We took a walk in Watkins recently, and it’s a good place to do so. Although we associate Watkins with its spectacular glen, most of the village itself is as flat as a pan. The streets are rectilinear. While the town is busy, especially in summer, most of the time you can get around comfortably on foot, and while Franklin Street is also Route 14, Watkins Glen has a good array of signals and crosswalks. There’s plenty to look at, and there’s even a free municipal parking lot (Third Street, just behind the Chamber of Commerce).
Watkins Glen is like Bath and Corning, in that it doesn’t have a “Main Street” – Watkins has Franklin Street instead. (Some places, like Wayland and Hammondsport, DO have Main Streets, but changing traffic patterns leave them not quite as “main” as they were planned to be.) Bath DOES have a “Maine Street,” though, right next to Vermont Street.
Seneca Lake draws walkers like a magnet draws iron filings. While Cayuga Lake is a little longer, Seneca is decidedly broader and definitely deeper, making it the largest Finger Lake in both volume and area. It’s not quite an inland sea, but it behaves like one, with waves running up the lake to crash against the stone seawalls of the Watkins marina. Of course there are gulls aplenty, but depending on the season you can also spot coots, buffleheads, loons, eagles, osprey, cormorants, and plenty more. A pier jutting well out into the lake has a famed pavilion at the far end. In season you can also see (and book a cruise on) the schooner “True Love,” on which Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly honeymooned (and sang the song of that title) in the movie musical “High Society.”
This waterfront is mostly for pleasure craft nowadays, but time was when it was a hardworking transshipment point. Roads converged here from Horseheads, Corning, Hammondsport, Geneva, and Ithaca. More importantly, Seneca Lake welcomed a canal at Watkins, connecting down into Pennsylvania. And even more important yet, several railroads and a trolley line stopped here. By 1876, as tourism boomed, a brand-new elegant station welcomed visitors. It’s now the Seneca Station Harbor Restaurant, with a spectacular view of the lake.
Most of the Franklin Street structures are historic. A. B. Frost bought a marble business as soon as he got back from the Civil War, and around 1870 put up the three-story iron works at 2 North Franklin. Municipal Hall (303 North Franklin) was a Works Project Administration project during the New Deal. The garage at 111 North Franklin started out in 1874 as a livery stable. Which makes it especially cool that the Glen Theater (112 North Franklin) opened its doors in 1924. Thirty years between livery stable and picture palace! Wow! What a transition, in far less than a single lifetime! (They preserve the original period interior. We love it.)
While you walk you can also keep your eyes peeled for hall of fame blocks set into the sidewalks, honoring racing car drivers – or look up a little and you’ll find huge racing murals on exterior walls. Watkins Glen folks take their racers seriously. There’s now a closed course a little outside of town, but you can visit the original 1948 Grand Prix start line in front of the courthouse. Pick up a brochure, and you can drive the original route yourself.
The Glen, of course, is the town’s stellar attraction, and the state park includes hiking and walking trails (though believe me, they aren’t flat). The 580-mile Finger Lakes Trail wends through the park, and then on sidewalk to the other end of town, where it hits open fields and starts to climb again. Likewise the Catharine Valley Trail begins in Watkins at Lafayette Park, following the old canal-and-trolley route down to Montour Falls.
We first saw Watkins Glen in 1995 when we stopped downtown for lunch as we passed through, just before my wife had open heart surgery. When we moved to Bath a year and half later we said, “Oh, good – we’ll be near Watkins Glen!” It’s a good town to visit. We like it a lot. Good memories.