Upstate NY in (mostly) Vintage Aerial Views

The Empire State - Franny Wentzel - Friday, March 25th, 2011 : goo

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As we board our sleeper zeppelin to muncie...

...it occured to us that some of you New York noisers have little to no idea of what the rest of the Empire State looks like. So let's take a phototour of some of the cities and towns upstate - or at least the ones I have pictures of...

Our first stop is Niagara Falls, NY. Since the Canadian side has the view, New York's city was pretty much obliged to work for a living with industry making use of the available waterpower.

A modest downtown was developed to serve the tourist trade...

In the late 1960s the Horseshoe Falls were turned off to investigate to practicality of removing all those damned barrels - turned out they were slowing erosion so they turned the falls back on

In the 1970s virtually every downtown building was demolished for an ambitious urban renewal programme. Only the United Office Building and The Niagara hotel survive.

A civic arena, wintergarden and shopping mall (vacant for a decade) were built but the city is still struggling. Ironically the Seneca Niagara Casino seems to have retarded developement by raising adjacent property values so high that businesses can't afford to take advantage of its location.

An interesting sidenote is the wreck of 'the Niagara Scow' - which foundered on the rocks near the old Ontario generator station back in 1918

Like Niagara Falls, Buffalo, NY was a center of industry, milling steel and flour as well as being a major supplier of automotive sub-assemblies

The City was laid out with radial avenues many of which were closed off downtown during the urban renewal era

By the 1970s, downtown was a sea of parking lots

Even the harbour was largely made redundant by the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway

Though with the waterfront - and Lake Erie - cleaned up..

..it's been a boon for recreational boating

The Buffalo Central Terminal sat abandoned since 1979

Twenty years later it was bought from the city for a dollar with restoration efforts undertaken since. It is hoped the station will serve as the western terminus of a proposed high speed rail system for New York.

Dunkirk, NY - the only hordes of confused British majors it sees are from nearby SUNY Fredonia

Jamestown, NY, hometown of Lucille Ball and Natalie Merchant

Just for fun we sent camara guy Manfred down in the Spy basket to get a street level view

Olean, NY - only 16,000 people yet downtown still rates a (modest) skyscraper

No, really...

Industrious Rochester, NY was located where the Genesee River flows over the Niagara Escarpment as opposed to the nearby Lake Ontario shoreline.

Being a milling center, it was known as the 'Flour City'. When wheat farming moved to Ohio, nurseries were the big industry so the city moniker was transformed to the 'Flower City'

Such was the city's love of the river...

...that Main Street shops were simply built over it.

It wasn't till the 1930s that any civic buildings faced the riverfront - note platform for the Rochester Subway system bottom right. Yeah, that's right, Rochester had a subway.

A southward view down Main Street. Manfred loves that observation car...

1960s urban renewal programmes saw the removal of Rochester's 'Ponte Vecchio'...

...and the construction of buildings to take better advantage of the river views.

Xerox's contribution to the city skyline (gray tower to right) is the third tallest building in the state outside of New York City.

Rochester has survived the post-industrial era fairly well though major employer Kodak has been particularly hard hit by the switch from film to digital imaging..

Corning, NY is big on glass products and the Corning Glass Museum makes for a delightful and educational afternoon's spent

Elmira, NY is big on glass production as well

Also in the railroad - equipment - line. American LaFrance used to build fire engines here.

Mark Twain's wife grew up in the area and the two summered here often.

Auto racing has made Watkins Glen famous

Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling was so fond of his time in Ithaca, NY he named his production company after the lake (Cuyuga) it bordered.

Owego, NY was named 'The Coolest Small Town in the United States' by a 2009 travel magazine's poll.

Syracuse, NY was named 'best situated' city in the 1960s sitting astride as it did, two interstate highways.

Salt mining got this area its start on the road to prosperity

It's also a major college town

The Computing, Tabulating & Recording company had a major presence in the city of Endicott, NY - you know them today as IBM

Binghamton, NY was know as the 'Parlour City'. Cartoonist Johnny Hart - a native of the area - lent one of his creations for the logo of the Broome County Transit company

Urban renewal has enriched the cityscape though its tallest building - the State Office Building- was uninhabitable for over a dozen years on account of a PCB leak in 1981. Locals call it the 'Toxic Tower'

Little Sidney, NY put out a promotional brochure back in the 1980s...

...earning it a quick flyover

A friend of mine attended SUNY Oneonta back in the 1990s

Too cloudy for an aerial of Cobleskill, NY so we sent Manfred down for a shot of this lovely hotel. Funny how the sun came out soon after...

Utica, NY - we've covered elsewhere. So lets move northward to...

Watertown, NY - a busy street scene

By the 1980s not so busy...

Frank. Woolworth began his merchantile career in the building that once stood on this site

Replacement building - which used to house a Woolworth's - still stands

Frosty Lake Placid hosted two Winter Olympiads in the last century

Located in the Adironack mountains, Glens Falls, NY earned its living on lumbering and paper milling.

The town has branched out into medical devices and financial services as of late.

Even though the grand hotels have long since been demolished Saratoga Springs, NY is still a favourite of the horsey set

Troy, NY was known as the 'Collar City' and was a 19th century industrial powerhouse

Is largely know today as the home to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Emma Willard School

Packs quite an architectural punch for its size

Schenectady, NY was once known as the city that lights and hauls the world

And was a retailing center for the western end of the Capital District

With the decline of manufacturing the city has had to work hard to find other things to do

Old industrial areas have been transformed...

as has the downtown

While General Electric is no longer the employer it once was

Schenectady still lights a better part of the world

You probably could call Albany, NY a one-industry town...

...but when that industy is governance

you can be assured of an ever-expanding employment base

Though with so many tax-exempt buildings, it's a taxation hell for the property owners living in their shadows

This idylic view of Warwarsung, NY doesn't show the problems the town has with flooding caused by leaks upwelling from New York City's aquaduct system

The last city before you reach The City is Yonkers, NY - the Son of Sam plotted his reign of terror from an apartment here

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shawn.mx: Fantastic stuff. Thanks for sharing.

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