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Post by dave on Apr 12, 2014 16:27:25 GMT -5
I've been working on a Facebook presentation of Utica by postcards and photos. I had heard of the Hotel Martin but did not remember where it was. Check my thinking on this, because the evidence is obvious, but I went to school in that neighborhood for three years beginning in 1957 and I do not remember the hotel being there, unless it came down the year I started UCA and the two-tone 57 Ford in the second photo (lower right near National Auto sign) is brand new. And where was the Hotel Hamilton which I definitely remember was on Bleecker? The two hotels must have been back to back. The top photo below shows the post card version of the Martin. These are always pretty pictures, but often the artists gets rid of buildings, etc to enhance the presentation. In photo 2 below (from Utica Remembers) I've noted the back of UFD's old Central and No. 2 firehouse, Burnet Street and the county court house. This squarely places the Hotel Martin on Jay Street between Charlotte and Burnet. The sat photo, No. 3, shows the block I remember containing the Hotel Hamilton fronting on Bleecker Street. You can see where St. Johns Church and UCA were in relation to the hotels. I came out the back door of UCA on Burnet Street and walked over Bleecker to the Busy Corner every school day for three years and I was often on Jay (remember the tiny diner there?). I don't remember the Martin. And the cars in photo no. 2 show the shot to have been in the mid 1950's. So am I crazy (in this sense, anyway) or did they tear the Martin down just as I arrived at UCA? I do in fact remember that the Hamilton stood for quite a while after I was at UCA (my cousin's wedding reception was there. In college I remember going to their piano bar, etc.) And I also remember that the area behind it leading down the OD looked like a war zone the entire three years I was downtown. (To see an enlarged version, click here, and then Firefox users should click again to enlarge: www.windsweptpress.com/TEMP/locatemartin.jpg  |
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Post by Clipper on Apr 12, 2014 17:44:23 GMT -5
They may have been back to back. I remember walking from UFA to Baggs Square where my friend and I would hitch hike to Keyes Road. In winter we would walk down Park Ave to the Park and down Charlotte St to Bleecker, then cut through a hotel promenade or wide hallway that ran from the Bleecker St entrance to a Jay St exit. The memory is not vivid, but I do remember stopping for hot coffee in winter at a diner like counter on the Jay St end of that long promenade, and I seem to remember a shoe shine stand and a barber shop also being located along the same promenade. I was under the impression that what we walked through was the Hotel Hamilton, but I suppose there could have been two hotels. Other times we would avail ourselves of the hot coffee and warm up spots at the Hunts Point Diner and the OK Lunch. As I said, I could be mistaken. We are talking over fifty years ago and I only went to UFA for about a half of a school year before my parents paid tuition for me to go to Whitesboro until we eventually moved to Newport.
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Post by dave on Apr 13, 2014 0:31:01 GMT -5
Clip, you know that passthrough seems vaguely familiar. Also, it occurs to me that the photo (No. 2, above) might have been taken in the early sixties AFTER they closed UCA and we all left downtown. What throws me is I don't remember coming down down Burnett Street from UCA and seeing a parking lot there. But if you look at closely at this 1950 Utica Map, below, you'll see there was a parking lot on the Jay Street side, but buildings on the Bleecker Street side. That would match my memory. The answer may be what I saw from '57 to '60 is what's on the map below and the photo shows what it looked like after 1960, after I left, until more extensive demolition was done.  |
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Post by dave on Apr 13, 2014 0:33:33 GMT -5
By the way, the first part of the Bleecker Street - Boston Store photos are up on my FB Timeline.
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Post by Clipper on Apr 13, 2014 10:07:15 GMT -5
My earliest memories of the corner of John and Jay are of the Sinclair station and parking lot, but those memories are also quite blurred by the years. The Auto Club parking must have been a lot left by urban renewal. I don't remember that lot being vacant, but again it has been a long time.
The Sinclair station later became an Atlantic station, and even later, when I was at the OD, the newspaper had purchased it and maintained and parked our 16 vans there as well as many of the employees availed themselves of the parking.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2014 10:36:31 GMT -5
Where the Hotels were stands the Utica School of Commerce. Charlotte Street is gone it is now the CENTRO Bus Hub. The remainder of that block on the CENTRO side has two bars and a large parking area. On the side of St Johns Church on Bleecker are three building that have been remodeled. Two have upstairs loft apartments the other is a large bar(club) and the last building has an office downstairs belonging to the husband and wife who live upstairs in their new loft. They are insurance sellers. Cross John St there is a Bank Plaza and large parking area.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2014 10:42:40 GMT -5
The building above Culver St do not exist nor does Culver St. That street is a passage way in the back of the Boston Store and next to Utica School of Commerce.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2014 10:46:19 GMT -5
By the way, the first part of the Bleecker Street - Boston Store photos are up on my FB Timeline. How do I view your work on facebook! |
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Post by chris on Apr 13, 2014 18:28:16 GMT -5
Only way in Alan is with the magic key that allows you entrance,  (but seriously you must sign up with FB and then friend Dave) |
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Post by dave on Apr 13, 2014 20:06:30 GMT -5
Alan, thanks for the current information. Re the work on Facebook. You do have to sign up for Facebook, but the work is "public," as I understand I have made it so in the privacy settings.
Clip, I remember the Sinclair. And on Monday nights when we "supplemented" the Family Weekly into the comics, we'd take a break and go to some place on or near Jay and John (not Butch's on John and Catherine or the St. Marks down on Broad) and have spaghetti. That was in 1961 or so. Was it still there years later?
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Post by Clipper on Apr 13, 2014 21:02:05 GMT -5
Butch's is long gone and there is no restaurant on John St or on Jay within walking distance of the OD anymore. I can't think what restaurant used to be in that area in the 60's. Of course back in the day there was a family run Italian restaurant in every other store front all over the city. I don't know about you, but I miss those days and those family run Italian joints.
You have sent my tastebuds on a nostalgia trip back to the 60's, LOL. Pescatore's was my favorite all time go-to spot for good Italian food. Garramone's when it was on South St was my other favorite. I was a faithful customer of Garramone's right up until I moved from Kayuta Lake when I divorced my wife. They were right up the road and the only place to get a good pizza locally.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Apr 13, 2014 21:29:30 GMT -5
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Post by kit on Apr 14, 2014 11:23:47 GMT -5
I remember in about 1960, helping Danny Fusco and his nephew 'Mickey' Fusco install the new WBVM radio station studio in the first floor of the Hotel Hamilton. They had a brand new Gates master control board and all new peripherals. State of the art at the time. They later moved the station to somewhere else and as Danny got older he used to broadcast his show from his bedroom using a remote setup through a dedicated phone line. Danny, always a gentleman, was the love of many a Catholic Italian grandmother, and I got several authentic Italian recipes from him. (I know... I drifted away from the topic - sorry about that)
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Post by Clipper on Apr 14, 2014 12:12:14 GMT -5
Kit, never apologize for wandering away from the topic. The forum has become a place where nostalgic wandering is always acceptable. I met Danny just once when he took a bus tour to St Anne De Beaupre and Quebec City. I was driving for CNY Coach at the time. He WAS a very nice man. Very cordial and well liked. He was a devout catholic and many may not know that the letters in the call letters WBVM stood for the Blessed Virgin Mother. He had a very devoted following for many years. Just seemed to be one of those men that not only talked the talk, but also walked the walk.
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Post by dave on Apr 15, 2014 8:19:12 GMT -5
CB, Thanks for the links, the match pack and the "legal history" of the Martin. Kit, I remember Danny Fusco. I think he was on WRUN before starting WBVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) and brought more than just Italian mothers along with him. My mother enjoyed listening to him and I believe had met him at some function and was no doubt quite charmed by him. I had the BVM story backward, I guess. I thought he started in his bedroom and went to an hotel studio. I think he had a brother Mike and Mickey was Mike junior? And Mike had another son who might have been named Danny after uncle. I remember running into the boys all the time, but I don't remember where or why. And I always meant to call up the DJ named Mike Fusco on Woodstock's WDST and ask him if he was from Utica. But he pronounced his name Fuss-ko, not Fewss-ko. I never heard Fuss-ko pronounced Fewss-ko after I left Utica and I've met a number of Fusco's in my life. So I suppose it's remotely possible young Mike Fusco wound up in Woodstock and was told he pronounced his name wrong.  Actually, it's not hard to imagine a Woodstocker telling himjust that. |
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