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Post by dave on May 6, 2014 5:06:07 GMT -5
Dave, I read somewhere while researching the Hotel Pershing that the Hotel Utica had four floors added to it sometime back then. In the picture I saw on the Vintage Utica site for the Hotel Pershing, the Hotel Utica definitely looked different. If you look at the photo you posted above, you can see a cornice and then an additional four floors. That makes sense. I don't think one probably has looked at that particular view before or paid much attention to the upper floors on that particular side of the building. I probably would not have been prone to looking that high up on the building as I walked along Lafayette Street. Clipper, I've been meaning to post more on this. When I said the Hotel Utica for some reason didn't look to me like the Hotel Utica in the shot with the Pershing in the foregrond, I can't imagine why it didn't. When I put the following photos together, it's obvious the Hotel Utica looks like the Hotel Utica and you can see the upper addition quite plainly above the cornice. The upper four floors, according to Wiki, were added in 1926 and increased the rooms from 200 to 250.
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Post by kit on May 6, 2014 7:54:12 GMT -5
Dave, Jim had borrowed an old postcard from an elderly lady whose husband owned the property where the strip mall is located. When she passed away, he contacted the family to see if he could obtain the postcard and it had been discarded along with other paperwork the family wasn't familiar with. He was devastated because all he had was a litho scan that showed only black & white but no middle tones (that's why newspapers and magazines use 'halftones' which are a group of individual dots that compose a pseudo-image). I had scanned the postcard in continuous-tone years ago and retouched it and gave it to Jim, but somehow he lost it.
Thank you for keeping an eye open for any old post cards, photos, newspaper clippings or decent scans of this property. Jim would surely appreciate it.
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2014 9:03:09 GMT -5
Dave I never new there two other buildings located next to The Hotel Utica. Now it is open space.
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Post by dave on May 6, 2014 22:48:25 GMT -5
Alan, there was no open space that I remember in the fifties and early sixties in downtown Utica. It was prime real estate and was always filled with multi story buildings. Compare the two photos, below. On top is downtown Utica in 1948. Below it is a satellite shot form last year. Some would argue that "more jobs downtown," or "a mobile society" are not the reasons for more parking lots. Utica seems to have emptied out.
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Post by clarencebunsen on May 7, 2014 5:32:24 GMT -5
Wow, I don't think I've ever seen the deconstruction of Utica presented so graphically.
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2014 8:56:19 GMT -5
Wow. me either. Like someone went in an leveled the place.
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Post by dave on May 7, 2014 15:19:14 GMT -5
Wow. me either. Like someone went in an leveled the place. That's why I updated Sister Mary Bernie's photo ... arson. That plus Regents Review Books and the NYSE bull.
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Post by clarencebunsen on May 7, 2014 15:44:43 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2014 16:02:22 GMT -5
I haven't been to any of those new eateries yet or the Coffee Place. There is a Bus that returns downtown from there but none that goes from downtown and up that street. So I would have to take a Bus all the way to Price Chopper N.Utica or Walmart get off wait 40 minutes for the next Bus that return downtown and maybe just use that street or avoid it if they are late. So not gonna do that.
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Post by dave on May 7, 2014 17:41:41 GMT -5
Thanks, CB. That's the old City National Bank building holding forth in the photo. I am continuing to add photos to various segments of the Around Town i'm doing on Facebook. Here's one of the City National I found this morning. I like it because it shows the end of the old Hump Bridge over the Erie Canal in relation to the Bank building. I have a colorized version of this, but the contrast is not as good.
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Post by kit on May 8, 2014 8:56:53 GMT -5
Dave,
Email me the color version of the City National Bank photo (or send me a link) and I'll see what I can do to restore the contrast, color, etc.
kit.temple40@gmail.com
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Post by dave on May 9, 2014 3:38:19 GMT -5
Thanks, Kit. I've sent it to you. I'll also attach it here, but I think Proboards allows only a small size attachment. Attachments:
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Post by kit on May 9, 2014 11:22:01 GMT -5
Dave, the file from any work I do will only be slightly larger than the file you send me, so there shouldn't be a problem.
I'm still wondering what year, or years, the Erie Canal was rerouted out of downtown Utica and turned into Oriskany St. Does anyone know?
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Post by clarencebunsen on May 9, 2014 11:29:38 GMT -5
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Post by dave on May 9, 2014 19:44:32 GMT -5
Let's start with a baseline here. The Mohawk River used to come right to the foot of Baggs Square, where it made a sharp turn to the north and flowed along a path which is today "Utica Harbor" and then west. This turn slowed the river's flow and made crossing it easier. Therefore the spot became a fording place for those traveling by wagon and horseback to pass from south to north side. A natural place to put up for the night, Moses Bagg recognized it as such and built a tavern there around 1798. See maps here: (CLick and enlarge when you see the strip of maps.) www.windsweptpress.com/TEMP/aroundmaps.jpgIn 1815 to 1820, Governor Clinton spearheaded the construction of the Erie Canal which ran roughly along the path of the Mohawk River and in fact in some spots made use of that waterway as part of the canal. The Erie Canal revolutionized trade in New York State, giving New York City an expanded market into the midwest and cheap transportation rates. In Utica the canal ran down what is today Oriskany Blvd. By the early 1900's, the small dimensons of the Erie Canal limited shipping and a new canal was launched that would accommodate larger vessels. This was the Barge Canal, and it came through Utica where it is today over near the Thruway and North Utica McDonalds. At around the same time, but a separate issue, Utica politicians, led by the NY Central Railroad management, launched their final effort to move the Mohawk River north to where it is today. Their motivation was frequent flooding at the low end of Baggs Square, including the tracks, and the desire of the NYCRR to increase their trackage. Essentially, they wanted to create real estate for tracks where the Mohawk flowed, plus protect their tracks already in place from flooding. The river was moved, after many false starts and frustrated contractors, by around 1912, if I remember correctly, almost but not quite coincident with the opening of the new Barge Canal. With the Barge Canal built, the Erie was no longer used or maintained and it was eventually filled in. I do not know the date that it was filled in, but in my Around Town presentation on Facebook, I show a post card where the photographer stood on the Hump Bridge over the Erie Canal on Genesee Street and shot south toward the busy corner. There are automobiles of 1920 vintage in the shot. So these statements in the article cited by CB seem rather strange. 8. A bridge had been built in 1915 in Utica over the old canal to carry horse-drawn vehicles, but when the Erie Barge Canal opened, the old portion was filled in, paved and named Oriskany Boulevard. It wasn’t until Dec. 28, 1970, that the bridge, after several attempts to use dynamite to collapse it, finally came down. 10. It wasn’t until about 15 years ago that people began referring to the Erie Barge Canal as simply the Erie Canal. First, I've never heard the name "Erie Barge Canal" before, nor seen it in old newspaper accounts. I assume the author means simply the newer Barge Canal. "A bridge had been built in 1915 over the old canal." Does the author mean the Erie Canal? if so there was always a abridge over it since it had come through Utica in the early 1800's. (In fact, there were many bridges in Utica over the Erie Canal.) Known as the Hump Bridge (to take the weight of the trolleys) the Genesee Street bridge would have stayed up until the old canal was filled in. "It wasn't until about 15 years ago that people began referring to the Erie Barge Canal as simply the Erie Canal." I don't think the writer understands the difference in canals. They are two separate projects built one hundred years apart. They are not the same waterway except in places where either the Mohawk River or the old Erie Canal was expanded and made a part of the newer Barge Canal. The Erie Canal was always called the Erie Canal and the Barge Canal was always called the Barge Canal. And I've never heard anyone ... except for a few advertising types, like the dopes who wanted to change the Adirondacks to "The Dacks" ... refer to an "Erie Barge" canal. Their purpose was to assign some legacy to the Barge Canal, borrow some of the historic flavor, I guess.
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