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Post by fiona on Mar 20, 2009 21:18:05 GMT -5
Great work, Supreme Ruler. Keep it up. I'll be talking more about the Olbiston by and by. Thanks, Fiona.
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 20, 2009 21:29:41 GMT -5
Fiona, very good start. You write very well, and I can visualize it all quite clearly.
Jon, those are interesting highlights and I wish I'd been around to have breakfast on the 7th floor dining room in 1916.
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 20, 2009 21:30:39 GMT -5
Olbiston Apts. Sold To Pratt-Hinman
Attorney Frank G. Pratt has purchased the Olbiston Apartments at 1431 Genesee St. from the Mardell Operating Co., according to Albert S. Bagg Sr., real estate broker in the sale.
Although the purchase price was not disclosed, Bagg said it was "well in excess of the $260,000 assessment."
The Victorian-style structure, one of the largest apartment buildings in Utica, contains 165 units.
It was constructed in 1898 on the same site of the Genesee Flats Apartments by Nutt & Lacher, a building contractor which also built the Kanatenah Apartments across the street in 1895.
Bagg said the new owner "expects to make extensive alterations to modernize the building."
Pratt is chief operating officer of Pratt-Hinman Corp., which owns the State Street Mill and Radio Receiver building on Broad Street.
* * *
OLBISTON has changed hands several times. Recent owners have included Mardell, Glen Soldell-Merriam Co. of New York City and the Olbiston-Utica Corp.
The outer structure is constructed of red sandstone and is ornately decorated with keystones and carved heads. About 1930, some of the larger apartments were divided into smaller ones.
[1968]
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 20, 2009 21:38:25 GMT -5
[1975]
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 20, 2009 21:41:34 GMT -5
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 20, 2009 21:43:00 GMT -5
S. Grossman, 85, Real Estate Broker
NEW HARTFORD - Samuel J. Grossman, 85, of 12 Compton Road, a retired real estate broker, died yesterday in St. Elizabeth Hospital, Utica.
At one time, Mr Grossman reportedly owned more apartments in Utica than any other individual. Among the complexes he owned were the Olbiston, Kanatena, Grant and Steuben Apartments.
He was previous owner of the VanKirk and Hemstreet Apartments, Arlene Apartments and Alvaro Apartments in Herkimer. He also built the Grossman block on North Main Street, which now houses the Endicott Johnson store.
He married Sarah Grinbaum in Utica in 1913. The couple moved to Herkimer where they lived until returning to Utica in 1937. He moved to New Hartford after Mrs. Grossman died in 1968.
He was the first life member of Temple Beth El. He was chairman of the United Jewish Appeal drive in 1955 and was active in Bonds for Israel campaigns.
He was a member of Utica Lodge Knights of Pythias and Utica Chapter of B'nai B'rith. He was past president of the Utica Chapter of the Zions, Organization of America.
He leaves a daughter, Mrs. Lenard (Doris) Singer, New Hartford, with whom he lived, and two sisters, Mrs. Bertha Block of New Hartford and Mrs. Minnie Roser of Utica.
The funeral was today from Temple Beth El under the direction of Sanford H. Jacobson, funeral director. Burial will be in Temple Beth El Cemetery.
Shiva will be observed at 12 Compton Road, New Hartford.
[1976]
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 20, 2009 22:07:59 GMT -5
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 20, 2009 22:11:35 GMT -5
Tenants flee smoke, fire at Olbiston Apts.
Tenants from three floors of Utica's largest apartment building - the Olbiston Apartments at 1431 Genesee St. - were evacuated last night when a sire on the fifth floor filled the hallways with smoke.
Utica firefighters confined the flames to one apartment of the five story brick building which contains 160 units. Deputy Fire Chief James Dukette said.
Robert E. Spencer Jr., 17 an occupant of apartment 511-B where the fire started, was cut on the arm by broken window glass.
Spencer said he and a friend, Steve Largeant, 19, saw smoke coming from a couch. "We moved the couch and I saw a fire in the dust and papers. I stamped out the fire," Spencer said.
As the pair attempted to move the couch again, it burst into flames, Spencer said. Spencer and maintenance man Tom Egresits, of Burrstone Road, New York Mills, used four fire extinguishers to fight the blaze, but the flames spread too fast, Egresits said.
A roommate, David Minns, 17 was sleeping when the fire broke out but woke up in time to escape, Spencer said.
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 20, 2009 22:12:25 GMT -5
Frank Pratt, an attorney and owner of the building, said tenants occupy 152 apartments, maintenance workers occupy three and three are used for his law offices.
Chief Inspector Peter Irving of the Utica Fire Prevention Bureau and Fire Marshal Saporito were investigating and interviewing witnesses.
Firefighters Lynn Cross and William Able said tenants were not panicked by the fire. Among those escorted from the building was a man riding his bicycle up and down the fourth floor hallway, firefighters said.
A Woman, who declined to be identified, said she lived on the fourth floor and heard a "lot of commotion" in the hallways.
"I heard someone yell 'fire,'" she said. "I grabbed my fur coat and got outside the building."
[1985]
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 20, 2009 23:01:59 GMT -5
Jon, those are interesting highlights and I wish I'd been around to have breakfast on the 7th floor dining room in 1916. Be careful what you wish for. That would make you 93 years old now. [2009]
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 20, 2009 23:23:30 GMT -5
Hahahaha! Some days I've begun to feel like it. I looked out in my driveway the other night and I could swear I saw you and Dick sitting in his cool old car, waiting to pick me up for a gig. What was that car, a Dodge?
I just thought ... I may have lost the connection with Dick, what with the demise of CNYForum. And Guy, too. No, wait. I've got Dick's email address. And I have Guy's card somewhere. There were a couple of people over there who were going to send me stories, too. And I never did order JohnF's famous Italian Christmas bread! Who was the lady who I found some information for through a friend who knew someone in the diocesan office ... she was looking for her birth family?
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 21, 2009 0:42:54 GMT -5
Hahahaha! Some days I've begun to feel like it. I looked out in my driveway the other night and I could swear I saw you and Dick sitting in his cool old car, waiting to pick me up for a gig. What was that car, a Dodge? If it had my string bass tied to the roof, it was us, but you didn't come out so we left and played the gig without you. No Dick's car was a Chevy '53, his mother had a '58 Chevy. We were just E-Mailing yesterday about CNY folding up on us. Guy had said he doesn't know how to use his computer, but that was awhile ago. He just made the one post.
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Post by Clipper on Mar 21, 2009 9:20:47 GMT -5
You two have to gather the old gang, and bring them here. We will accomodate ya in any way we can, if by nothing more than giving you an outlet to communicate by PM, and to share on your bebop thread. I was under the impression that Dick Laury had registered here, but he hasn't. I was a member of CNY Forum too, and that must be where I communicated with him about one thing or another. I remember specifically answering a post by him.
I miss CNY Forum. I always liked having a different and yet similar forum to go to. It was the OTHER forum where you could go and discuss things in a civil manner without outrageously vile morons disrupting it, like Topix.
I thought it was nice of Joe to put a link in that CNY banner, linking Clipper's Corner. Joe is a great guy. I wish HE would come here also, but I imagine he is too busy.
Get a hold of Dick and tell him to register here, and Guy can surely learn to find at least this one site, and to navigate it. I DID! If there ever was a "computer dummy" it is ME, haha.
Great contribution to the Olbiston thread Jon. I still get confused when I can't reference the point in time of the particular event, but the content is very interesting and fun to read. I hope more city history finds it's way to the forum, with people like yourself and fiona posting. If we get Tony to register here, we will have a really deep well of history to tap or question.
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Post by fiona on Mar 21, 2009 13:48:02 GMT -5
Thank you ever so much, John Hynes for all your wonderful work. Not being quite so familiar with the website, I had you confused with another member, Concerned. dave e mailed me and gave me the correct information. I will be posting another segment of this story by next week. I just have to write it out and fact check my data. Best to you, FIona
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Post by Clipper on Mar 21, 2009 14:14:10 GMT -5
This is getting to be a great "read" guys. I can't wait to see where it goes, and what other great historic places in the city our members can document for us. I have tons of memories going back into the fifties, but no documentation, or photos to post or back it up with.
It may have been on the Olbiston Thread on the CNY forum that I was able to reminisce about the smells, the ornate woodwork, the beveled oval glasses in the front doors, of some of the apartments that my Dad's aunt and uncle lived in over the years. They summered in their home in Trenton Falls, and came to a rented apartment in the city every winter. Some of those apartments were on Mary St., Blandina, Park Avenue, and Genessee between Oneida Square and Hobart St. It was amazing to open the front door and smell the bacon in the mornings and sauce simmering at dinner time. It was my favorite thing to ring the bell and speak to Uncle Ralph through the "speaking tubes" by the mailboxes and doorbells.
I am going to speak to Ralph about creating a "history, or reminiscences" section for us older folks to bring our musings of time gone by, to the younger members of the forum. I remember a lot of history from all around the central NY area, not just the city, but to document or offer factual historic data would be difficult. I have so many memories of sipping water from "the tub" in Barneveld on hot days, while riding my first bicycle around town. I remember picking night crawlers on the lawns of the golf courses with my grandfather when he ran a bait business in Whitesboro. I remember walking through the old downtown and the Baggs Square of the 50's and 60's before urban renewal. I picked mushrooms in West Winfield, and fished the Little Lakes in Warren NY. I hunted the Adirondacks, and fished the West Canada. We watched them move the earth from the hill in Whitesboro down onto the flats to create the berm on which the Thruway rests. We waved at the engineers in the steam locomotives and the brakemen in the cabooses, when the old coal fired trains rumbled through Whitesboro.
Wouldn't it be fun to create a place where all those memories from ALL of us could just be tossed out there and kicked around and expounded on?
Any ideas on how we should go about creating such a space? Kick it around and let us know.
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