Question: The photo for this week was taken in 1908-09 during a major construction project on the south Side of the river. Do you know what was being constructed? What is the building in the back of the photo?
Last week’s answer: Last week’s photo was taken Feb. 6, 1896, and shows Rowell’s Hitch Barn, a transportation facility connected with the village’s premier hostelry, the Seneca House. The large brick hotel sat on the northwest corner of the Four Corners. Several barns were built behind the hotel forming a small courtyard. This was the heart of Edward Rowell’s hitch barn. The man at the left on the wagon is John R. Rowell. The young fellow to his right holding the horse by a rope is Will H. Rowell.
For visitors who may have come to Baldwinsville by train, Rowell offered horses and vehicles for hire. He also offered stable service for people who came to the village and needed a place where their horse and/or their rig could be sheltered and perhaps fed while they tended to business, shopped or attended a function. The hitch barn was the parking garage, car rental and kennel of its day.
A handsome brick archway with “Hotel Barn & Livery” painted on its apex offered access from Oswego Street to the barn area. The walls of the corridor leading from the sidewalk to the barns were often used as billboards. The barnyard itself was an advertising venue. Signs are seen advertising “Old Virginia Cheroots – 3 for 5 cents” and “Coal W. F. Marvin, Canal St., Baldwinsville, N.Y.” Overhead electric wires lead to a light fixture on the barn between the cheroots sign and the hayloft door.
The Seneca hitch barn was one of several similar operations located in the village. The earliest facilities were associated with hotels. As Baldwinsville grew additional establishments were opened.
In December 1896, Rowell sold both the hotel and the livery stable business and moved on to new enterprises. Most likely Rowell was not anticipating the new day that would soon dawn. Gasoline powered engines would bring cars, trucks and buses to share the roadways with horse drawn wagons, carriages and stages. The Gazette would be running ads for automobiles, batteries and tires on the same page as ads selling horses, wagons and hay. The Seneca hitch barn closed in 1922.
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.
