Walk Up Elm Street
Elm Street was a pleasant stroll in the 1950’s. The street was wide and lined with tall graceful elm trees and mature maples. Elm Street was a busy street. It began at the river, where once the Elm St. bridge spanned the Tioughnioga. In earlier years a trolley travelled along Elm Street, crossed the bridge, and if the report is correct went on to McGraw.
Starting at River Street, kids walking up Elm to the Jr-Sr HS passed Dexter Park, Thompson Boat factory, and Pomeroy School on one side, and neatly kept homes, Tucci Bakery, warehouses, railroad tracks, Wilcox Coal, and Grillo’s and Mary Along’s on the other side. Further along was Passalugo’s store.
Thompson Boat lay alongside Pomeroy School. The buzz of saws and aroma of veneer floated in to the school windows. Tucci Bakery baked and delivered loaves of Italian bread to every mom-and-pop grocer in Cortland every day. Always fresh, it was loosely packed in open-ended paper bags. Next came the railroad tracks. Boys full of daring-do were tempted to dodge across in front of the train. Fortunately none did. Nick Grillo at his store limped with a wooden foot, and kids were told that he had lost it playing too close to the tracks. His store’s door was always wide open in the summer. Little girls with only a few pennies for candy drove Nick nuts as he bent behind the candy display and urged them to make their selection. Along the tracks were the huge coal bins. Cortland had been piped with natural gas so the era of coal heating had ended. The large coal bins still stood and with leading to their top, again a tempting hazard for boys to explore.
Kids walked pass seven bars going to school. On one side was Sardo’s, a blue-collar neighborhood bar. The Alton Hotel next to it may have been what Elvis had in mind when he sang heartbreak hotel. Across the street the Green Arch served fine Italian food. The dark green shading on the Green Arch window gave it a mystique. We walked by it for twenty years before finally going in. We found wonderful food and old-world charm.
Next was Charlie’s bar on the corner. It must have stood there while the Brockway plant was built around it. Workers were paid on Friday. Charlie’s bar cashed their checks. More than one family waited in the car on Friday night for Pop to come out of Charlie’s so they could buy groceries
Palm Garden bar was just up the street with apartments upstairs.
Firpo’s was late to the bar scene. Firpo’s was a blue-collar diner sandwiched between Brockway, the tracks, and the feed mill on Elm Street. At its big horseshoe counter Firpo served a hearty daily special that brought in factory workers, farmers, truck drivers, and service workers. There were occasional blue-collar dramas, as when a single-mom waitress’s teenager dropped out of school and shattered hopes, or someone had an accident. His waitresses had hearts of gold. Eventually Firpo obtained a liquor license, set up his backroom as a lounge, and brought in a parttime guitar band. The guitarists worked days in the hammer room. It showed in the music. Firpo’s must have been the role model for Mel’s diner.
Between the bars was a Protestant church. Catholic kids at Pomeroy School on Wednesdays were marched across Pomeroy Street for catechism training at St. Anthony’s Church. Non-Catholics were walked around the corner to the Protestant church for hot chocolate and Bible stories.
Brockway Truck came next. From the sidewalk kids could wave or whistle in to their dads working inside. Brockway razed several houses along Elm Street to create a parking lot for its workers when times were prosperous. It was sad to see homes removed,but Brockway paid well and seemed to be booming.
On the next block, Durkee’s Bakery fronted on Elm Street and extended back a block and employed 250. Most of them lived within walking distance. Ray the pastry packer had married a Japanese war-bride. Both were sorry when she found that life on Elm Street did not fit her expectations of glitz and plenty in life in America.
At the Jr-Sr High School, two football sculptures on the outside wall of the gym looked down on the playing field along side Elm Street and Greenbush.
Elm Street ended at Church Street. Churches fronting on Church Street sat astride Elm Street and provided a place for an Elm Street Boy Scouts troop. Few boys from that side of town could afford the official Boy Scout uniform, but they had the can-do spirit nonetheless.
Elm Street people were nice. At the east end under the elms, Hugo, a cripple, sat in his yard with a checkers board and took on all contenders. Using his canes, he occasionally struggled down to River Street where his visits were welcome. In the Winter kids sold Christmas cards along Elm, and in the Spring sold seeds, and were always welcomed into the middleclass homes along the street. Caught in heavy rain storm, a mother at her door invited me in out of the storm, but the answer was, “Sorry, I can’t talk to strangers.” Elm Street took care of its own.
As time went on Elm Street changed. The Elm trees were all cut down. The schools became apartments and administration buildings. Businesses closed, but many were replaced with new ones. Fine people still live there. Elm Street has retained its gracefulness.
WALK UP ELM STREET COMMENTS
Walk Up Elm Street recieved over 500 likes. It was the comments that made the story that good.
The hundreds of comments made on the Elm Street post filled the story and made it meaningful and enjoyable to a thousand readers. Many of the comments are included here.
Comment: Convert the Durkee’s Bakery building on Elm Street to student housing. It was a beautiful bldg. with hardwood floors at one time. Concurrently, re-build a modern version of Firpo’s Diner kitty-corner across the tracks. Put life and hope back in the East End of Cortland! It is no further to walk up to SUNY than I walked back when.
Answer: Firpo’s sat next the tracks on Elm St., kitty-corner to Durkee’s Bakery. Clientele included all shifts of the bakery, including myself; garbage trucks crews who could park at the door; and farmers who came to town for some companionship once a day. Everyone ate at the long wrap around counter. They were the food industry. Firp’s spaghetti and scalloped potatoes were pretty good and certainly “stuck to your ribs”. Firp was a slob, but a good natured one, and the closing of his diner was a cultural loss to Cortland.
I loved reading this!
Absolutely love it .Priceless stuff. That could return of one we’re inclined to invest
Again Allan, a beautiful post. Always love reading your posts. Thank you!
Thank you!
Allan C. Ardis A pic of the Jubilairs, L to R, Bob Argyle Sr., Walt Nesedka, and Don Fox. I remember Sunday jamborees at Firpo’s. Early 60’s
This was posted a couple of years ago, but I enjoyed reading all the comments again. I would like to mention that my grandfather Nick D’Adamio owned the building where Passalugo’s grocery store was. My grandfather Nick had Nick’s Barber Shop on the other half of the first floor. I spent many Saturday mornings there in the barber shop, listening to the customers talk about sports and whatever was going on in Cortland. My grandfather John Passeri built boats at Tompkins Boat Factory which we used at DeRuyter Lake. (Stephanie)
Thank you so very much for sharing this. Brings back so many memories. I lived on Central and went to Pomeroy school.
a wonderful stroll down memory lane.. thank you.
So many great memories of our childhood. Life sure was so much simpler back then.
I too was a part of Elm St. Great memories are from that end of our city.
Remember the large piece of coal in front of, what I knew as the EH Lang building at the corner of Excelsior and Elm St. I used to climb on it. Wonder where it went.
Wow! What a memory!
I’m a east ender to this day.
We loved Nick. He helped my brother Steve and I out once. Still remember it.
Just relived my childhood. Thanks!
I remember all of it and I grew up on Groton Ave.
Great read! Really have some great info! Grew up in the area, didn’t know some things? Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for stirring up so many great memories, Allan C. Ardis
Very nice!
I still go to palm gardens with my friend and meet our watering hole friends there! $2.00/ beer can’t be beat, but matched @ Ivan’s, another working man lounge, with Melodyland next door! Be sure to bring home a pizza and keep the Mrs. happy as you stumbled in the door! Those days of plentiful jobs and factories are long gone, Rubbermaid was the last to screw Cortland and ruin our streets!
Great stories. TU so much brings back a lot of memories.
Used to go to Elm Street with my bike. My homeroom and math teacher lived on this street and at the end of 6th grade she had all of the classroom over for a BBQ . great day!
such a priceless picture!!! love it!!
Thanks for the vivid picture of days gone by! We always stopped at Lou’s for the best donuts in town after mass on Sunday’s at St. Anthony’s before heading back to McGraw. I never knew what was going on in half of the factory buildings along the way.
You are such a lovely story writer, Allan, and your memories are so clear. I hope the historical society and the chamber of commerce are saving!
(Stephanie posting)This is Elm Street in 1956 when the Discenza block (also known by a previous name) was still standing next to the Green Arch. Before the San Rocco Lodge building was built, wedding receptions were held in the Discenza Block hall on the ground floor. I also had Wednesday afternoon St. Anthony’s Religious Ed. there in first and third grades. You can see the Green Arch and the then Congregational Church, both of which are still standing and active. The church is Pentecostal now. The Civic Band (one of the former names of the Old Timers Band) is marching. Joseph and Leonilda Gabriel are standing in front of their house on the corner of Elm and Crandall.
(Stephanie Passeri-Densmore posting) Here is a photo of Elm Street during the St. Anthony’s Day Parade in the 1956. Brockway’s is visible, and you can see in the upper left the canopy of maple trees that lined both sides of the street. (There were only maples on the blocks near my house.) My father said that when he came home a day early from WWII, he walked under the shade of the trees going all the way down Elm Street to Excelsior Street where his parents lived. He said it was such a wonderful change from the battlefields of Europe.
Here is another Elm Street photo. It shows my mother Yolanda D’Adamio Passeri and my father Guy Passeri as an engaged couple after my father came home from WWII. They are sitting in front of Ferdinando and Filomena Gabriel’s (Gabriele) grocery story on the corner of Elm and Excelsior where the East Side Bakery is today. Nick Grillo had the store after Ferdinando. Later Tony Doloisio had a grocery store there and the Giamichael’s had a taxidermy shop there. Now we are very fortunate to have the East Side Bakery there.
Wonderful memories of Cortland growing up in the 50/60’s. Great friends, classmates and teammates in those days (CHS ‘63). Thank you Cortland for those times.
Thanks for the memories…grew up in the area, and I’ll never forget all the GREAT PEOPLE.
Stephanie Passeri-Densmore again: As my sister Debbie Coye mentioned above, Sebastiano Fabrizio, one of the earliest Italian immigrants to come to Cortland lived at 100 Elm Street on the corner of Elm and Crandall. The house was in the Fabrizio family for over 100 years! There were 7 children, 5 boys and 2 girls. His daughter Josephine was the first Italian American woman in Cortland to get a degree from Cortland Normal School in the late 1920’s and use it in a teaching career. Her sister Bella Fabrizio was a buyer for G.H. Wiltsie’s and Chapel’s at the Cortland Mall. Tony was a beloved custodian at Cortland High and even had a yearbook dedicated to him. Sebastiano used to play his accordion on the front porch. It was beautiful. I lived across the street and one house over. I was thrilled when Sebastiano brought his accordion to my high school graduation party in our backyard. I had free Italian serenades the whole evening!
Nice.
love your stories!! thanks so much!!
A great read.thank you.
Stephanie posting again: One of my favorite memories of growing up on the East Side was having the windows open on warm nights and having the perfume of Lou’s Donuts waft in with the lullaby of the hammers of the “Forging Shop” lulling me to sleep.
Haven’t heard about Firpo’s in a VERY long time! Palm Gardens and Green Arch, very familiar with! Thank you for the great write ups!!
So nice to remember the old days growing up around Elm St. I love your writings. Thank you !!
Stephanie Passeri-Densmore posting: My grandfather John Passeri, who was the custodian of St. Anthony’s Church in the 1930’s and 40’s, made wooden boats at Thompson’s Boat Factory, on Elm Street next to Pomeroy School. Here he is in a Thompson’s Boat with my father Guy Passeri on DeRuyter Lake in the late 1950’s.
Stephanie Passeri-Densmore posting: Thank you, Allan Ardis for this well-written article on Elm Street, where my family has lived since 1921. I grew up frequenting many of the businesses mentioned, especially my grandfather Nick D’Adamio’s barber shop on the corner of Elm and Crandall where the Elm Street Emporium is today. My grandparents lived in the apartment upstairs, where many of the Italian immigrants from the village of Dogliola in Abruzzo gathered for parties on weekends. For a number of years, my grandfather, my father Guy Passeri (who also barbered at Cornell University), and my uncle Matt Dadamio (who was a foreman at Smith Corona) not only barbered together on weekends but also had the East Side Sport Shop headquartered in the same building. They sold fishing equipment and boats and motors from the mid-fifties to mid-sixties. Then my father had Guy’s Boat Company where he sold Evinrude Motors and Duratech aluminum boats on our home property also on Elm St. I had a wonderful childhood on Elm Street and the East Side in general. My family still lives in our family home and my son lives in a beautifully renovated home on Crandall Street. I do not consider the East Side “run down,” as one person above posted. It is true that there are some pockets of rental property that were once kept better as family-owned homes, but that is true of every section of Cortland except for the outlying newer subdivisions. There are still many well-kept homes on Elm Street and the East Side in general. We have great businesses, such as the always fantastic Green Arch, the wonderful East Side Bakery, the new Yori House Restaurant, best coffee-ever purveyor Coffeemania, Walgreen’s Pharmacy, a bank, an outstanding day care center, the Cortland Surgical Center, and the jewel in the crown of the East Side, St. Anthony of Padua Church, which is still thriving.
Well said. Really puts you back to the heyday of the east end. You could walk around the block never needing to speak a word of English.
Jason Forshee Nice write up I grew up on Pendleton St. My mother bought a house there in 1980.I find myself back here again living on Pendleton back at home same house 41 years later. Mom would never let go of the house she raised her children in. It’s funny because most of the time that I have live in Cortland it has been somewhere on the East end, but it is way different now, all the old families are gone, All the older Italian families are pretty much gone today. When I was younger there were lots of us Nitti, Giacco, Falso, Discenza, Natalie, DiPietro, Giamichael, Dalola, Semeraro and I’m sure many more that I’m forgetting, working people no one was crazy rich, but we had it all. Today few remain, run down old east end what a shame
Grillo’s Del’s Market Tony’s Market East End Bakery.
Great read Allan, thanks.
Thank you so much whoever you are! That was a true blast from the past. That was my end of town. Very well written and very nostalgic! Thank you thank you!
Enjoyed this read. Once again it reminds me of growing up on Cedar and of Cortland in general during those years.
The Jubilairs played at Firpo’s Jamboree’s. L to R, Bob Argyle Sr., Walt Nesedka and Don Fox. Also at Mike’s B&G on Central.
Very good article. Thank you for sharing Allan.
I really enjoyed reading this post. Thank you!
Very interesting. We live off Elm St. and can see almost all of Dexter Park field and diamond. Nice family neighborhood.
Do you mean Reno Hubbard and not Hugo with the checker board. Reno had a son named Mort.
Cheryl Morse Mort lived with his brother in a small house. Our current property adjoins his old property. Got to know him a bit. He passed away about ten years ago.
Yes, thank you very much. His name was Renno! And his son was Mort.
Such memories!
I used to walk from my grandparent’s house on River St. to pick up loaves of fresh bread at the bakery. It’s a special memory for sure. My dad grew up on the East End and attended Pomeroy as a kid. I love it when he tells me about the history and his memories of St. Anthony’s festivals, store fronts, and families. Cortland has so many lost treasures.
wonderful post so full of so much information and memories Thank you for all your hard work
We always bought our hot sausage at Mary Alongs.
Priceless ! Thank you !
My grandma live down there I want to say 60 church
Very lucky to grow up in that neighborhood!
Great memories Allan. I grew up on the west side but my mother’s family all lived down on the east end. My grandfather Joe Yacano use to own the property on Elm St. ext. actually right on the river. He had a huge garden down there and use to peddle his vegetables all up and down Elm street and the surrounding streets. I can remember him sitting in front Mary Alongs store enjoying a beer at the end of a long day. We always had our family reunion about the same time they celebrated St. Anthony’s day. So many wonderful memories of days gone by!
There were trolley tracks on Main St in McGraw when we moved there in the late 50’s.
Do you all remember going into Along’s for candy and Sam saying “one nickel, one dime ” when he totaled our purchases! The best!
And don’t forget Mr. Fabrizio on his porch playing his accordion right across from my grandfather’s barber shop and Passalugo’s store.
Nick D’Adamio’s barbershop, 97 Elm Street.
My mom grew up right there
Thanks for your nostalgic info. May I add a favorite place of mine…Lou’s Donut
Oh the stories of Firpos diner . My dad worked at Brockways and we would stop to see him on the way to my Uncle Lou’s donut shop to swim in their pool. This is a great story of the history of Elm Street. Thank you for sharing.
The Dexter’s have lived at 60 Elm St. since 1873. Was the only home for Ira A. Dexter (1867-1941) who eventually had the park at other end of the street named for him. When Mary Delaney Dexter built the home, she was a widow with two small children. The money came as a pension from the death of her Civil War vet husband in 1867. Eight children were born and raised here and their descendants still gather at the family home.
Thanks for your Elm Street review. I enjoyed it. I remember much of it. Imagine all that activity and life in a single block.
Thank you Allan for a great read that brought back so many childhood memories.
Thanks for the memories. I grew up on elm and went Pomeroy and played at dexter park
Thanks for letting us take a walk down that street with you! Great memories
Thank you for sharing Allan. So many fond memories of Elm St. and the surrounding neighborhood.
Thank you for sharing such great memories and photos. Those were the best of times!! Bittersweet.
Celebrated many birthdays at the green arch with my folks. Mary always waited on us. She was so nice. The best porterhouse steaks too
Great story in my end of town growing up
Passalugo’s store was in my grandfather Nick D’Adamio’s building. He was the owner and worked at Nick’s Barber Shop for decades.
I remember getting comic books for 2 cents at Grillo’s The thicker ones were a nickel
Wow, thanks for the memories! It was a good time back then.
Wonderful story of the street I grew up on until 7th grade when we moved to Crandall Street until 1978. I ended up marry George Sopp who also grew up on Elm Street.
George Corsi
Thanks for mentioning Tucci’s Bakery.
I grew up on elm st
A great neighborhood to grow up in great times .East Enders
What a great write up!
Brings back many wonderful memories
Spent many hours at Pomeroy School during a brief living on Dawn Drive. Also stayed with a friend at Pomeroy Apartments many times over the years after moving back to Jefferson County. Loved the area.
As a kid in the early 50’s living on Greenbush I remember all the places on elm. My best friend lived at 18 elm.
Celeste Stoker Happy memories, wonderful neighbors!
Charlie Colasurdo was my uncle and it was called the Charles restaurant
That was my old neighborhood. I loved it there .
Love the history of Elm St.
What a heart warming description of happenings on Elm St. of years ago. My Mom and Dad owned Lou’s Donut Shop. I loved living on Elm St. and still drive down it when I’m in Cortland. Thank you so much for the memory.
Many wonderful times and memories.
Kim Marie Ellis Sposato
Wow thank you ! For bringing back all the Awesome memories of my child hood
Good history story. Thanks for sharing.
Our family often ate at the Green Arch. The owners were both musicians. One evening we took a visiting friend “Pee Wee Hunt,” a Dixieland trombonist like me, to the “Arch” for dinner. The two owners, musicians themselves, were beside themselves to meet the famous musician!
A great narrative, I really enjoyed it!
Beautiful story can almost envision walking down these streets and going into the business
Great read and brought back so many memories from my youth on East Court St. thanks Allan.
George Corsi
Allan thanks for your stories about Cortland. They bring back a lot of memories as well as teaching me some things I didn’t know about my home town!
I always enjoy reading the posts on here! Both my parents are from Cortland! As I understand it was a great place to grow up!
Thank you for the memories. I remember these oh so well.
Brings me back a few years. Loved it there.
Enjoyed reading the post. Thanks
Thank you for all that history, I knew of those businesses but grew up on the west end
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful memory of Elm Street. I lived on Washington Street and walked to Pomeroy School, and later to Cortland High School. My uncle worked at the Thompson Boat factory. I remember a house on the corner of I think Pendleton Street and Elm Street that had a large star shaped flower garden in the front yard.
We’re living in NC now but visit friends in Cortland in the summer and fall. We haven’t sold or home there yet. Even though it doesn’t look as your description depicted anymore I can take my dog for a walk and still see what was at one time. It’s true that it’s sad to see what is , but I’m always hopeful for seeing positive change.
George Corsi
My grandmother lived in Elm St.
There was Grillo, Along, Passalugo Grocery. Nicks Barber Shop, Thompson Boat, Dexter Park.
Thank you so much .
Also cannot Help but think how frightening it is that nothing has replaced these things and places .Everything is becoming impersonal , overly regulated and dehumanized..
Wonderful story.
I now live in Arizona. You made me home sick for Cortland. Still feels like home.
Allan, again I read your post, and again it brings back the most beautiful memories of my childhood. Thank you so much for sharing. It really means so much. Thank you!
Great memories-we lived on East Court St.
Thanks for the wonderful posting of memories. And it sparked so many interesting
I grew up at 19 Elm St. It WAS such a nice street. My dad kept the house up. He rented out apartments there. No dumps to be seen. Now my dad’s old place is a dump as well as most of the houses on the 1st block. Such shame!!!
We lived over the 7-Up soft drink warehouse, next to Durkee’s. Our mom worked there, and would treat us to a long John at Firpo’s, or once in a while a spaghetti dinner at palm gardens! Now that I’m a truck driver, I wished I’d paid more attention to Brockway’s Trucks!
I was in grade school with Joe Discenza. My family had visited Gettysburg and I came back wearing a Confederate cap. Joe went and bought a Union cap.
So awesome!
THANKS FOR THE POST, I GREW UP ON POMEROY ST. BROUGHT BACK SOME LONG PASSED MEMORIES
Great read
A nice read.
Wonderful story
WALK UP PORT WATSON STREET
A WALK UP PORT WATSON STREET
In the 1950-60s Port Watson Street bustled with family life, thriving businesses, and trucks coming up Rte. 11 roaring through the city. Port Watson not an easy street to stroll. There were too many driveways, too much traffic, and too few trees. Businesses ranged from neighborhood stores to restaurants and nightclubs to factories and salvage yards. Let’s take a walk along them.
Starting at the Tioughnioga River, signs welcomed newcomers crossing the bridge. Under it, young scamps wiggled down through the steel trusses and fished below. First bldg. on the right was the Cortland orphanage, sad by definition, but hopefully dear to the kids who called it home. We saw them sitting lonely in their swings. Next came the Compagni Esso gas station, the first in a series of seven (Esso, Gulf, Hess, Rotary, Shell, Mobil, Texaco). Local mechanics made their money wrench-in-hand in the garage stalls, not at the pumps. Their attendants came out in freezing weather to cheerfully check the oil and add $2 of gas or, with luck, “fill her up”. Kids rode up on bicycles to put air in the tires, it was free!
Middle-class homes were interspersed with businesses, bars, and mom-and-pop stores. Natoli’s small store near Hyatt St was convenient for a quick loaf of bread. Rinaldi’s open-air fruit and vegetable market was festive like being back in Italy. The Imperial bar was one of fifty-two watering holes in Cortland. My great-uncle, a patron, sat at the Imperial drowning his sorrows and wailing when his wife died and his girlfriend didn’t love him anymore. Al Falso’s music store on Port Watson was the “go-to” place for upcoming musicians in Cortland. Across the street was Finkelstein’s junk yard piled with junked cars. Neighborhood boys used the junked school busses as club-houses. Backyard mechanics went to Fink’s for spare parts that they took out from wrecks and bought cheap, keeping old cars going affordably. A wrecked Renault cost $150 and was turned in to the car that I learned to drive as a stick-shift. Pop scrapped a copper liquor still that Fink then displayed prominently on Port Watson St.
At the tracks was Bob Keeney’s lumber yard. He became mayor.
Pop got his haircuts at Earl Maloney’s barber shop. At John and Grace Biviano’s market we were always greeted with a big smile and pleasant aromas. Their hot sausage the best in Cortland but it had competition for the honor. Next door was the Wonder Bar, later called Foote’s, and a favorite of the blue-collar crowd. Foote’s is now gone and it seemed like a shrine was taken away. The FOE, a private club, has prospered over the years, thanks to its loyal Eagles. At the Lido their fish dinners and family atmosphere were ever popular. Rosen’s scrap yard next to the Erie Lackawanna tracks got a bad rap regarding pollution. Rosen’s scrap operation was a vital link in the metal working industry in Cortland, returning steel scrap to the smelting furnaces in Pittsburg and Buffalo. There were no pollution regulations at the time or even concerns about it. At Wilcox, the last days of coal were ending. The coal bins were empty and the coal-car ramps were crumbling. However, lumber sales were booming as Cortland prospered. There used to be four sets of railroad tracks there. Tumbling over them played hell on shock absorbers and tire-alignments. Nextdoor was Brewer-Titchener Corp. (BTC) with its handsome office bldg. The BTC Carriage Goods plant had a narrow façade facing Port Watson, then expanded into a factory complex employing 250 workers in good paying jobs in metal working in old but well -maintained buildings. Two were converted to offices and shops. Across the corner, a gas station was made into a bus station. Folks stood outside at 5:30AM waiting for their Greyhound bus to commute to work or school in Syracuse. I was one of them. Augie Colongelli’s Mobil station had its classic Mobil red flying Pegasus horse symbol. Augie’s station retained its quaint hominess thanks to loyal customers who loved Augie’s warm smile.
The new Senior Citizen bldg. was a welcome addition that made many retired workers happy in the golden years. They used their Social Security to pay their way.
At the bowling alley, the balls seemed as old as the building and never quite round. The Thunderbird Motel was on the other side of the parking lot. An overnight visitor to Cortland could come out of the motel and have a hearty breakfast at the T&M Diner. The T&M Diner has changed names many times but survived gentrification and still serves good coffee on cold days.
The Italian Kitchen was on the second floor across the street. To the delight of our 4th grade glass at Pomeroy School, the birthday party for classmate Rebecca Foote at the Italian Kitchen was a happy night-to-remember sixty-two years later.
Last stop is Lester’s Diner at the corner. Lester’s faced Port Watson from behind a gas station. The diner grew from there to international fame and even served a president.
Cortlandites watched out for their own folks. When we moved across town in 1955, times were tight and every adult worked. Briefly, I walked home from kindergarten at Randall School up Huntington down Port Watson to our new house on River Street. Watchful people surely noticed a little boy walking alone. With the protection of a Devine Hand and their caring eyes, my walk was made safely. Thank you, Cortland.
Thank you for PW Street story contributions by Marty Biviano, Cheryl Ardis Morse, Ken Clark, and Walter Protas r.i.p.
My Walk Up Port Watson Street story is getting good traffic. Walter contributed the Finkelstein liquor still story. He and my brother Steve hauled the still over there. I am glad that you are here to accept the appreciation of the story for him.
PORT WATSON STREET BRIDGE
Boys will be boys and getting into difficulties. My brother Steve and his friends the Baranowskis were all wiry-built young boys and always exploring their River Street neighborhood. One spot was the Port Watson Street bridge across the Tioughnioga. They somehow got themselves into the steel framework of the bridge and lowered themselves down on to the girders under the road and spanning the river. So far so good. The first boy to start back up was Steve. Shimmying up in a tight steel framework was not easy. When his head reached street level he was stuck. Only a face protruded up through the walkway. Worse yet, the local bullies came by and started prodding him. I ran for help at the nearby Esso station, but by that time the bullies had left and the boys had worked their way up and out. The Fire Department rescue team was not needed. Thank God.
PORT WATSON STREET HOME FOR CHILDREN
In the 1950’s it was referred to as an orphanage. Cortland’s Home for Children was located on Port Watson Street alongside the river. It was couple blocks from my home on River St. I occasionally played with kids at the orphanage on their playground. The remembrance of them sitting in the swing-sets under the shade trees is a melancholy one. I had a family to go home to, and they did not. Kids never forget being alone. They always want to get back home. For some, these images help salve the memory, for others maybe not.
A RIVER STREET STORY
A River Street Story
River Street in the 1950’s and 60’s had a rough charm. Mature maples handsomely lined both sides of a narrow street and the banks along the river. As one of Cortland’s first streets, it had some of its earliest houses. These included flat roofed duplexes and the Victorian Brown estate. A project of new housing was built in the mid-‘50s. The River Street area was zoned Industrial. Newcomers soon adapted to sleep to the rhythm of forging hammers pounding away 16 hours per day, ka-boom-clang-clang. Business properties like the forge shop and Cooper foundry were interspersed with housing, parking lots, and fields. The grassy fields became playgrounds for softball and playing army. Dexter Park was nearby. Its wading pool, teeter-totters, and slides suited kids under 12. The baseball diamonds suited adult evening ball leagues. Adolescents do- what-they-do just hanging around together on the bleachers at the park.
River Street was designated as a heavy truck by-pass around Cortland. Loads of steel and iron came and went, tearing up the asphalt. On weekends it was convoys of the National Guard. WWII was not long forgotten, so kids stood in the yard yelling “fight the Japs” as jeeps rolled by and weekend warriors smiled and waved back.
Homeowners kept their property in good condition. Many had large vegetable and flower gardens. The tulip field on the corner River & Elm with the waterway behind it had the look of Holland-on-the-Tioughnioga. Adding to the pleasing morning view was the sun rise over Brown’s Hill on the east side of the river. The view was an inspiration as kids stepped out of the house each cheerful each morning.
River Street did not have paved sidewalks like the rest of the city. Workers heading for work and school-kids headed for Pomeroy or CHS trod through yards along muddy paths or in slushy streets. They dodged cars and trucks splashing them from deep potholes filled with muddy slush.
Even so, the street was safe and friendly. Kids pulled carts to the neighborhood stores to pick up basics for dinner. Fresh Tucci bread was always on the shelf ready for pick up. The kids only had to say, “Put it on the bill” to Nick Grillo.
Kids roamed the neighborhood on bicycles and afoot. No one was killed, but they came close when they rode down steep hills and crashed. Playing at the river was discouraged but not necessarily forbidden. The Elm Street bridge while it stood was a tragedy waiting to happen, but fortunately did not. .Halloween was a major production, sometimes running 3 days in a row on River Street. Rules and tradition were only loosely adhered to on River Street. Some were Fresh Air kids up for the summer from New York City. They were better supervised, but welcomed.
Everyone worked. The sights, sounds, and aromas of saws, hammers, truck assembly, furnaces, coal chutes, trucks, trains, and bakeries created a pleasant hubbub and a sense of prosperity and security.
There was entrepreneurial spirit. One family operated a private garbage service with their truck parked nearby. They swung by extra early if they were carving out time to go fishing. Another painted LIGHT BULBS FOR SALE on his house to make a few more dollars for the family. The Ardis Top Shop upholstery operated in a barn out back to supplement pay from the forging plant. Joe Yocono peddled vegetables up and down the street from a tractor drawn wagon. Joe sometimes traded his homemade wine for homemade liquor made by southerners enroute. Each was potent. Neighbors who sampled both may have swayed a little on the way home.
Not everyone could work. Some were needy or disabled. They were treated with generosity and respect. When a family’s car broke down out front, they were taken in, given dinner, their car fixed, and even got a couple shots of booze before leaving. On another occasion, a family went to the county fair with no money, but reported back that they had fun watching everybody else enjoy the rides and eat. They appreciated getting some field corn to add to supplement rice and staples from the 1950’s government Surplus Food program. Better the corn for them than the cows.
River Street residents enjoyed life. Families had backyard barbecues. Neighbors from blocks around were invited over for all-night pig roasts in the fields out back. They piled in to Pomeroy School yard 2 blocks away for the St. Anthony’s festival. When the festival set off aerial bombs at night over the river, WWII veterans came out with guns loaded thinking that the invasion was back on.
River Street kids improvised. They played football without helmets or pads. No one had money for summer camp. They camped out in the pastures with or without tents. In the winter, they “slushed” trucks or built igloos. There was no public pool except for temporary “ponds” dug in the street during its re-construction, so kids made a long walk to the Wickwire Pool on the far side of town.
Boys played by the river, fished, pushed out paper boats sometimes alit with gasoline. When the county bulldozed a dump into the river, boys on the other side sank the flotilla of bottle and cans with rocks.
Kids watched old 1940’s B&W episodes of Little Rascals and “Our Gang” every afternoon and called their own friends “the River Street gang”. If they had had had had a song, it would have been “Heart of My Heart” .
Change came in 1963. The maple trees were all chopped down. Wide, concrete pavement was laid down. Sidewalks were built. Street lights were put in. The bill for the work was sent to these working-class homeowners, even though they did not want or ask for these “improvements”. The truck traffic never happened. The I-81 interstate was built immediately after. The river was heavily dredged, which helped flood control and made access along the banks easier, but ended the rustic tree lined scene. Browns Hill across the river where the sun came up was scarred and ruined by an ugly Stuckey’s sign put atop it. Everyone hated the sign and Stuckey’s. Neighborhood lost much of its spirit when the large and active Ardis family moved away.
Now days, the maples trees are growing back. The widening of the street has made driving safer and easier. A new generation has moved in to love River Street as we did.
| River Street 2024 |
| Figure 3River Street Today |
RIVER STREET EULOGY
My childhood friend Walter Protas died this week. Walter encouraged me to join this Cortland Reminisce Facebook site and relive our days in the River Street neighborhood of the 1950s-60s. He was a part of all the stories, and he appreciated the “Likes” and Comments that you, the readers, made.
-The Halloween Story: In this photo, all the kids are ready to go out trick-or-treating. This photo became haunting as the years went by because each of us became the character we portrayed that night. In Walter’s case that was being “just a bum”. He asked to see this photo again before he died. In the photo are the Ardis kids Allan, Cheryl, Steve, Bill, Mike and cousin Barry, and Jim Congdon and Walter Protas (straw hat).
-The Elm Street Bridge: The bridge is gone. In the 1950s, it was an iron framed structure with a rotted pot-holed wooden deck. We kids crossed the river hanging on to the girders. Only by the grace of God did we not fall through one of those holes. The other side of the river had a bait shop and a dump. All the garbage was bulldozed in to the river during construction of I-81. We played Navy by bombing the garbage bottles with rocks as they floated by.
–The River Street Barbecue: The barbecue started with butchering the pig in field out back of our house, then roasting it all-night while the neighborhood men sipped hard-liquor. Walter often recalled the conviviality of the night and his luck that his parents let him stay out late. He said again before dying, “the barbecue was really good”.
–The Moonshine Still: My father and his uncle, both southerners with a taste for the real thing, had a two-burner copper still used to make moonshine in the kitchen. When we moved, Walter and my brother Steve hauled the still on a wagon to Finkelstein’s junk yard on Port Watson Street to cash in the copper. Finkelstein showcased the still in front of his junk yard. Walter was delighted to retell this story, but he was not so happy that we moved. It broke his heart.
-The Beverly Hillbillies post illustrated the red-neck tone of the neighborhood that Walter liked so well.
-The Houses on River St.: The neighborhood was teeming with kids, and with the relaxed attitude and open fields all around, these two Ardis houses were the center of the neighborhood. Walter was there daily. We thought of him as family. So did he.
-The GOODFELLAS Post: The post described the ethnic charm of the stores, churches, bars, and school life around Pomeroy & Elm. Walter, David Lane, and I walked past 8 bars going to school each day.
-the Labor Day Post: Walter worked at Smith Corona for 30 years as a skilled model maker. His memory of the machines and the noises, smells, camaraderie of factory life at SCM was the basis of this story. He was pleased that you gave the post 300 Likes.
-The Forge Shop Series: Walter did not work at the BTC Forging plant, but like the rest of us, he went to sleep at night listening to the rhythmic “ka-boom clang-clang” of the night shift in the hammer room as hot steel was pounded just down the street.
-Christmas Immigrants Post: Himself an immigrant child, Walter defended immigration fiercely to some detractors on Facebook. The Immigration Christmas story told his experience of getting his first Christmas present here at the Cortland YWCA.
-The Pilgrims-in-Cortland post: Inspired by his family’s experience in arriving in Cortland after WWII and their assimilation into American life, Cortland-style.
-The Ouija Board Winter Night Post: We three good friends sat around a Ouija board on a snowy night to divine our futures.
-The PRIZE WINNER: All of us wonder who really wins these contests hawked by local car lots. Turns out they are real. They drew his name. Walter won $25,000. They announced his good luck on a billboard.
So now it is goodbye to Walter from all of us at this Cortland Reminisces Facebook page. Rest In Peace, Walter.