Question: Here is a photo of one of our neighboring villages more than 100 years ago. The date is not labeled on the photo, so you may ask: how do you know it’s more than 100 years ago? It’s because, at the end of the month, the 100th anniversary of a very significant event in that community will be remembered.
Do you know the community and what happened in September 1916? Today that community looks quite different.
Last week’s answer: The photo from last week showed the Van Wie Chevrolet lot, just east of the northeast corner of the Four Corners. It’s where the current parking lot is now. Their main building, pictured a few weeks ago in the History Mystery column, was where the current Key Bank is now. The year is 1950 and Van Wie Chevrolet had recently won the bid to furnish the 25 cars shown to the New York State Police.
The building on the left is the back of 46 Oswego St. The garage door is the service department. This was converted from the Grange Theater at 50 Oswego St. The barn on the right was also in a previous History Mystery. It was originally a tobacco warehouse and stood behind 7 E. Genesee St. For many years, No. 7 was the home of the Messenger.
More about the Van Wie enterprise: Did you know that Floyd Van Wie started the business in 1921? Several generations have run the business through the years. Today it is located at 100 Syracuse St. and is known as Evans Chevrolet (also part of the family).
Earl Styers was the first to correctly identify the buildings in the photo. Randy Burroughs also had the correct answer. Thanks for calling in!
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.
