Another case of wandering imagination struck this historian recently, while learning about the building at 244-248 Main St. in Oneonta, storefronts for the Autumn Café and Razzle Dazzle.
This structure is known as the Fairchild block, and it turns 100 this year.
It was announced in the May 16, 1912, edition of The Oneonta Herald that the site where the newspaper was printed, the Herald block, was set to be torn down in the next few weeks. Congressman George W. Fairchild owned this block, and was set to build a much-larger structure on the same location, with a basement and three floors above it.
Fairchild had a good amount of money to invest, as he'd been an early investor in Bundy Time Recorder Co., which had merged with other companies to become Computing Tabulating Recording Corp. in 1911, a forerunner to International Business Machines. The returns on that investment had been excellent, to date.
My imagination has crews of workers and horse-drawn wagons one day in early June, busily dragging the Herald's flatbed presses, cases upon cases of lead type, cabinets and other equipment along Main Street to a new home at 12-14 Broad St., where The Oneonta Star was then located, to become a shared printing plant.
Other than being a small building, there was nothing wrong with the Herald block, as when it was built in 1878 it was considered to be one of the finest in the village. Hundreds attended a "housewarming" event at the completion of construction. At that time, there was a winding staircase from the business office and work room of the newspaper to the floor above, the office of Edward M. Johnson, the editor and proprietor of the Herald. The building had always housed the newspaper and a few other businesses, but Mr. Fairchild had plans for a bigger and better building, to extend from the Municipal Building, today's 242 Main St., to a building at the corner of today's South Main Street, which was then called the Arthur Butts block.
As reported in the Herald, "The new building will be architecturally one of the finest in the city and no pains will be spared by the owner in making the stores and offices most desirable. Mr. Fairchild expects to occupy a suite of offices on the second floor when the building is completed. Already many inquiries and several applications for rooms, stores and offices have been received."
This meant a short walk to work for Fairchild, as his mansion was at the corner of Grand and Main streets, today's Masonic Temple.
The architect for the new building was Orlo Epps, and the winning bid for construction came from Lyman H. Blend, for $15,312. Work began during the last week of August.
That area of Main Street was undergoing a lot of change at the time.
The Butts block was still fairly new, and it replaced the former Wilber block, which had burned in 1906.
Excavations were under way in early October 1912 to change the path of South Main Street, to align with the path of Ford Avenue.
That was because plans were set to build a new Federal building, a project Congressman Fairchild had been working to secure for years.
It is today's City Hall, 258 Main St. Prior to the excavations, South Main Street had met Main Street near this site.
As listed in a 1914 Oneonta city directory, the two storefronts in the Fairchild block were businesses for I.J. Bookhout, home furnishings, and Sniffen & Laidlaw, millinery.
Two real estate firms, Oneonta Ice Co., a doctor's office and a Knights of Columbus club room were listed on the upper floors.
On Monday: Oneonta heard a new radio station in 1972.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or email him at simmark@stny.rr. com. His website is www. oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Mark Simonson
Congressman Fairchild added downtown growth in 1912
- Mark Simonson
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General Clinton Canoe Regatta got a new home in 1972
Ever since 1963, when Charles Hinkley and a group of Tri-Town businessmen came up with the idea for what we know today as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, people lined the shores of the Susquehanna to watch the canoeists as they made their 70-mile trek from Cooperstown to Bainbridge.
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Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
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Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
Area residents mulled over the idea of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as their next President of the United States. New fitness opportunities emerged for all ages. One area landmark was saved while another was razed. It was only a part of our life and times in May 1968.
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Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
In the economy that was the Great Depression, there were times people would do what it took to try to earn some money.
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Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
I realize I've got the wrong month in mind when I say "May came in like a lion." However, that's what happened in 1983 as a number of twisters moved through our region, leaving plenty of damage behind in their trails. Add some melting snow and heavy rain, and scenes of cleanups were widespread 30 years ago this month.
- Saturday, May 4, 2013
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Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
- Monday, April 29, 2013
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Job opportunities abounded in area 45 years ago
If you were looking for a job in April 1968 in our area, or perhaps looking to change your employment situation in the near future, opportunities were pointing in your favor.
- Saturday, April 27, 2013
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Oneonta greeted an aviation giant in 1928
An early aviation superstar came to Oneonta in 1928.
- Monday, April 22, 2013
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Area saw its own armed standoffs 30 years ago
This past Friday, we watched how the Boston area went into a lockdown during a tense search for the last suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Had I still been living and working in that area, as I was in the early 1990s, I would have had a day off from work Friday, as police scoured the city of Waltham.
- Saturday, April 20, 2013
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U.S.S. Maine explosion, war drew much local sentiment
For most people in our area in early 1898, a growing conflict between two distant nations probably didn't get much attention, other than some glances at the newspaper. When a young Oneonta man was one of many injured or killed in an explosion of a battleship he was aboard, the local attention increased markedly to what was soon to become the Spanish-American War.
- Monday, April 15, 2013
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Oneonta river walking path came from a surveyor's daydream
Leon Kalmus of Oneonta spent a lot of time surveying land near the Susquehanna River in the early 1970s around the time Interstate 88 was being planned and built in this area. What he saw along the shores of the river, he called “pristine,� and soon had an idea for some kind of walking or hiking pathway along the shores of the river in the town of Oneonta.
- Saturday, April 13, 2013
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Decline of Prohibition led to return of beer in April 1933
“I think this would be a good time for a beer,� remarked President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933. This marked the beginning of the end for Prohibition that year.
- Monday, April 8, 2013
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Dietz Street shifted from residential to commercial through the years
By taking a walk along Dietz Street today, heading north to Walnut Street, one can see a lot of businesses and the recently refurbished parking lot on the east side of the street. It would take some imagination to see this street lined with houses and a church, but prior to the late 1940s, that’s what was there.
- Saturday, April 6, 2013
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Oneontans voted for a 'dry' city in 1918
- Monday, April 1, 2013
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Future city historian kept family busy for Easter and April 1958
- Saturday, March 30, 2013
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Colliscroft became new Oneonta landmark in 1902
If the Oneonta building trade sector of the economy could have awarded a plaque to a most valuable individual customer of 1902, it would have nearly been a shoo-in. That was Edward H. Pardee, who was listed in the Oneonta Directory around that time as a farmer, on Southside.
- Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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Historic Cooperstown cottage got a new address in 1988
To unknowing tourists seeking information from the tourism information center at 31 Chestnut St. in Cooperstown, they would probably believe that the mid-19th century cottage had always been on that site. It blends in well with some of the grand old houses along that street, and the same tourists might think it has an interesting history behind it.
- Saturday, March 23, 2013
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Free mail delivery began in Oneonta 125 years ago
- Monday, March 18, 2013
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Oneonta enacted first building code 60 years ago
There will be no parade, fireworks display or commemorative coins minted for the occasion.
- Saturday, March 16, 2013
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Area isolated during historic March 1888 snowstorm
Earlier in the week, we recalled the "Blizzard of 1993," which was one containing historic snowfall that fell on our region on Saturday, March 13. It was the largest recorded in a single local snowfall in the 20th century, and ever since another storm dating back 105 years. The latter snowfall was worse than the 1993 storm, falling overnight into Tuesday, March 13, 1888. It was commonly referred to as the "Blizzard of 1888."
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