Question: This group of people is preparing for play being produced by the Baldwinsville Theatre Guild in 1948. Can you identify any of them? See if you can find out what play they would be presenting.
Last week’s answer: The cannon pictured in last week’s History Mystery was located just north of the intersection of East Oneida Street and what is now Artillery Lane. It was part of the Battery A installation connected to the 104th Field Artillery. It was responsible for training the horses of the 104th Field Artillery that had been housed in the Armory in Syracuse. The military that was in charge of training them was housed on the property. It was like a small farming community with families that did all of the usual tasks that were required to run the facility.
The compound encompassed the land east and west from Sunset Terrace to what is now the area around Dexter Parkway. On the north its border was Oswego Street in the vicinity of Brown Street and the Grace Episcopal Church. The southern border was the Seneca River. At that time Artillery Lane was just a private dirt path that ran over to Oswego Street.
The community was frequently treated to horse shows in which the men did trick horseback riding. There also was a swimming beach on the Seneca River approximately where Artillery Lane comes out onto West Genesee Street.
This week’s photo was correctly identified by Van Buren Town Councilor Howard Tupper.
It’s thanks to William Raymond and his daughter, Teresa Melnick, that the library now has quite a number of photos of the buildings, people, and activities that pertained to Battery A. William grew up on the farm until he was 12 years old, as his father Scott was in charge of the operation.
A program on this topic was presented at the Beauchamp Historical Club meeting on Sept. 12. If you missed it and want to know more watch for the taped program to be presented on PAC-B or go to their website.
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.
