Question: How good of a detective are you? If you look carefully you may be able to identify the building that is being constructed in the picture. The date is 1994-95.
Last week’s answer: The building in last week’s photo taken in its last days in the 1930s sat just to the south of the old Baldwin Canal Bridge (the bridge we can now walk under). It was first used as the office for the J.C. & J.C. Miller Knitting Mill. James C. and John Charles were co-partners of the knitting mill, which was located about in the center of the present village parking lot off of River Street. The office sat next to the sidewalk about where the ramp is now.
Around 1886, the Millers purchased an adjacent property with water rights from the J.M. Young Fork Company. This made an ideal site for a hydroelectric plant, which became the Edison Illuminating Company of Baldwinsville. The old waterwheel was replaced with an up-to-date turbine in order to provide a smoother drive for their bi-polar machines. In 1887, they began making electric power available for street lighting and home illumination.
This building as stated was first used as an office for the knitting mill, housing the office, machine shop and carpenter shop. Wooden shipping cases were made in the latter department. Back of this lay the wash house and bleaching buildings. Next, near the river, was the barn that accommodated the delivery horse and vehicles. Several store houses set back of the mill.
With the advent of electricity, it became the electric office. This building was used up until the 1960s when the offices moved to East Genesee Street and Radisson. It has since been demolished. The electric company’s names over the years: Baldwinsville Electric Company, Central New York Power Company, Niagara-Hudson, and finally Niagara Mohawk and, of course, now, National Grid.
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 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.
