On the Erie Canal trail: Lockport and Medina, New York

Lockport

Room with a view, houses overlooking the locks, Lockport, New York (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

Lockport is the county seat of Niagara County in northern New York. It is known for the fascinating locks which lift (or lower) boats and barges on the Erie Canal. According to Wikipedia,

The canal reached Lockport in 1824, but the Flight of Five Locks were not completed until 1825. By 1829, Lockport was an established village. The community was centered on the locks, and consisted mainly of immigrant Scottish and Irish canal workers brought in as labor. The workers remained in Lockport after the completion of the locks, giving the city a heavy Celtic influence still discernible today, especially in the Lowertown and North Lockport neighborhoods.

The city of Lockport was incorporated in 1865.

The Erie Canal was supplanted by the larger New York State Barge Canal in 1918, and the famous south "flight of five" locks was replaced by two much larger locks E34 and E35. The north "flight of five" lock chambers still remains as a spill way.

Lock 35, Lockport, NY, with full capacity

View from gate at Lock 35 looking down to Lock 34

The photograph above is complicated. In the foreground is one of the gates that keeps the water in the pool at Lock 35. Looking down, you see the lower lock then beyond, the Erie Canal.

1839 engraving of Lockport by William Henry Bartlett (1809 – 1854), from Wikipedia 

Erie Canal view upriver towards Locks 34 and 35 (left) and former locks (right)

The bike trail took us steeply downhill past the locks.

One of Lockport's most infamous former residents was Timothy McVeigh, the convicted terrorist responsible for Oklahoma City Bombing.

Medina

Example of Medina Sandstone used in architecture

Main Street, Medina, NY

The Village of Medina is a charming little place where we stayed at the end of our 1st day of biking the Erie Canal tour. The previous night in Buffalo was rather interrupted and unrestful, so Medina looked like it would be a peaceful stopover. The bike group set up tents at the Clifford H. Wise Middle School, which had very nice grounds.

The buildings along the Main Street Historic District consisted of brick or Medina Sandstone commercial structures in excellent repair. Look at the craftsmanship in the arches over the windows.

The side streets, such as Gwinn St. in the photographs above, were lined with early 20th century wood frame houses and cottages. This is small-town Americana at its best. Will our McMansion ghettos age as well as these neighborhoods after a hundred years?

The Medina Railroad Museum is on Gwinn Street. We arrived in town too late to enter the depot, but I read that it contains one of the largest model railroad layouts in the country. That would have been fun.

Dear Readers, this ends my short set of memories of my 2018 Cycle the Erie Canal tour. It was a lot of fun, the other cyclists were very nice, and I lost weight. Maybe try again in 2021? Will we have figured out the virus by then? We can only hope....

On the Erie Canal Trail: Canajoharie, New York

Canajoharie is a handsome little town south of the Mohawk River in Montgomery County, New York.  It was an important trading area for the Mohawk Peoples before the Revolutionary War. Because the Mohawk and Iroquois allied with the British, the natives were forced to leave after the war, and the State of New York sold land to speculators. According to Wikipedia, the town of Canajoharie suffered major fire three times. As a result, the town passed an ordnance prohibiting wood construction for homes. As a result, many of the handsome older homes in town are brick or locally-quarried stone.

This was Day 6 of the Erie Canal Bicycle Tour, and it had been a long 62 miles from Rome. And the last part of the day included a hill! But Canajoharie was really interesting, and the architecture was classic small-town Americana and photogenic. As usual, the residents were cheerful and welcoming.

Junction of Church, Mohawk, and Montgomery Streets

Elegant stone building, Church and East Main Streets

Mohawk and Church Streets

Brick boarding house(?) or apartments at the junction of Mill and Rock Streets

Church Street historic buildings

I was pleased that most of the handsome 1800s buildings were clean and appeared to be occupied or in use commercially. Nice job.

Handsome cast-iron store front, 47 Church Street, Canajoharie

Millions of storefronts throughout the United States used cast iron as both structural and ornamental elements in their construction in the late-1800s. As documented by the National Park Service,

In the second half of the 19th century, the United States was in an era of tremendous economic and territorial growth. The use of iron in commercial and public buildings spread rapidly, and hundreds of iron-fronted buildings were erected in cities across the country from 1849 to beyond the turn of the century. Outstanding examples of iron-fronts exist in Baltimore, Galveston, Louisville, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Richmond, Rochester (N.Y.), and especially New York City where the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District alone has 139 iron-fronted buildings. Regrettably, a large proportion of iron-fronts nationwide have been demolished in downtown redevelopment projects, especially since World War II.

Ah, yes, "redevelopment," which in USA often means let the developers pillage and raze older structures so that they and corrupt politicians can make a quick profit, regardless of the damage to social and architectural structures in the community. Quick, tell me how much mall architecture will be valued in the 2100s, let alone in decade. Quick, how many strip malls are worth anything architecturally?

Fortunately there is growing appreciation for cast iron construction and its decorative elements. The National Park Service Technical Brief 11 covers some of the issues in rehabilitation.

A final historical note: this little town played a role in the Revolutionary War. You are always surrounded by history in New York, which added so much to the Erie Canal Tour.

These photographs are from a Moto G5 mobile camera. I used Photoshop Elements 11 to correct converging vertical lines for some of the frames.

Comfort Food and Ambience at the Franklin Hotel, Rome, New York

For the last 22 years, Parks & Trails of New York (PTNY) has sponsored and organized an annual Cycle the Erie Canal Bike Tour. This is an amazing ride that covers over 400 miles in 8 days. Bicyclists ride along the historic Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany, camping out along the way and eating at tremendous buffet dinners and breakfasts. The camp sites are at high schools, municipal parks, and, once, at a Jewish Community Center. Riders who do not want to camp can book bed and breakfast inns along the way or stay in indoor gymnasiums.

Unfortunately, the Trump Virus forced the cancellation of the 2020 ride. Instead, PTNY ran a virtual tour with photographs and video from previous years. I hope I can participate again in 2021.

My long-term hiking friend from Albany (see Kilimanjaro) and I biked the Erie Canal tour in 2018. We had excellent weather, although a few days were hot. The tour included over 700 riders from all over the world. One couple from Australia had biked to northern New York from Australia (tough people!).

On Day 5, we cycled from Syracuse to Rome, a distance of about 50 miles. We camped at Fort Stanwix National Monument, a restored fort that played a role in the American Revolution. For dinner, we were on our own, meaning eat in town.

Rome immediately caught my eye. It was a bit tired looking and still had some historic architecture. Some of the other riders recommended that we eat at the Franklin Hotel, at 301 South James Street. The steaks were supposed to be special. Well, after biking 50 miles, a mountain of protein sounded like just the treat. We "deserved" it. (Note: deserved is dangerous vocabulary in Middle America. It is used as justification to purchase any number of material possessions or excess housing, regardless of the real need of said items.)

The steak was excellent, the sides were fresh, and we all feasted as if we deserved it. Most of the customers that evening appeared to be from the bicycle crowd, but the Franklin certainly did not feed 700 people.

Ah, interesting old stairs with sturdy original banisters. But wooden stairs in a hotel? The Franklin's web page describes the food service but does not say anything about rooms, so the upstairs may be closed now.

The upstairs halls were clean but, I think, no longer used.

Rome is an old-line industrial town. Tracks once ran through this warehouse and industrial district. I wish we had been able to explore more, but we were tired and had to sleep in preparation for the next morning's early awakening and vigorous peddling. The Erie Canal Ride passed through some interesting towns, but we did not have enough time to explore. A car trip along this route would be a rewarding alternative some day.

The images are from a Moto G5 mobile phone.