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Post by dgriffin on Jan 2, 2010 21:03:29 GMT -5
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Post by dgriffin on Jan 2, 2010 21:14:51 GMT -5
The car in which Stewart and White were riding was stopped by a Trooper after he heard an APB for a car driven by a black male. "The stopping of the car and occupants occurred about three hours before the body of Murphy was found by a passing motorist. The body was lying face down in (sic) an embankment about 25 feet off the roadway in Herkimer County." That's a long way to spot a body on the ground in the middle of the night as you pass by in a car. Unless you stopped to take a leak. But the person who spotted the body was evidently a woman. Would she be taking a roadside leak on Dyke Road? If she were from West Utica, maybe, but the article doesn't say.  I can think of only one person who could answer that question! |
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Post by dgriffin on Jan 2, 2010 21:58:51 GMT -5
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Post by jon hynes on Jan 2, 2010 23:09:19 GMT -5
The Body Shop sat on the NE corner of Saratoga and Whitesboro St. I think. I am also quite sure it is where Larry Tanoury's dad ran the coffee shop in later years, but I could be mistaken about that.  Right you are about the Body Shop. It was run by Frank Struch and later years turned into a pizza parlor. Midnight Express was across from Lenox where Columbia and Whitesboro come together. |
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Post by stoney on Jan 4, 2010 12:27:23 GMT -5
Willie got out in '95.  Given the usual rate of recidivism, he could be back in by now. Well he's not in a NY prison, anyway. |
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Post by dgriffin on Jan 4, 2010 15:50:15 GMT -5
Another popular alternative to committing crimes is to start your own church.
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Post by stoney on Jan 4, 2010 18:19:38 GMT -5
Dyke Rd. was a crappy little road back then. Very dark & scary.
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Post by dgriffin on Jan 4, 2010 19:44:29 GMT -5
A road through the swamp, down at the level of the river. Utica has a rather nice name for the swamp between Baggs Square and North Utica today, but I can't remember it.
I remember Dyke Road as a lovers' lane, too, I think. Although I never had any luck getting anyone there. Girls I dated seldom got romantic while I spoke of the meaning of the universe and the excitement of olfactory research in fruit flies. Finally, I met Mrs. Dave, who didn't understand any of it, either. But she was kind and I was persistent. When I met her parents and her father asked what I did, Mrs. Dave answered for me. "He talks," she said.
"Only if I know you really well," I added, lamely.
"Well, then there's hope," said her father.
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Post by stoney on Jan 5, 2010 12:57:43 GMT -5
A road through the swamp, down at the level of the river. Utica has a rather nice name for the swamp between Baggs Square and North Utica today, but I can't remember it. The Utica Marsh. |
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Post by dgriffin on Jan 5, 2010 20:34:04 GMT -5
I guess the Utica Marsh is the official name. I think the person telling me about it used a more colorful name, like a fen or a bog. No doubt she was taken by its beauty and was searching for a more dramatic name.
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Post by Clipper on Jan 6, 2010 13:09:08 GMT -5
If one is able to edit out of their vision, the harbor point pollution, and the junkyards on Barnes Ave. the Utica marsh is an ecological wonder. An ecological wonder living next door to an environmental disaster.
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Post by dicklaurey on Feb 12, 2010 12:14:19 GMT -5
Just a note about another old home- The Rosemont Bed & Breakfast, on the east side of Genesee St., about a block south of Oneida Square. I am too lazy to dig up all of the specifics about the house, but the data is readily available.
We stayed there when we attended our UFA 50th reunion, last summer.
A great old, red brick home, of Italianette architecture, sitting back from the street, completely furnished with Victorian antiques, even to the bed that we slept in.
Walking thru the place, you could just feel the years of history that it held. Every day presented silent lessons of times past.
The breakfasts were always home made, "from scratch", and were delicious.
The owners are a wonderful and very hospitable family, who also offer tours of the house, including "high tea" in the beautiful dining room.
Any former Uticans who return for a visit, and choose to stay at the Rosemont, will never forget it. Prices are very reasonable. The experience is great.
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Post by stoney on Feb 12, 2010 12:40:10 GMT -5
Dick, is that the building across the street from Catholic Charities?
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Post by dicklaurey on Feb 13, 2010 11:58:30 GMT -5
Stoney- Across the street is an old home, turned into an office bldg. (I think it's a planned parenthood location).
It is easily recognized by the unusual oriental architecture, ie: a round entrance portal, a terra cotta dragon on top of a low stone wall, that follows all along the right side of the adjacent driveway.
I walked across Genesee street to get a better look at it. As a kid, I had passed by it a hundred times, on the bus, and, was always curious about it.
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Post by fiona on Feb 13, 2010 14:13:52 GMT -5
OK. Mr. Laurey, I got cher back. This is Fiona, half wit expert (LOL) of all things Genesee Hill. The house you are speaking of has quite a history, some of it quite frightening. This house was built around 1880 in the "Orientalizing Style" of architecture. It was quite an expensive and time consuming house to build. It was built by Mr. Henry Albright, a Utica financier. Mr. Albright and his wife lived there until after 1896 - 97, when they moved down the street into the Hobart Arms, which is now the Oneida Building. Prior to building the home on the Hill they had a home on Whitesboro Street, but I do not know where. (This date is not exact) I believe they had two children, a girl and a boy. Mr. Albright was from Pennsylvania and a member of a family that owned coal mines. He also owned, or was a partner in a coal yard here in Utica as well as a lumber yard on Culver Ave. He was also invested in race horses, as well as sundry other things. He and his brother dedicated and gave money to the Knox - Albright Museaum in Buffalo. Mrs. Albright was considered the "Grand Dame" of
Genesee Hill, which was what the neighborhood was called at that time. She was a sort of Mrs Stuveysant Fish of Utica and the house was the social, focal point of the neighborhood. When the house was built it was the southern most house on the Hill at that time and had huge yards with a stable, guest house and possible other out buildings. This can be confirmed through old maps) Of course, these are all gone now.
Mr and Mrs Albright traveled quite a bit and, as the story goes, they saw a house in Algiers they fell in love with and when they returned to Utica were determined to replicate it. The outer shell of the house is a mixture of styles and the inside is Persian
in flavor. There is a wonderful story that is well known about the front door: That the door, which is teakwood, was ordered from India and took 3 years to build and deliver. Where the dragon came from I have no idea, but the Albrights filled there home with all the treasures of their travels. I have read that the wine cellar was built like a bunker and could hold up 1000 bottles at a time.
Weather or not this is true, I do not know. On 3/3/1896, at about 5:30 in the morning, tradegy struck the Albright House: It became a makeshift hospital and place of refuge for hundreds of tenants fleeing the fire at the Genesee Flats, the apartment building across the road. (You can read all about this is our on line novel On Genesee Hill). Newspaper reports stated that " the parlours were entirely ruined by blood." One could only imagine what Mrs. albright thought and felt. After this, the next year, the Albrights gave up their house ( newspapers reports state only that they vacated. (and moved down near Oneida Square.) Some time later they returned to Pennsylvania. The house was then sold "In situ" to a local dentist. Then in the 1950's, for some years, it was a guest home. After that it was purchased by reader's Digest and then sold to Planned Parenthood.
It is a wonderful house and some if not all of the downstairs has been maintained, the reception rooms, the round tiled fireplace, the entrance hall with its thousands of small blue tiles, even though all the rooms have been turned into offices, it has not been gutted. I often wonder if those working there day by day know what a history the house has, both good and bad?
Hope this helps. I think it is as accurate as I can make it, although Dave and Jon, who are amazing net- archeologists, can probebly dig up some amazing bits I know nothing about.
Please vist us in OGH. Wonderful stuff is going up daily, as you well know. Thanks, Fiona
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