Downtown Oneonta Over 100 Years Ago A recent visitor to the History Center brought in this postcard of Main Street. Postmarked 1910, the message on the reverse mentions a plane crash, probably during an air show at the Oneonta Fair. The Bissell Block, the oldest brick building on Main Street, is at the right of the card. That’s Walter Brown’s Hardware at the corner in what is now the History Center. Note the wall ad for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West & Rough Riders’ appearance in Oneonta. There’s still a bulkhead for deliveries at the front of the hardware store. The building to the west of the Bissell Block has a blade sign of a pair of eyeglasses. At the corner of Chestnut and Main is a trolley. Across the street from Brown’s is a sign on the sidewalk for Laskaris Delicious Ice Cream & Cream Soda. John Laskaris opened his shop on the south side of Main Street in 1898....Read More >
Written by Bob Brzozowski Chauncey Herrick was born in Laurens in 1876. His family moved to Oneonta when he was 10. After working in cigar making, plumbing, and other jobs, he became a special agent for the IRS. His work took him all over the country. In the 1920s he was appointed head of the IRS’ Chicago field office. His testimony that Al Capone offered him a million dollar bribe was a critical part of the 1931 trial in which Capone was found guilty of tax evasion and sent to prison. He served in the Spanish-American War and became national commander of the United Spanish-American War Veterans. He was also active in both the Masons and Elks in Oneonta. Herrick died in San Francisco in 1937 and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Oneonta. These images are found in Herrick’s personal scrapbook, which is part of the collections of the Greater Oneonta Historical Society. ONEONTA HISTORY CENTER EXTENDS HOURS The...Read More >
The Greater Oneonta Historical Society presents the following Spring 2018 events: Sunday March 25 – 2 PM Panel discussion on trends in urban renewal policy with Hartwick economics professor Carli Ficano, SUNY Oneonta president Nancy Kleniewski, and City of Oneonta mayor Gary Herzig. Sunday April 8 – 2 PM Edison Gramophone talk & demonstration with collector Charles King. Bring in your cylinders to hear them played! Saturday April 15 – 10 AM to 3:30 PM GOHS’ 14th annual Postcard & Ephemera Show and Sale at Elm Park Methodist Church, 401 Chestnut Street. Wednesday April 25 – 6 to 8:30 PM Annual Dinner at Toscana Northern Italian Grill. $45 price includes appetizers, salad, choose from five entrees, dessert, plus tax and tip. Registration deadline April 17th Friday May 4 – 5 to 8 PM 6th annual Cakewalk on 2018’s first Fabulous Friday Saturday May 5 Last day of “Envisioning Downtown Oneonta Then & Now”, an exhibition on urban renewal in 1950s...Read More >
Homer Folks Tuberculosis Hospital (HFTH) was one of several New York hospitals dedicated to serving TB patients. The hospital operated from 1935 to 1973 on its West Street grounds. The state-owned property today includes the Oneonta Job Corps Academy (OJCA). For several years OJCA has worked with the Greater Oneonta Historical Society to remember the site’s history with displays of photos, facts, and memorabilia of the hospital. By every indication, HFTH was a caring institution. Patients of all ages led active lives, with fresh air being encouraged, as shown in the photo of patients in the solaria or open sun porches. Many of the patients also made arts and crafts, including pottery. Former hospital patients and staff and their families remember the vases and other items made by the patients at Homer Folks. Few of these historical artifacts have been identified. If you have items – or photos of items – made by HFTH patients, please contact the Greater Oneonta...Read More >
By the Greater Oneonta Historical Society ONE stickers are seen on vehicles in Oneonta and far afield. The stickers originated with the Greater Oneonta Historical Society, which introduced them in Spring 2015. ONE magnets followed. The stickers and magnets are sold at the Oneonta History Center as well as several other Oneonta venues. What does ONE mean? Of course, it’s the first three letters of Oneonta. It might also mean that the town and city of Oneonta are one community. Or that we in Oneonta are all part of one community, regardless of whether we are college students or not, and regardless of our religion, politics, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other differences. Or that we Oneontans are unique, ONE of a kind! Choose your preference! Get yours at 183 Main Street, or check them out here!
The Greater Oneonta Historical Society opens a new exhibition at the Oneonta History Center on Friday May 25 that explores the history of the state militia and Army National Guard in Oneonta. Entitled “Oneonta’s Own: The State Militia & National Guard in Oneonta, 1812-2003,” the exhibition features artifacts and images drawn from the collection of the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, many of which were previously displayed in the Oneonta Armory and transferred to the Military Museum when the National Guard vacated that building in 2003. The exhibition curator is Oneonta native Courtney Burns, director of military history for the NYS Division of Military & Naval Affairs. For nearly two hundred years, Oneonta had a military presence from the first militia company formed in 1812 through a detachment of D Company, 204th Engineer Battalion, which left the city in 2003. Oneonta’s National Guard served in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War...Read More >
Main Street Oneonta in 1973 The current exhibition at the Oneonta History Center, Envisioning Downtown Oneonta Then & Now, takes a look at the urban renewal program of the 1960s and 1970s as the City’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) becomes reality in 2018 with the greatest changes to downtown since those efforts. At the core of the exhibition are more than 50 photos of downtown Oneonta taken in 1973 and the various iterations of that project. Did you know, for example, that the early plans included the demolition of every building on the south side of Main Street from today’s City Hall to Chestnut Street? The exhibition will run into early May 2018. There will be two special programs: On March 25, a panel discussion on changes in urban renewal policy, locally and nationally, over the decades, and, on April 15, an oral history session on the Oneonta’s past urban renewal efforts. Visit www.OneontaHistory.org for hours and events.
Written by GOHS executive director Bob Brzozowski (607)432-0960, director@OneontaHistory.org. On Sunday March 25 at 2:00 PM, the Greater Oneonta Historical Society at 183 Main Street will host a panel discussion on past and current trends in urban renewal policy and how they have affected Oneonta. The panelists will be Carli Ficano, professor of economics at Hartwick College, who is especially interested in the impact of “big box” stores on both local entrepreneurial activity and local business closings. Gary Herzig, Mayor of the City of Oneonta; and Nancy Kleniewski, president of SUNY Oneonta and an urban sociologist who has written several books and articles about urban policy. The discussion will be moderated by Gary Wickham, with a question and answer period to follow. Prof. Ficano says that “Oneonta is poised to occupy a sweet spot in the urban renewal landscape by drawing upon its rural agricultural roots, providing just enough proximate culture to feed the mind, and enabling authentic community-building to...Read More >