Question: The crowning of this queen and her court kicked off an evening that drew a crowd estimated at 5,000 to 10,000 people to the village. Do you know what the event was? Can you identify anyone in the photo?
Last week’s answer: Natural gas was first discovered in the Baldwinsville area on the Munro farm in June of 1896. This farm is where the main campus of the school district is now located. The well was to the west of Tannery Creek near the large bus garage.
The Morris company decided to drill a well on their own property. The well in the photo was located about where the present Baldwinsville Public Library is now. At the left is the derrick over the well being drilled. Several low, temporary sheds cover the rope and equipment. Smoke rises from the boiler stack; power for the drilling operation is supplied by a steam engine.
The buildings in the background along East Genesee Street contributed considerably to the community in the late 1800s. The one on the far right was the Fuller tobacco warehouse. This building was later used by Morris Machine Works as part of their operation. It was torn down to make room for the present library.
The building across the street in the middle of the picture was the Fuller and Bliss Sash and Blind Factory, which later became the Haywood Wagon Works. Through the years other businesses have occupied the site. Today Dunkin Donuts operates there.
The low building at the center with the iron stack was the Garrett & Snell Creamery (Baldwinsville Creamery), which made “Gilt Edge” butter. Previously a tannery run by a relative of Sir Winston Churchill was located there. Today a Sunoco gas station occupies the spot.
If you want to know more about the gas wells in Baldwinsville visit the library and borrow the booklet “The History of the Natural Gas Industry of Baldwinsville,” by James Wilbu.
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 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, 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.
