Question: This photo clears up a question that has been asked by several people over the years. Thanks to the Anthony Christopher collection at the Baldwinsville Public Library we now have the answer. Most of the photos that are already scanned have come from the over 1,300 slides in that collection. This photo comes from the print collection, most of which has not yet been scanned.
Who was he? Hint: an extensive piece of land along the river is named after him. Where is it and what is his name? If you figure out his name, see if you can find out other jobs that he had.
Last week’s answer: The frame building featured in last week’s photograph is located at 47 Downer St. It has stood the test of over 170 years of continued use. However, its outstanding claim to fame isn’t its age but its varied uses. It has been a public facility, a manufacturing and retail site, and a residential dwelling.
Prior to construction of this two story wooden building, a simple one-room log schoolhouse that stood on the southeast corner of Downer and Canton Street was relocated to Syracuse Street near Crooked Brook. The village had not as yet incorporated but youngsters on the south side needed a more modern educational facility. The two-story White School was erected on that parcel in 1844.
The frame building was divided into four rooms, two on each floor. Three of the rooms served as classrooms and the fourth was used for office and administrative needs. By 1864 the railroad had come to town, Baldwinsville was a bustling industrial town, the villagewide Union Free School District was formed and the Baldwinsville Academy was in the planning stage. South side educational needs were met with the expansion of the White School.
For 20 more years the White School continued as the educational center for south side residents until it was replaced with a modern brick two story facility merely yards away on Canton Street.
The sturdy but abandoned White School was sold to Elijah Failing for $1,000. The White School’s second life, that of a commercial site, was about to begin. Ten years later Failing’s estate sold it for $720 and Rosmond I. Fancher, machinist, inventor and entrepreneur, moved in.
Fancher was also a carpenter and carriage maker. He continued to build rental houses on the south side of the village but closed his carriage shop on Syracuse St. Soon R. I. Fancher had established a carriage and bicycle repair shop in the old school. The Fancher Machine Co. produced wooden cogs for water wheels, flexible shafts, a patented tomato scalder and bicycles of his own design. Van Buren historian Anthony Christopher recalled seeing Fancher riding in a small electric car that he had designed and built for use on the sidewalk in 1913. Village roads were as yet unpaved; plank sidewalks afforded smoother travel.
Following Fancher’s death, J. Leslie Rury acquired the property and set up shop as Sunny Side Grocery. Rury sold everything from holiday nuts (25 cents per pound) to spruce Christmas trees ($0.75 to $1.50). Free home delivery was among the amenities offered. A smaller two-story building was erected in the space at the west of the old school and the store moved in. The old school was renovated into residential housing.
Rury’s grocery business was sold to William L. Totten in 1952 and continued for many years. Today a barber shop occupies the walkout basement level of the former grocery. Both the old school house and former grocery store continue as viable structures on Baldwinsville’s streetscape.
Our first correct answer came from Van Buren Town Councilor Howard Tupper, who emailed the following:
“The building shown is located on Downer Street near Canton. It was built as the White School, and was used until the South Side School was put up in the 1870’s. It became a private residence after that (I knew Willard Vanderveer lived there in the ‘40s), and is now an apartment building.”
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday. 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.
