The 1858 change in
the route of the Erie Canal through Port Byron has always been of
particular interest to me, and I have written about it in past
columns. In brief, when the State was enlarging the canal from four
feet deep and forty feet wide, to one that was seven feet deep and
seventy feet wide, the engineers took advantage of the rebuilding to
correct some mistakes that were made in the construction of the first
canal. One of these corrections was to straighten out the many twists
and turns that hampered the movement of boats and water in the canal
channel. However, to protect the many businesses, stores, warehouses,
and docks that had been built along the canal banks in the villages
and cities, the State said that the canal was not to be rerouted in
these heavily populated areas. So the State said, straighten all you
want, just leave the villages and cities alone. For the most part,
this law held true. But there are always exceptions and as it turns
out, one of those exceptions was in Port Byron.
Port Byron sat on a
small loop which added about a third of a mile to the overall length
of the 350 mile long canal. The original route of the canal though
the village paralleled Utica and Rochester Streets, and the enlarged
canal would have continue to use this route. But as some pointed
out, by drawing a straight line between was is today Schasel Park and
the Old Erie Canal Park, the canal could be shortened by one third of
a mile. Of course this alignment would by-pass the village center,
greatly harming all those businesses along the canal banks. And it
would plow through some great farm lands along the flats. So for
years the two sides went back and forth, and meanwhile the State
simply enlarged the canal to the east and west. Most of the written
histories of the village reflect the great argument between those who
wished to leave things alone and those who thought this was a grand
idea. I have long kicked around the idea that perhaps some land
speculators saw this shift to new and open land as a opportunity to
sell lots along the new canal.
A map found in the
files of the Lock 52 Historical Society seems to back up my notion.
This undated map shows the section of the village between Church,
Main, and Green Streets, and the Outlet, basically where the Town
Park and ball fields are located today. What is now Sponable Street
is named Beach St, named for John Beach, the businessman who built
the large grain mill and purchased much of the village acreage from
the Buck family. Main Street is shown as State Street, reflecting the
State Street in Auburn. Neatly defined lots line the canal and a new
street called Center Street divided the land between the canal and
Green Street. It was a bold plan that would have reshaped how the
village grew.
As it turns out, the
people who wanted the new and shorter route won the day, and the
canal was removed from the village center by 1858. And as it turns
out, the winners were also losers as by the time all this was
settled, the canal era had passed by. While the two sides fought out
this minor reroute, the railroads had constructed a direct line
between Syracuse and Rochester. Passengers opted for the faster
travel of the trains. Instead of having a packet boat landing in the
village, stages could run between the hotel and the passenger station
on the New York Central. The large grain mill, once the pride of the
state, burned or was burned, in 1857 as it had lost its connection to
the canal. Certainly the canal still had a lot of life left in it,
and it would continue to flow through the village for another fifty
plus years, but the hoped land boom along the new route never
materialized.
