Question: Take a good look at this photo taken before 1908. Even if you look hard around Baldwinsville, you won’t be able to find it. That spot has changed dramatically since that time.
Last week’s answer: The photo from last week showed the W.H. Downer & Son store that was located at 8-14 Canal Street. Today the address would be 8-14 W. Genesee St. Canal Street, named for the Baldwin Canal, ran from the bend on River Street east along the south side of what is now Genesee Street to Lock Street, turning south to reenter the river at the end of Lock.
The photo shows delivery wagons advertising groceries, dry goods, carpet, oil cloths, crockery, boots and shoes. The wagon on the left was owned by John Graham, a farmer from New Bridge (Belgium). Next to him are W.H. Tappan and Edward Lockwood. In the doorways are William Downer (W.H. Downer’s son), owner of the store, Marcellus Johnson, George Hosler, Charles Adsit, M. Homer Smith and Erwin E. Wells.
Downer started in business as a clerk in the John Norton store in Warners. Later he became partners with Norton and Chauncey Betts in a store at Betts Corners, the former name of the four corners in the hamlet of Lysander. In 1845, he was located on the south side of the river. The store relocated several more times, each move enlarging it. The last location was the location shown in the photo. W. H. Downer & Son sold over $100,000 worth of goods in 1882 — that’s more the $2 million in today’s value.
This location was later taken over by the well-known Chappell’s Department Store. This was their original site. Today that lineage continues under the name of Bon-Ton.
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.
