Old Homes

[dicklaurey]

Fiona- Wow!! Thanks for the wealth of data re: that bldg. Very interesting. I'm sure that if one were to publish a book of photos, covering all of those old houses in that area, on both sides of Genesee St., including detailed info on each one, that would be an excellent collectable reference for area history buffs.
It would also be great competition for our beloved Malio Cardarelli, on the bookshelves of the Oneida County Historical Museum.
Old houses are cool! I am just finishing a great read called "Ghosts Along the Mississippi", which has excellent photos and data of all of the great plantation mansions along the river. Kinda spooky too!

[fiona]

Glad I could help you. History to me accurate, but also like sand through my hands. Actual facts and dates sometimes prove elusive.

[Clipper]

My mother worked in that building for a short time as the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood of the Mohawk Valley back in the Sixties. She then moved to a higher paying position as the Executive Director of the local MS society, and finally to a position as Alexander Pirnies aide., and later a secretary for Congressman Donald Mitchell.

Another historic building that was interesting to explore was the building on Steuben Park that Alexander Pirnie's congressional office moved to. It was formerly a funeral parlor and sat midway up the park ave side of the park. It was interesting to us kids that the supply closet and janitors storage room was the former embalming room and still contained an embalming table and deep sinks.

Do you have any history on that particular building fiona? Were the homes surrounding Steuben Park even there back in the days when the Rutger St mansions and the Albright house were built.

[jon hynes]

Is tis the house? 4th from the left from Oswego, next to the Nurses Park?

[Clipper]

I think a book of all the old homes and their history would be a great thing. There are so many old and stately houses all over the city and the local area. There are many homes in N Utica that were built by descendants of the original Weaver family and the Auerts and other notable families in the history of the city. Herkimer Rd has several old brick mansions from way back when the area was first settled.

When I was a boy there was a large brick farmhouse just a few hundred yards west of Deerfield corners on Riverside Drive. The farm was still worked on into the late 50's by a truck farmer named Jim Theime, who worked that plot and one near Keyes Rd and Herkimer Rd with horse drawn implements. He had an old percheron horse named Pete, and when Pete died, he purchased a huge Appalachian Mule that he called Jack. I would be interested to know who had built that farmhouse on Riverside and who farmed it in the early days. Does anyone remember seeing Jim walking his horse or mule along Herkimer Rd in the 50's? He was a common sight with the reins draped over his shoulders walking behind the animals back then.

[jon hynes]

Fiona, Dave and myself have been posting tons of information about a fire that happened in 1896 to a building called the Genesee Flats. After the fire the building was rebuilt and is now called the Olbiston Apartments.

The building across the street was called the Albright house with it's circular front teak door and doorway and brick exterior.

It was built by John F. Hughes (sound familiar?)

There's close to 1,000 posts in the "History of the Genesee Flats and the Fire", area. Even information on the construction of the Albright building and it's furnishings. It was designed to support 15 stories by heavy steel girders.

[fiona]

John F. Hughes? Doesn't sound familiar other than Hughes school. Yes, Jon, that is the one. It looks small and inconsequential now, next to the Genesee Courts (1912) and the Algonquin (1927-28?) and then, on the corner of Oswego and Genesee, what is now called the "Doctor's" Building. This is a huge brick building, originally red, now painted grey and the facade has been altered, the window lintels have been ripped off, I think most of the back is new, and the building once had rows of porches continuously around the front. I have never been able to find out much about it. I was only in there once, too look at an apt. They must have been flats. The mantelpieces and the surrounds are exactly the same as in the Olbiston, so it is somewhat contemporary. The Amlott, incidentally, was where the nurses park is now.
Clip: As far as I know, the first plots to be settled on Rutger Street was the "Miller Seat." This was in ( around) 1820. Rutger B. Miller's father, Morris Miller, began the "Conkling" House around 1820. After he died his son, Rutger, completed the work. The architect was Phillip Hooker from Albany. It was inhabitable around 1830, I think. I have read that Rutger B. planned and laid out Rutger Street from Steuben going East. He wanted a grand boulevard in the European fashion. Some of the houses are very early, I think specifically the homes directly surrounding the park: Rutger Park. Most of the really historic homes end around Seymour Ave. The area is only really confined to a few blocks. If some kind person wants to put up google or bing shots of the houses in a seperate thread, that would be a good project to work on. We could confine ourselves to an area block by block. RimShot: See the middle of the Olbiston, the higher part, where the windows look South? I lived up there for many years and all those windows plus a bay set in front were mine. That was where the restaurant was.
It is all marble flooring, the whole flat, and I had two bathrooms, one, in the back had a massive claw foot tub with side faucets, a sink with a grey marble surround and an old WC that never functioned. (Thank God!) The other bathroom, in the front, was modern. The view was phemomenal. I miss it sometimes, but that's all. Clip: Those old Perchons are beautiful, I love them. I put a team of them into my last post, but I don't think I did them adequate justice.

[jon hynes]

Feb 13, 2010 18:35:15 GMT -5 fiona said:

John F. Hughes? Doesn't sound familiar other than Hughes school.

Yes, Dick an I both went to grade school at John F. Hughes School, in different eras of course. (Talk about the "Hill")

[dicklaurey]

There exists an excellent book re: Utica's old homes, complete with photos. It is called "Utica: A City Worth Saving".
It was assembled by Frank Przybycien, a professor at Mohawk Valley Community College, in 1976.
It was written as a plea to the city, to stop the razing of our beautiful, historic homes and commercial buildings.
I suspect that it is out of print by now, however, it's possible to find one at the Oneida County Historical Museum.
In it, the city is broken down, geographically, with dozens of photos and related descriptions, in each section.
When I start feeling sappy about the old home town, I take down this book of landmarks, most very familiar to me, and remember the times that I entered them, or, just passed by.
I'm sure that many more have been destroyed, since the book was published.
If you are a nut for local, historical architecture, this book is major eye candy.

[fiona]

Yes, I have that book, a signed copy given to me by a dear freind and I treasure it. Some of the structures are gone: for instance, the original home of Henry Seymour on Whitesboro St, built by David Childs in 1810, pg 140. Here is an interesting story about that house: Henry Seymour, father of Horatio Seymour, committed suicide by shooting himself, I believe during the financial panic of 1827. For many years the house remained in the family, but they did not live there. Years later, around 1893, the house changed hands and was purchased by a family named Gorman. The husband who was a teamster, his wife and their children lived there. The neighborhood was no longer strictly residential, but a tough, mixed use canal neighborhood and a somewhat deteriorating place of saloons, hotels and brothels. On Christmas eve 1896 there was a terrible tradegy across the road at a saloon and Hotel called Peter Wolff's Imperial Hotel, which was really a brothel, one of the worst in the city. A 16 year old girl named Carrie Cobb was in bed with an older man (27) named John Karl, son of a prominent Hotel owner. Wolff sent up a keg of beer for their pleasure and they obviously got drunk and fell asleep. And they were exphixiated by "illuminating gas" which seeped out from a jet on the wall. When Wolff found them half dead, he and his wife moved Karl's body to another room and lied to the police. But he forgot to move Karl's celluloid collar and shoes from under the bed. Perhaps in his haste to destroy the evidence at the scene, Wolff overlooked these items. We shall never know! Both Cobb and Karl died later at Saint Elizabeth Hospital. Case in point being, the city had been trying to shut down Wolff's establisment with out sucess, but the police were "on the take , of course. Wolff had been 'run out of Rome on a rail" several years before for the same thing: running a brothel and a viscious saloon. The case went to trial, and Wolff and his wife got off!!! They served a short time in jail, were fined and told to leave town in 7 days and never come back!!! The girl, Carrie Cobb and her sister, as well as other "working girls" lived across the road at "Gorman's Boarding House", formerly the old Henry Seymour House. The Saturday Evening Globe which broke and ran the whole story strongly indicated that The Gorman's were "on the take" as well as then chief of police. Anyhow, that house became a boarding house and then, a garage. I believe it was torn down in 1980. I am not positive about this. If anybody wants to read about the case, they can google" John Karl and Carrie Cobb' or "Peter Wolff's Imperial Hotel". It is good reading and quite reflective of a Utica very much beyond the purvue and or life style of the "Munson William Proctors" for instance.

[marielp]

Nurses Candlelight Park on E. Genesee St. in Utica is where the Amlott once stood. I just came across the photo this week. My father-in-law gave me all the family pictures before he passed away last year and I'm finally cataloging them. Amlott is for an old company called Amlott Realty, of which my husband's great-great-grandfather - John H. Amlott (1867 - 1923) of Brushton was the president. His only child, William S. Amlott (1893 - 1960), raised his family in Utica with wife Hazel (Gale) and daughters Beatrice and Dorothea, while working as a locomotive engineer for the railroad.

I'd thought the house was in Brushton but a friend with far better search abilities than me found this forum and told me what it was. Here's a picture of it - date unknown. 




And a photo of John H. Amlott holding son, William, with wife Angeline (Russell.) Taken 1893, while visiting her family in Quebec.

[dave]

Hi Marie. Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting re the Amlott. I live out of state and haven't been down that section of Genesee St. for a while. I don't know if the Amlott is still in existence.

Here's a 1924 Daily Press article about it changing hands that April. It was evidently "one of the most popular apartment houses in Utica."



Using Bing I scanned up and down Genesee Street from Shaw St. to Oneida Square and couldn't find the Amlott. I suppose the porches would be gone and it may sit there unrecognizable.
The detail from the satellite is impressive and looks like this.

[marielp]

The building is not standing anymore. Where it was is now Nurses Candlelight Park.

[dave]

Oh, that's right. I do remember a discussion about the park in one of the threads. Just down the street (north) from the Olbiston.

[Deleted]

Jan 1, 2010 14:39:18 GMT -5 fiona said:

Stuff has happened in that neighborhood! That whole area, Olbiston, Kanatenah, Amlott, Planned Parenthood Building (former Albright House), even up on Clinton Place, is just a cesspool of negative energy. Many years ago I had a Pagan freind of mine describe the area, especially around and at the Olbiston, as a PORTAL. It was many years before I knew what she meant. I personally know of at least three suicides at the Olbiston in the last 30 years - there may be more - people jumped off the roof there- it's just crazy - but - there is a reason for it - as we know - energy with no place to go likes to hang around and cause trouble - read Dave's story about the Indian Chief Mettusah (sp) for a good example. On the lite side, I remember the Elbow Room on South Street. It was owned and run by Sid Baker. The Elbow Room was the last stop for a dancer on a downward slide, after that it was a room at the Yates Hotel, after that it was usually prison or death.