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Glimpse above the third-story windows of the building at 43-49 Main Street and you’ll find a stone marking it as the J.J. Newberry Building. Indeed, Newberry’s occupied the structure for sixty-five years from 1927-1992. But, built in 1879, it was initially known as the Schermerhorn building, later called the A.M. Collins block. Prior to the block’s construction, it appears that there were two separate frame structures on the lot, one serving as James A. Schermerhorn’s law office, and the other housing various businesses. These include the drug store of Aaron Sager from 1857-1861, and a shoe business owned by a revolving door of partnerships (FitzgeraldRead More →

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The Taylor Hall block is chock-full of history and stories, that it is simply impossible to cover it all in a single post! To dive into all the events, performances, dances, masquerades, concerts, and speakers that graced the Taylor Hall stage alone would likely fill a book. Therefore, this will simply be a brief, surface-level overview. As I often like to do, I first went to Smith’s “History of Cortland County” to see what he had to provide on the early history of the location. What I found proved confusing and contradictory. For those that read the post on the Taylor Building (44-46 Main Street),Read More →

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41 Main Street is a small structure, but if I got my history right, its bones are made up of one of the oldest buildings that remain on Main Street! In 1860, brothers Isaac and Martin Edgcomb purchased the lot south of Cloyes and Garrison’s grocery to move their harness business there. Presumably, this is when the location first became occupied by a building, although I remain somewhat unsure given how the area is presented in maps. Sometimes it appears that the neighboring buildings must have been too close to allow for any kind of building to be put there, and other maps make itRead More →

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This portion of Main Street was for a long time a grocery, then department store, and finally an experimental mall in an attempt to draw business back from the suburban strip malls. In 1843, Isaac M. Seaman began a grocery and meat business at the spot, described as the only one of its kind in the village at the time. He then partnered with Leavitt Cudworth until 1847. The mantle was taken up by B.K. Aldrich, followed by G.N. Copeland. In 1852, David C. Cloyes bought out Mr. Copeland and continued the business until 1878. From this point, the building starts to be referred toRead More →

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This is another location where the early history is something of a mystery, and I’m not even sure of the accuracy of what I did manage to find out. Smith’s “History of Cortland County” provides a date of about 1863 for an early structure, at which point the firm of Mills & Goodrich (dealers in hardware, stoves, and tinware) moved a frame building from the corner of Main and Court Street to the spot to serve as their new store. Smith indicates that in its old location, the building had been occupied for many years as a seminary. This would refer to Cortland’s female boardingRead More →

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This Main Street Monday also covers the history of Central Avenue! At least in part. Before the formation of Central Avenue, formerly called Railroad Street, a building stood on Main Street at what would become the street entrance. The first structure we can date there is from 1841 which is the earliest I can find a business under the auspice of J.C. Pomeroy & Co., dealing in dry goods as the “Cortland Exchange” in the “new white building one door north of Wm. Elder.” James C. Pomeroy had previously been in business with William Elder in the building next door, at the location of modern-dayRead More →

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In the last installment of “Slumbering Souls,” we learned about Dr. Lester Pratt and how he retired to Homer to live with his daughter Emma and her husband Augustus for the remainder of his life. It’s time to look at Emma and Augustus to learn more about their lives. Augustus H. Bennett was born at his father’s farm in Homer on April 14, 1840. His parents were Lorenzo Bennett and Almira Stone, and he was one of four children in their family. Lorenzo’s father was Deacon Asa Bennett who came to Homer with his brother, Reverend Alfred Bennett, from Mansfield, Connecticut. Their father, Asa Bennett,Read More →

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  This week’s Main Street Monday is a triple hitter with the First National Bank building, Fireman’s Hall, and the County Clerk’s Office building. We must first review a bit of information from two Main Street Monday posts ago when I covered the history of the Calvert Block (30-34 Main Street); the portion of Main Street that now contains 36 and 38 was once part of the Josiah Hart estate, and in 1865 he gave a portion of the land over to the village, allocated for the building of a fire engine house at 38 Main Street. At the same time, a part was givenRead More →

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Central Avenue, c.1915, with the Burgess painted advertisement. We finally approach Central Avenue in our historical journey down Main Street! This time we are taking a look at 31-33 Main Street which has over the years been referred to as the Union Hall block, the Collins block, and the Burgess block. But its beginnings are believed to stretch back to about 1815 when Obadiah Boies presumably built his dwelling in that location. We are lucky enough this time to be able to include a story from when his house was being erected that includes a bit of drama: Nathan Luce and his crew were conductingRead More →

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The first known building on the spot that is now 9 Main Street was a wooden structure that shows up in the same photo depicting the corner of Main and Clinton that has been featured in past posts. The earliest I can trace the businesses back is to a gentleman named James Van Valen, who came to Cortland from Madison County and kept a “cash and barter” store in 1845. An ad from 1849 shows it came under the ownership of Daniel Schermerhorn who advertised his takeover of Van Valen’s “old stand” with a new  stock of dry goods, groceries, and hardware. In the 1860sRead More →