Question: This photo was taken in 1911 when Willard Tappan was mayor of Baldwinsville and local industry was flourishing. Manufacturing alone provided employment for hundreds of men and women in this village of some 3,000. Among the production facilities were American Knife Works, Baker Bros. Metal Works, J.R. Blanchard Monument Co., Breroha Paper Box Co., Fancher Machine Co., Haywood Wagon Co., Kenyon Paper Co., Morris Machine Works, Penn Spring Works, Valley Boat Works, three flour mills and numerous smaller operations.
The image seen here was taken in one of those facilities. Do you know which one and what the end product was?
Last week’s answer: Last week’s picture showed the lift lock on the Baldwin Canal. It was located off a street that was appropriately named Lock Street. Reader Beverly Finch identified the location on Facebook.
For all newcomers, the Baldwin Canal was a very important part of our commerce for many years. At the time of the first settler, John McHarrie, the river had a 7-foot rift hindering travel east and west. McHarrie made a living fording boats around those rapids. When Jonas Baldwin and his wife came through on their way to Ovid, they fell in love with the area, purchased much of the north side and eventually came here to live. Since the rapids hindered the development of commerce, Jonas asked and received the rights from the state to build a dam, a bridge and a canal — the Baldwin Canal. The canal ran along the north bank of the river from what is now West Genesee Street to the intersection with Lock Street and reentered the river at the foot of lock. This was in 1809. By the way, Genesee Street was once called Canal Street.
The guard lock on the west end was approximately across from the bend on what is now River Street. The lift lock was always on Lock Street, but its location was in several places. In 1831, the state Canal Board required that by Dec. 1 of that year, the canal and locks were to be reconstructed so that boats navigating the Erie and Oswego Canals could pass freely through the canal and locks. A J.H. French map of 1857 shows the lock to be slightly upstream of a centerline extension of Tabor Street (between Margaret and Tabor). To match the Erie and Oswego Canal lock size, the Baldwin lock would have had to be 90 feet long and 15 feet wide. In 1863, it had to be enlarged again because of changes on the Oswego Canal. The canal depth had to be increased to 7 feet and the locks to 110 feet in length and 18 feet in width. The Sweet’s map of Baldwinsville of 1874 shows the lock located downstream at the south line of Wood Street extension.
Because of disuse, the canal became a health hazard and was filled in in 1965.
If you want to know more about the Baldwin Canal check out Anthony Christopher’s Sketches of Yesterday articles: “Anecdotes from Baldwin Canal,” “Baldwin Canal Changes Revealed in Map of 1851” and “Exit: The Baldwin Canal.” Also, check out Ruth Connell’s book “Baldwin Canal Water Power.” These are available at the Baldwinsville Public Library.
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at (315) 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday (please leave the information in the message; we are not generally able to return calls regarding History Mystery responses). If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
