What community has…
*Steuben County’s only synagogue…
*just a couple of blocks from Steuben’s only Carnegie Library?
What community had…
*a subway (though not the kind you think)
*a fair
*and a trolley line?
What community had a tugboat named after it in the Port of New York?
What company made…
*Silk,
*Beer,
*and Ferris wheels,
all at the same time?
What community has…
*an armory,
*a county courthouse,
*a Catholic school,
*and the longest-serving mayor in the history of New York state?
Why, we’re talkin’ ’bout Hornell, of course.
At 4 PM on Friday, August 1, I’m leading a historic walking tour of Hornell, starting on the front steps of the library. This walk is free and open to the public. (So’s the library, for that matter.)
When the county was first organized today’s Hornell was part of Canisteo. Eventually a new town was carved out and named Hornellsville for an early white resident. This town was much bigger than today’s town.
In 1851 the Erie Railroad jolted the whole region out of economic doldrums, completing a main line between Lake Erie and New York City. They sited their main repair shops in the little hamlet of Hornellsville, in the larger town of the same name.
And business boomed. And population boomed. In the late 1800s the community became independent as the City of Hornellsville – now the City of Hornell.
America’s economy ran on railroads, and so did Hornell’s, where the roundhouse had capacity for two dozen cars or engines to be worked on simultaneously. Shattuck Opera House brought in such top-tier performers as Tom Thumb, Maude Adams, John L. Sullivan, James Whitcomb Riley, and Oscar Wilde (not all on the same bill, though that would have been an evening to remember).
Hornell was one of the first area communities to get electricity, and the Erie was soon supplemented by an electric railway – a trolley line working throughout the city and connecting it with Canisteo. This is where the “subway” comes in – the trolley line cut through under Main Street. Arches studded with incandescent lights set off the shopping district.
In the early 1900s Hornell got a huge and attractive post office, fitting for the new imperial power we had decided to become. This is where the lovely beaux-arts library comes in, donated by billionaire ANTI-imperialist Andrew Carnegie once he retired from crushing the workers. A very complex man, to say the least.
Neighborhoods of grand houses grew up in Hornell, stimulated by railroad prosperity. One has its own sundial built into an upper story and readable from the street. Many of these houses have balconies, turrets and gables galore. Folks liked to flaunt their wealth back then, so they festooned their homes with all sorts of accretions and flourishes. The looooong Erie depot also bespeaks the times. So does the fortress-like armory – cousin to many others built in towns where officials were worried about labor unions.
The city’s houses of worship make an interesting study all by themselves. The very modern Baptist church (replacing an earlier model) is only a few steps away from dignified, even austere Temple Beth-El. The steeple at St. Ann’s church is the tallest structure in Hornell. Christ Episcopal Church held the opening service for their new edifice on Christmas Day in 1860. Four months later, the nation was at war.
Anyhow, the city itself has had an interesting life, and its architectural fabric tells tales of its own. Tag along on August 1. We’ll see some sights and spin some stories.