I recently had the fun of leading a historic walk in Addison, starting with the CENTRAL SCHOOL built in 1929 and still in use. We gathered across the street at VALERIO PARK AND VALERIO PARKWAY. Mr. Valerio paved the street and the sidewalk at his own expense when the new school opened so that the children would not have to walk in mud, because he loved them. The town held a big celebration to thank him, and the small park is now a center of community events.
*The park includes a VETERANS OF ALL WARS MEMORIAL. Now that our country is 240 years old, and has been at war for a good deal of that, communities are increasingly resorting to this approach.
*Right next to the park is the LIBRARY, originally built (1889) as the YMCA. “Y” was big in those days, especially in industrial towns and railroad towns, to provide the young man with wholesome environment and activities. It’s now the public library, one of 18 in Steuben County and 49 region-wide. Addison’s library was incorporated in 1840, which may make it the oldest in our region.
*OLD VILLAGE HALL MEMORIAL PARK across the street is a small space, but it held a pretty good-sized village hall! They ran out of money part-way through, and had to get underwriting from the Odd Fellows, in exchange for giving them use of the third floor. Completed 1907, it unfortunately was finally lost due to arson, after the offices had been moved. Floods came down to here from the Canisteo River AND from Tuscarora Creek.
*Nearby on Main Street stood a major hotel, the AMERICAN HOUSE, very popular with travelers in days gone by. It was demolished in 1971.
*A few steps farther up is MIDDLETOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. The good folks there will make you welcome Wednesday and Friday afternoons, or by appointment. Just about everyone will enjoy the working model railroad.
*Today’s Main Street was mostly erected after a bad fire in 1879. When you’re walking the street you’re also walking the CRYSTAL HILLS TRAIL, a major branch trail of the Finger Lakes Trail. Keep going north and you’ll strike the main FLT in the woods, around the Bradford/Campbell town line. But you’re simultaneously on the GREAT EASTERN TRAIL, a National Scenic Trail. Keep walking south and you’ll end up in Alabama.
*An earlier MAIN STREET BRIDGE came from the Owego Iron Bridge Company. Downstream, on the line of Goodhue Street, was a decorative suspension bridge. This was used for foot traffic only after the 1935 flood, and removed altogether after the flood of 1946. Osprey and eagles both soar up and down the river.
*Another few steps brings you to the METHODIST CHURCH. The congregation goes back to an 1830 meeting in a schoolhouse. This site was selected, and work begun, in 1875 after a fire at another location – they wanted more space. It was dedicated in 1876, and used locally-made bricks in construction.
*Up the hill by WOMBAUGH PARK, the EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER congregation also goes back to schoolhouse meetings, about 1847. This building, which was finished, consecrated, and paid for in 1860, is in a very interesting Carpenter Gothic style… including pointed arches, steep gables, towers, and vertical planking. Diagonally across the way 12 WALL STREET, built in 1849, also shows Carpenter Gothic style, including lots of gingerbread under the eaves.
*The PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH congregation goes back before 1834. This building on he other side of the park, dedicated in 1882, also used local bricks.
*Doubling back toward Main Street is the EAGLE HOTEL, built as tavern in 1805 and later expanded to a hotel with livery stable.
*The main line of the ERIE RAILROAD came through in 1850-51 – Daniel Webster and Millard Filllmore rode the ceremonial first rain. Presidential candidates spoke from the observation cars at the ends of trains pulled up to the still-standing ERIE DEPOT, bringing such luminaries as Theodore Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, and Charles Evans Hughes. More prosaically, local producers used the Erie to ship out millions of gallons of milk.
*The WADE’S RENTAL buildings once held a company making “Reliance” bicycles and motorcycles, back in the Glenn Curtiss days. And here, by lovely flower beds along the street, we end our tour.