Question: This photo was taken July 3, 1888. Both the date and the occasion were special to the 27 people who posed for this picture. Do you know anything about the occasion or where the photo was taken?
Last week’s answer: The pre-1908 photo from last week shows Water Street facing east of Syracuse Street. Extensive changes took place when the Barge Canal was dug through Baldwinsville. Take a look at Water Street in either direction; notice that the street is not very wide. The canal took most of it. The south side of the lock chamber is where the middle of Water Street was located.
The railroad tracks that are visible were part of the short-lived Syracuse & Baldwinsville Railroad. The track in the photo went down Water Street to Meadow and crossed the river to the north side. The abutments in the river east of the river bridge are what are left of that railroad.
The following may help to clear up the chronology of the Erie Canal. Today’s name, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, gives many people the impression that Baldwinsville is on the Erie Canal — as in, the canal we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of this year. In reality, we are part of the third improvement of the original. The original Erie Canal was started in Rome on July 4, 1817. The Enlarged Erie Canal widened and deepened the original canal. It started in 1835 and was completed in 1862. In 1908, the first shovel of dirt taken out of Baldwinsville was excavated from the $103 million Barge Canal. On May 9, 1910, Baldwinsville’s Lock 24 was the first lock to open on this canal. It was used to pass the state dredge, with its accompanying houseboat and scows. It was not fully operational, so a horse was used to open the gates and chain hoists were used to open the valves. It worked somewhat stiffly, but the lock chamber filled smoothly deeming the operation a success. This canal was completed in 1918.
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.
