Little Falls Historical Society Museum Events
This day in history: March 11
1930
The Victor Adams Hose Company, No. 1 of Little Falls was the Champion Drill Squad of New York State.
This day in history: March 12
1831
The Ellice Estate sold the lot at the southwest corner of Albany and Mary streets to the Baptist Association for a new church.
1878
A cattle yard has been established by the railroad company near the Fifth Street crossing for the accommodation of loading and unloading sheep, swine, cows, etc.
1886
The bell of St. Mary’s church was badly cracked by the recent frost, which will necessitate its being recast. In consequence the sexton rings it but a little.
1897
A new game called “basket ball” was played in the Little Falls gymnasium.
1920
The Little Falls Chamber of Commerce and the Little Falls Auto Club are going to try the experiment of an auto show. The event is attracting considerable interest, and all of the space at the Y.M.C.A. has been taken for the autos and accessories.
1922
The first Post Office truck, an army surplus G.M.C., arrived in Little Falls today. The truck had no starter so the driver would back up a hill, and use gravity to start the truck when next used. An alternative was to never turn the truck off during business hours.
1926
Razing of the old New York Central repair shop west of the Ann Street crossing brought to an end in what is believed to have been the oldest building in the city. The structure was built about 1792 as a terminal on the initial canal for the Western Inland Navigation Company.
This day in history: March 13
1885
P.W. Casler & Co. announced that their new sawmill, planning mill, and dry kilns on the south side of the river are in operation, and the company is prepared to furnish building material of all kinds promptly and at the lowest prices. Saw dust is also for sale.
1920
Thinking that her ten year-old daughter had been insulted and threatened, Mrs. Tony Lavista shot Carmelo Thamberro in the chest with a 38 caliber revolver. District Attorney Ward is busy trying to see if there is not something under the surface.
1936
A 1928 Essex sedan could be bought at the P.E. Whitcomb Ford dealership for $25. A 1930 Willys roadster was $50.
1972
A letter from the Chairman of the Little Falls Citizens’ Advisory Committee to Mayor Wind suggests that the city discontinue funding the Little Falls Public Library.
This day in history: March 14
1794
To attract skilled craftsmen to settle in Little Falls, it was determined that an improved road was needed. On this date, Porteous received a letter from Albany informing him that the Senate, led by Southern members, had defeated a bill for road work at the little falls. They claimed the treasury was too low for such projects.
1833
By an act of the New York State legislature, commissioners were appointed and the Herkimer County National Bank was organized and located in the village of Little Falls. Commissioners included Nathaniel Benton, Dudley Burwell, Arphaxed Loomis, and David Petrie. It was opened in the Beattie House at the corner of Main and William streets on August 24th , and moved in December to the new bank building.
1876
At Taylor’s Jewelry Store, Ladies’ gold watches are on sale at $30 to $50, and Gents’ gold watches from $50 to $100. Also offered are gold chains, necklaces, lockets, wedding rings, and diamond rings. The advertisement screams, “the fact is, tjmes are hard and money scarce” – “we offer our entire stock at a great reduction in price.”
1945
WW II Era – LIFE magazine has decided to make Little Falls the locale for a feature on “A Small City at War.” Former resident Ann Marcus (Dorothy Ann Goldstone) and famed photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt plan to devote several pages to photos and narrative from this city. (The war ended before the article could be published.)
1963
Another famous Little Falls landmark is soon to vanish from the Main Street scene. The venerable clock provided by the Herkimer County Trust Company on the corner of the Burrell Building is being taken down today. The old clock was erected in 1918.
From the Cooney Archives
A Sun Shower Without End by Ray Lenarcic
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumWhile driving down Flint Avenue in my hometown of Little Falls the other day, I happened to look to my right and for no apparent reason, my mind flashed back to the 1950’s. I recalled in vivid detail searching for diamonds on a rocky hillside behind the Ave with my buddy Rog Kopp.
Patriots Day Honors Those Who Were Not Sunshine Patriots by Jeffrey Gressler
/by Little Falls Historical Society Museum“These are the times that try men’s souls.” So begins Thomas Paine’s December 23, 1776 epic treatise “The Sunshine Patriot,” written at perhaps the darkest point of the American Revolution, George Washington’s half-starving, dis-spirited troops were in their Valley Forge winter quarters.
Sometimes Distributing Vaccines Easier Said Than Done by Schuyler Van Horn
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumWith all the buzz about COVID-19 vaccines, it brought back memories of vaccines administered when I was in Vietnam in 1971-72. I was not a Medic but an intelligence officer stationed in a remote place named An Loc. Not far from the Cambodian border, 70 miles north of Saigon, straddling Route 13 (Thunder Road), I was one of 32 Americans in MACV advisor team 47, next to 2,000 ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam).
Hector Allen by David Krutz
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumTo anyone who walked the halls of Little Falls High School in the 1960’s, 70’s, 80’s and even into the 1990’s Hector Allen was a familiar and respected figure.
Hector taught “Social Studies” – New York State, United States and World History – at LFHS for 34 years.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumUsing a treasure trove at the Little Falls Historical Society Museum, Louie Baum toiled for months creating an over 200-page document to chronicle the historic past of Little Falls.
OLD BANK BUILDING REACHES A MILESTONE
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumPhoto submitted – National Herkimer County Bank and Presbyterian Church in the background – (Kinney Plaza) circa 1860. by Pat Frezza-Gressler, member of the Little Falls Historical Society Constructed of native stone in 1833 as the first bank in Herkimer County and placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1970, the Little Falls […]
HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND SUNY ONEONTA COLLABORATION
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumThis article is more about the future than the past. Although 2020 will be remembered for the succession of crises that changed our lives in many ways, for the members of the Little Falls Historical Society, a group of six students from SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown Graduate Program of Museum Studies and their professor, this year […]