Question: If you look at the site of this picture today you will note a big change. Do you know the story of the tree?
Last week’s answer: If you are a good detective, you should have noticed the stone piers in the water. They are the same piers that still exist today on the east side of the bridge over the river. From 1886 to 1909, those piers supported a railroad bridge. Baldwinsville was a busy town in those days with merchants shipping their products all over. In the 1880s, six mills were grinding grain into flour, and Baldwinsville was the hub of a rich tobacco growing region. The Baldwin Canal was used and the railroad that was located on East Genesee Street (at that time there were four tracks crossing the street), but for several businessmen that was not good enough.
Several local businessmen — John T. Skinner, banker; Jacob Amos, flourmill proprietor; Wallace Tappan, tobacco merchant, and several others — wanted to have a station closer to the center of the village, since the shipping of products from the milling and tobacco interests would be better served from that area.
They went to the existing D.L. & W Railroad and suggested a spur to start off the main line in the neighborhood of East Oneida Street, then proceed to the point where Lock Street joins East Genesee Street (at that time called Canal Street). The spur would eventually meet the through road south of the freight yards. The D.L. & W. was not interested in participating since it would be too costly.
The businessmen went ahead and constructed a railroad anyway. They wanted to make the route go directly to Warners, but the terrain was too hilly. So a right-of-way was surveyed to Amboy Station over level territory. Each of the 29 property owners that the tracks passed over received $300. The station at Baldwinsville was located in the area to the east of the B’ville Diner. Several New York City capitalists entered into the enterprise, and during the summer of 1886, most of it was completed.
The first train of the newly completed Syracuse & Baldwinsville Railroad came through over the bridge on opening day, the day before Thanksgiving, 1886, at 4 p.m. Jubilant demonstrations took place with young Verne Skinner being permitted to pull the cord that blew the train signal. The Amos Mill, owned by one of the largest stockholders, blew its “mockingbird” whistle at the top of the building. The photo from last week was taken by Seth Dunbar who stood ready with his black cloth and camera to record the image on film.
In October 2017, there was a History Mystery about the railroad’s demise. If you missed that, check out Anthony Christopher’s “Sketches of Yesterday” from the library. There is a lot of fascinating reading in those volumes. Each of the 850 sketches were approximately two pages long. They are located on the non-fiction shelves at 974.765 CHR.
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.
