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Post by denise on Mar 21, 2011 12:10:19 GMT -5
Wow. Pretty amazing! Glad it was salvageable. Any idea how long it was vacant before renovations were able to be started?
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 21, 2011 12:38:40 GMT -5
Evidently it was left to rot only 4 years, from 2003 when the history says the Pratts gave it up until a person named Donnelly began restoring it in 2007. Of course, even though the Pratts owned it until 2003, we don't know when they stopped living in it or maintaining it after they bought it in '46. Maybe Kit knows.
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Post by JGRobinson on Mar 21, 2011 17:03:45 GMT -5
The West End Brewery is my favorite structure/ complex in Utica. Shultz and Dooley are two of my heroes! Thank God For FX!
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Post by JGRobinson on Mar 22, 2011 5:30:18 GMT -5
Another cool structure is the Parkway Armory, a stately, silent yet intimidating behemoth! The history in that place is so thick you can feel it the moment you enter the building, even when its empty you can almost hear the voices of our great grand fathers readying their horses and swords for battle. I spent many years in that place, kinda like an friendly old castle with a decimated kingdom and no king.
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Post by ladyoracle on Mar 22, 2011 9:10:35 GMT -5
Some of my favorite buildings are: The Savings Bank of Utica. I remember going in there as a little kid and it was the most beautiful building I'd ever seen with its gold dome. Blessed Sacrament Church. Another childhood memory. It was the parish my family belonged to, and I went to school at its school. It was a beautiful church. Uptown Theatre. Before they chopped it up. Could be worse though, it could be gone. Denise -- I would not have thought about Blessed Sacrament, but thanks for mentioning it. That is a childhood memory of mine as well. Both of my parents grew up in that area and attended both the school and the church. Both sets of grandparents lived just up the street in Cornhill.
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 22, 2011 15:50:54 GMT -5
Blessed Sacrament! Here I am, an earnest nine year old, toward the end of the line for the May Day celebration (or whatever we called it) in May of 1952. I thought and still think the school's architecture was praiseworthy. I suppose the "new" church (1957?) was too, but I hated the statuary in that place. Most of my elementary school memories are of the old church next door to the school, what Denise remembers as a spare building. I can name 1/3 to a half of the boys in this photo.
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Post by denise on Mar 22, 2011 18:02:10 GMT -5
When I went to school there, the spare building was called "the annex". It housed the kindergarten, the gym and the lunchroom. There was a stage at one end of the lunchroom; kitchen was at the other end.
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Post by ladyoracle on Mar 22, 2011 18:26:31 GMT -5
I know all the Blessed Sacrament buildings you are referring to, although I have only been in the new church and that was years ago. I am guessing here, but I would think that my mom would have gone to school there from 1941 - 1950 and my father the time period 6 years prior to that. Dave and Denise -- did you each grow up in Cornhill?
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urbanhermit
Milkshake
"Domine,miserere nobis"
Posts: 212
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Post by urbanhermit on Mar 22, 2011 19:21:19 GMT -5
Some of my favorite buildings are: The Savings Bank of Utica. I remember going in there as a little kid and it was the most beautiful building I'd ever seen with its gold dome. Blessed Sacrament Church. Another childhood memory. It was the parish my family belonged to, and I went to school at its school. It was a beautiful church. Uptown Theatre. Before they chopped it up. Could be worse though, it could be gone. Denise -- I would not have thought about Blessed Sacrament, but thanks for mentioning it. That is a childhood memory of mine as well. Both of my parents grew up in that area and attended both the school and the church. Both sets of grandparents lived just up the street in Cornhill. One set of Grandparent's lived @ 1637 St. Agnes and the other set @ 1637 St. Jane. Too bad they had to consolidate so many of the Catholic Churches. They all have so much beauty in their own unique ways. The memories both our parent's each told us of their childhoods, and how they would walk down to the James St. Theater etc. Even when we were kids and we went to Mardany's on the corner of James and St. Vincent and Johnson's Market on the corner of Mohawk and James St. I miss those "Ma &Pa " stores, and it's why I often frequent the Ridgewood Market on Oneida St. I can still smell Mr. Mardany's Cigar and I remember Bobby Johnson lifting me up on the counter, so that I could obtain a pretzel out of the canister on the counter. One of my Grandmother's would call Johnson's on the phone and place her grocery order and they would deliver it. I sure wish that Hannaford's would do that! Instead, I have to rely on Lady Oracle for my Grocery deliveries!!!
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 22, 2011 19:30:28 GMT -5
L.O., pretty much, yes. Was taken home to Taylor Ave. from St. Lukes (Whitesboro St.) a few days after my birth in '43. We left at the end of '52, but returned in the summer of '56. I'd been at Lourdes in South Utica and I finished my last year there, "commuting" from Brinckerhoff Ave, where I lived through high school. Left Utica in '63 never to return. Well ... I visit. The last time I was in Blessed Sacrament church was for my niece's Baptism in '75 or '76. Her father, my brother, didn't live in that parish and I don't remember why they chose to have Adrienne baptized there. So I was at Blessed Sacrament school from '48 to '52.
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 22, 2011 19:38:57 GMT -5
Fiskie, if either of your grandparents took the Sunday OD in '57, I was their paperboy. I'm trying to remember some of the family names on those two streets. The Mann's were one family and the only other family I remember were the Donovans, parents of Bill (and many more) who became pretty well known around Utica ... he was at St. Johns and Notre Dame High School later, I think. Very loud voice. I served mass for him at St. Johns when I was at UCA. He had brothers and sisters who were nuns, brothers, priests, etc.
And I went to high school in the late fifties with a girl who lived right behind the new church on whichever street that was. I can never remember which was St. Jane or St. Agnes.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2011 20:02:14 GMT -5
Even though I was a member of Blessed Sacrament I really never liked the new Church. And I agree on those cut in half statues from the head down to the feet. The other Church interior that I can't stand is Our Lady of Lourdes. I think she would vomit at the sight of that barn and runaway from any May Day--the crowning of Mary, Queen of Heaven. I do like the interior of Mount Carmel and the exterior and interior of Grace Episcopal in downtown Utica.
I do like the church architecture that emerged in the past 10 years. No one knew quite where to put things in the years following Vatican2. But this is just an opinion.
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urbanhermit
Milkshake
"Domine,miserere nobis"
Posts: 212
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Post by urbanhermit on Mar 22, 2011 20:02:53 GMT -5
Fiskie, if either of your grandparents took the Sunday OD in '57, I was their paperboy. I'm trying to remember some of the family names on those two streets. The Mann's were one family and the only other family I remember were the Donovans, parents of Bill (and many more) who became pretty well known around Utica ... he was at St. Johns and Notre Dame High School later, I think. Very loud voice. I served mass for him at St. Johns when I was at UCA. He had brothers and sisters who were nuns, brothers, priests, etc. And I went to high school in the late fifties with a girl who lived right behind the new church on whichever street that was. I can never remember which was St. Jane or St. Agnes. Well, you were their paperboy then! I hope they tipped you okay? I can "smell" their distinct house smells as if it were yesterday. I'd be willing to go out on a limb and divulge my anonymity and tell you my families Surnames, but it would affect my sister too, so at this point I'll hold off on that. It was neither family that you mentioned, although I know of both names. I guess a City Directory would answer the mystery anyway, but it's not a big deal as far as I'm concerned. That Sunday paper had to have been a Killer? Hope you had a wagon or a sleigh? My Mom would have been 18 in 1955 and lived on St. Jane across from the school.
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urbanhermit
Milkshake
"Domine,miserere nobis"
Posts: 212
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Post by urbanhermit on Mar 22, 2011 20:11:06 GMT -5
Even though I was a member of Blessed Sacrament I really never liked the new Church. And I agree on those cut in half statues from the head down to the feet. The other Church interior that I can't stand is Our Lady of Lourdes. I think she would vomit at the sight of that barn and runaway from any May Day--the crowning of Mary, Queen of Heaven. I do like the interior of Mount Carmel and the exterior and interior of Grace Episcopal in downtown Utica. I do like the church architecture that emerged in the past 10 years. No one knew quite where to put things in the years following Vatican2. But this is just an opinion. My views are much more liberal than the Catholic Church, yet I still love certain "traditionalist" things about the Church. I love the older architecture, Gregorian Chant, Latin Mass ( even though I don't know Latin) I agree with you on Lourdes and I don't care for the modern architecture of St. John's in NH either. The older structures had much more craftsmanship and character in my opinion.
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 22, 2011 22:00:36 GMT -5
I do like the church architecture that emerged in the past 10 years. No one knew quite where to put things in the years following Vatican2. But this is just an opinion. Alan, I was wondering if any Catholic church has been built in the last ten years. Up here in the North, anyway. The one near me down here near Woodstock was built in the 60's I think and is more like a Bingo hall. In fact, it was built to be both a worship center and (I irreverently opine) a beer hall. OK, church community hall. But if you don't want to sit down front in the ten or so rows of standard wood pews, you're back in steerage with the great unwashed on steel folding chairs.
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