of that religion.

*There are several Mormon historic sites in the county, not to mention the spectacular Hill Cumorah Festival, a gigantic sound-and-light-and-stage show scripted, in its latest incarnation, by science-fiction great Orson Scott Card. We’ve been – it’s impressive.

*While counties such as Yates, Chemung, Schuyler and Monroe each have a community that by virtue of its population forms the definite hub of its region, Ontario has two cities – Geneva and Canandaigua – nearly equal in size. Each lies at the foot (or north end) of a major Finger Lake… Seneca and Canandaigua, respectively. Two smaller Finger Lakes, Canadice and Honeoye, are completely within Ontario County, which also boasts the east shore of Hemlock Lake.

*Ontario is home to Boy Scout Camp Dittmer, and also to the New York State Pageant of Steam. Just as I’ve been to Hill Cumorah Festival at least once, I’ve also been to the Steam Pageant at least once. You don’t have to be especially interested, and you certainly don’t need to be an expert, to be overwhelmed. It’s really a terrific experience.

*Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion I’ve been to MANY more times than once or twice. I love to wander the grounds and weave through the greenhouses, while in the great entrance hall I expect Theodore Roosevelt or Frederick Remington to stride in any minute. Ontario County Fair could be bottled for essence of American county fair.

*Naples, with its lovely mile-long Main Street, lies in Ontario County – the ride from Naples to Canandaigua is a ride through vineyard country, often overlooking Canandaigua Lake. Pause in Cheshire, and check out The Company Store and Cheshire Union Gifts & Antique Center.

*Canandaigua’s Main Street is a good place to shop and stroll. It has an embroidery store (Expressions in Needlearts) AND a comic book store (Pulp Nouveau)… the perfect recipe for domestic harmony. I once saw a coyote on Main Street, and last week a Cooper’s Hawk. Sunken gardens set into the sidewalks add green space and process storm water.

*I know good libraries in Geneva, Bloomfield, and Canandaigua, and shoppers love Eastview Mall in Victor. Skiers like Bristol Mountain Ski Resort, while LeTourneau Christian Center camp and retreat center is washed by Canandaigua’s eastern waters. Roseland Waterpark is a popular attraction, borrowing its name from a well-remembered but long-gone amusement park. Those who like the ponies visit Finger Lakes Racetrack in Farmington. Ontario County Historical Society has a museum worth visiting, as does Geneva Historical Society.

*Canandaigua is home to Finger Lakes Community College, and to the open-air Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center, where we’ve seen Garrison Keillor, and also Peter, Paul, and Mary. The 1894 Smith Opera House in Geneva makes a lovely baroque setting for performances.

*Last week I was at the Jumpoff Point, a cliff with a dramatic view in Ontario County Park, when a cyclist appeared, looked around, and proclaimed it well worth his trip. This spot also marks the northern terminus of the rugged 55-mile Bristol Hills Trail, which I found a hard slog but a joy to hike.

*If you’re reading this in the main “Leader” coverage area, it may remind you of lots of places you plan to get around to visiting, but which are just far enough away that you never quite get there. My advice is to pick a date, pick a destination, grit your teeth, and go. I’ll be very surprised if you decide that you’d rather have puttered at home.

A Decent Drive

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We took a ride on Veterans Day. We had a destination, and some business to do, but it was a beautiful warm sunny day, maybe the last gasp of fall before winter creeps in, and so it was a pleasure drive as well. We drove from Bath to Canandaigua, along what some have called “the road to the grapes and the pies.”
We could have gone along Route 415 out to Kanona, and then north on 53. But we elected the more direct course, along County Route 13, or Mitchellsville Road. This takes you out of Bath proper through three-generational Bluegill Farms, with its small apple orchard, small fock of sheep and some cattle, amongst extensive planted fields. It’s like someone drew a line with a ruler as you pass from the built-up village to farm country. Deer pass in and out pretty frequently (one bumped into Joyce’s car one evening, with no damage to either). Coyotes howl at night, and the occasional bear lumbers through.
The harvested fields are a magnet for flocks of geese and gulls, especially at this time of year. A little quieter just now is Hickory Hill Camping Resort, which just a few weeks ago was humming with dozens of RVs and campers, not to mention the cabins, pools, pond, and miniature golf. A spur trail here climbs straight up the slope to join the Finger Lakes Trail along the ridge.
We cross the FLT main trail just before reaching the hamlet of Mitchellsville with its little cemetery and its Methodist church. We’re now in well-wooded Wheeler, and we pass several ponds that are well-loved haunts of muskrats and waterfowl before crossing the Bristol Hills Branch of the FLT. When we come out at State Route 53, where we’re back in farm country.
Since we’re turning north here we just miss the hamlet of Wheeler with its Methodist church, Grange rooms, town hall, and monument to Marcus Whitman. A hundred years ago and more Wheeler was tobacco country, and if you look sharp you may spot an old tobacco barn set back from the road.
As we cruise on northward along a pretty nice road we pass the Wheeler family cemetery, where town namesake Silas Wheeler, a Revolutionary War soldier, lies buried with his kin. Passing farm after farm we keep a sharp lookout, for we are now in horse-and-buggy country. Conservative Anabaptists have been taking up the hill farms that modern folks find uncompetitive, building up Wheeler’s population and economy.
Driving toward Prattsburgh we pass an egg farm and an octagon house (popularized by Orson Squire Fowler of Cohocton) before reaching the village itself, with its pioneer cemetery and its fine tree-lined square, long the scene of parades, footraces, and all sorts of community celebrations.
Captain Pratt was another veteran of the Revolution, and the square in his namesake village is now lined with churches, businesses, the library, the post office, and the school. Franklin Academy is a venerable institution. It goes back to the early 1800s – in the same spot on the square, I believe, though not in the same building of course. Franklin boys marched off to the Civil War in huge numbers, and to the big wars of the 20th century. Narcissa Prentiss Whitman was an alumna, and her nearby home is now open to the public.
Leaving the village we climb an impressive hill, and as we reach the top Joyce reminisces about how she and our older son drove through here in November 1995, just before we moved to Bath from Bloomfield. They almost turned back at this point, but pushed on, and we hadn’t lived in the area very long before we learned that the top of this hill is often the site for mini-snow squalls and mini-rain storms, sort of like I-86 around Campbell. Both stretches have their own microclimates.
Now we’re back in the woods, and hilly woods at that, on a winding road. There’s a bit of a flat at Ingleside, a little hamlet that few people know about, and fewer still realize lies in Steuben County. On our way back, when the sun’s in a better position, I’ll photograph the still-active church for Historical Society files.
Right around the county line we meet another line, this time of wind turbines. Most of us locally seem to take these in stride, but when I guide out-of-state bus tours through this stretch I find that they’re always fascinated by the huge turning blades. Of course you need the right blend of topography, population pattern, wind direction, wind speed, and wind consistency to make wind farming work, so it makes sense that many people won’t have first-hand experience with it.
Then down another steep hill and… Naples, with its mile-long Main Street, where we once again cross the Bristol Hills Trail. Naples with its summer theater, lovely homes, busy restaurants, surrounding ridges, and striking Catholic church. Naples with its vineyard and winery right in the middle of town and its high school right on Main Street; I always expect to see Archie, Betty, and Veronica out front.
Past Naples (now on State 21) we just clip a corner of Yates County before arriving at Woodville, and the head of Canandaigua Lake. The road winds, the bare-rock cliff looms on the left, and the hamlet clings to the bank of the lake on the right. Like all of our lakes it’s a beautiful sight, but we soon turn away until reaching Bristol Springs. Here again Route 21 parallels the lake, but now we’re high on the overlooking ridge, and we get only glimpses of it. Sad to say, there are very few places to pull off and enjoy the view.
Cheshire is a busy little hamlet, where a former school is home to a country store from whose sign a Cheshire cat grins down on us. A few farms line the route now, but before long it’s suburban stretches, and then at last, Canandaigua. Definitely, a decent drive.

A Canandaigua Tragedy

Canandaigua, for some reason, became the focal point of several major court cases in the early years of our republic. Handsome young man-about-town Philip Spencer was a Canandigua boy who became the unhappy star of one such proceeding, even though it happened far from home.
By all reports Philip was a charming and persuasive teenager, one whose wealthy and influential parents and grandparents were always getting out of scrapes. I think of him as a country club boy, deferential to the adults in their presence but instigator of pranks and even of little crimes behind their backs. He didn’t last long at what’s now Hobart, or at Union College, before the authorities bounced him out.
Dad secured him a midshipman’s commission in the navy… an “almost-an-officer” rank in which you’d get training and experience to become commissioned. Successive dissatisfied captains bounced him from ship to ship in a “shunt the crud” maneuver until he wound up in the South Atlantic on USS Somers as part of a midshipman’s cruise, designed to break these young gentlemen in with practical experience.
It shouldn’t be any surprise to hear that Philip wasn’t enthusiastic for responsible life aboard a ship of war, far from the pleasures of Rio or even Canandaigua. Before long he was regaling shipmates with visions of what HE would do if HE were in charge of the ship, rather than their stodgy old captain (not that he had any qualifications at all to do so). With several enlisted men he began to sketch out a scheme to seize the ship and begin a life as pirates.
Can they possibly have been serious? Or was this just youthful high-jinks games playing? In the end it didn’t matter. The captain got wind of it, seized Philip and several enlisted men, and even found a paper Philip had written in Greek listing crewmen likely to be sympathetic, and assignments for the takeover. There was no trial – only a conference of officers on December 1, 1842 – and with no further ado nineteen year-old Philip Spencer, along with two of his co-conspirators, was hanged from the yardarm, after which their bodies were pitched into the sea.
This seems excessive to us, and perhaps it was – BUT consider that in those days there was no communication at all back to home. Mutiny was always a possibility, and the captain had no backup at all, except for his own officers (IF he could trust them) and whatever men remained loyal. It’s possible… maybe not likely… that had Philip’s plans matured, a blood bath would have followed. It’s also possible, given his track record, that he’d have fouled things up, or even just lost interest.
Even so, once Somers returned to New York City news raced across a shocked nation, and the reaction from Washington, D.C. was volcanic. Philip’s father was secretary of war in the President’s cabinet, and this affair was not going to go away.
After extensive testimony a naval board of inquiry backed the captain, but public furor remained so hot that Captain Mackenzie demanded a full court-martial to clear his name. He won on a technicality (a split decision meant that the charges against him were rejected), but the public never forgave him. James Fenimore Cooper, who had been a midshipman himself, was furious, and Herman Melville, who had a cousin on board, probably drew from the case in writing Billy Budd.
Whether or not he deserved hanging, and whether or not that drumhead not-quite-court-martial was justified, Midshipman Philip Spencer had definitely tried to suborn mutiny. Both the midshipman’s cruise and the method of appointing midshipmen were in thorough disrepute, and in 1845 the U.S. Naval Academy opened at Annapolis. Four years of rigorous training and instruction were now the route to a naval commission. The navy, and the nation, were far the better for it. In a back-handed way, it may have been thanks in part to Philip Spencer.