Hotel Martin

[dave]

May 9, 2014 11:22:01 GMT -5 kit said:

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?

So, Kit, in direct answer to your question, The Erie Canal was not rerouted out of Utica. It fell into disuse and was closed when the Barge Canal was built to the north of the Mohawk River, where it is today. See my post above, but I do not know exactly when the old erie canal along what is now Oriskany Blvd. was filled in.

It was the Mohawk River that was rerouted away from the low end of Bagg's Square out to where it is today for reasons stated in the above post.

[dave]

PS: for those who are not on Facebook, the postcard-photo presentation called "Around Town - Utica before we got here," is also on the open Proboards forum, "MoreStories and Utica History."  Go to the following url and click on the graphic below. Then select Around Town.

morestories.proboards.com

Click on this:



And then select "Around Town."

[clarencebunsen]

Frank Tomaino's column was back in the OD today. He had a sidebar with a photo of the Hotel Hamilton from the 40s and a bit of history. Unfortunately although the column is online the sidebar does not appear to be.

The photo shows a twin tower seven story hotel with a two story connection between the towers.

The text reads:
"This 450-room hotel once stood in downtown Utica - two blocks east of the Busy corner - with entrances on Bleeker and Oriskany streets. It played host through the years to thousands of wedding receptions, dances, meetings and reunions. In the late 19th century the American Hotel occupied the site. In 1901 William Martin bought it and increased the number of rooms from 16 to 450. He also renamed it Hotel Martin. In 1944 John Cabot bought the hotel and renamed it Hotel Hamilton after nearby Hamilton College. In 1966 the hotel was razed as part of an urban renewal project."

[dave]

That explains a lot, CB. Thanks. When I walked by it after school in the late 1950s on the Bleecker Street side it was the Hotel Hamilton. And I remember a cousin had a wedding reception there. Various photos on post cards show it from the Oriskany Street side (Jay Street, actually, when one looks closely) and provide either name, the Martin or the Hamilton. I don't think I have a postcard image with the name "American" on it. I have the "Hotel Martin side" as I call the Jay street entrance labeled the Hamilton, below, as well as the same view labeled the Hotel Martin.



On the above postcard you can see the addition Martin constructed on the Bleecker Street side.  That's what caused me to wonder how what I thought were two separate hotels to wind up back to back.  They didn't, according to the information you've brought.  One was an addition.  Also, the Hamilton and the Martin names were not contemporaneous.  They were two separate names applied to the same complex at different times.

[clarencebunsen]

And the postcard you have is the same view as the photo in the OD labeled file photo including the cars. I knew I had seen the view, duh.

[dave]

Yes, you can see the same building (not the exact same view) labeled the Martin back in the first post of this thread:
clipper220.proboards.com/thread/8217/hotel-martin

I don't think the Bleecker Street side (the addition) of the hotel was very impressive. I would have remembered it. It did look like a hotel entrance, but above the first floor was nothing but windows in a brick wall.
Here's a better photo, below, of the Martin/Hamilton's Jay Street Side than in the first post of this thread.

And I think I'm wrong about the Martin's entrance on Jay Street. Viewing the photo below and comparing it to other photos, the National Auto Store was on Oriskany Blvd, across from the Martiin/Hamilton. In fact, the photo below was probably shot from the roof of the OD, next door to National. Jay Street evidently disappeared when the addition was put on the hotel. I do seem to remember Jay Street in the 50s as being there and not there depending upon where you looked.