Question: The youngsters in this photo are striding along in pairs. Is this a nursery school parade? Do you recognize where they are? Do you know where they are going or what their mission may have been?
Last week’s answer: It was front-page news in the Messenger in September of 1974 as the street signs seen in last week’s photo were ready for installation. Six village street names were being retired and new names had been assigned. The new signs were erected by the village public works crew under the direction of Superintendent George Castor (far right), Sewer Department Foreman Lester Grome (center) and Robert Vermette (far left).
Baldwinsville was not alone in surrendering some of its established and familiar street names to history. Dozens of streets throughout the county were being renamed in the interest of public safety. Duplication of street names was causing delays in emergency call response time due to confusion. The problem had become evident during the 1960s. By the early 1970s the county was holding hearings to determine how to resolve the issue.
In Baldwinsville new names were assigned to six established streets. Apple Ridge replaced Ridge Road. Triangle Place was now in; Chestnut St. was retired. Palmer Lane was amended to Albert Palmer Lane. Mill Street (the entry lane to what is now Village Square, formerly home to the Amos Mill and then the village firehouse site) would be called Denio Street. Gentry Place would be the new name of what had been called Tappan Street Extension. At the far western edge of the parcels now occupied by Rite Aid and Solvay Bank, Meigs Road became the new name for Northeast Sorrel Hill Road. The changes were implemented despite resistance from many residents who decried the loss of local history and tradition.
Street renaming extended to Candlewyck roads that were not yet inhabited and still under construction. Laurel Avenue, Colony Court and Overbrook Lane from Edgewood to Endora were renamed Endora Drive, Angelica Court and Carousel Lane, respectively.
This wasn’t the first time that village street names had been changed. In 1857 today’s “Lower Grove Street” was called East Division Street. By 1874 it was called Grove Street. By 1898 it was called “Bisdee Street,” and it still had that name in 1906. By 1923 it was Grove Street.
And there were more. West Genesee Street extended westward from the Methodist Church; Canal Street went from the Methodist Church (parallel to the 1809 Baldwin Canal) to the juncture of Mechanic and Salina streets, where its name changed to Gaston Street. Today the entire east/west stretch is called Genesee Street. The busy road between the Seneca River and the Four Corners was called Bridge Street until 1908, when the Barge Canal was constructed and the name Oswego Street was extended to the river bridge where it met Syracuse Street. Ten years later Cooper Street became Maple Road, and there probably were others.
To Juliet, a rose by any other name may smell as sweet. Roadways remain in place but their names may change. To researchers a road whose name has been changed presents a challenge.
Several readers wrote in to identify the photo, but the most detailed answer came from Dan Warner, who could not only name the men in the picture, but tell us what the streets were renamed.
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.
