| Learn lots more about Franklinville by
following these links !
Introduction
Early History
Death Records 1860-1894
Pioneers
Early Settlers
Joseph McClure
Pardon T Jewell
Marvin Older
Delos E Lyon
Curtis Brothers
Searl and Storrs
Doctors
William McNall
Park Square and Fairs
The Story
The Trial
The Wedding
Franklinville Fair
Bands
Postal History
Introduction
Post Office
Postmasters
Hotels and Inns
Globe Hotel
Hotel Lester
Bard Hotel
Brown Eagle Hotel
Businesses and Industry
Bartholomew's Pharmacy
West Park Square Drug Store
Quality Bakery
Cutlery Industry
Mercantile
Dairy Industry
Firehouse Liquors
Blount Plow
Churches and Buildings
Baptist
Other Churches
Presbyterian
Methodist Episcopal
Amusement Hall
The Miners Cabin
In the Public Trust
Newspapers
Chronicle-Journal
Fire Department
Mt Prospect Cemetery
Public Works
Return to
Cattaraugus page
Return to Franklinville page |
|
 Park Square The Fountain and the Wedding
In June of 1946 controversy settled over the park once again
after
the Village Board voted to tear down and replace the fountain. In
removing the fountain village workers had only to bump it to knock it
over. A cement block bandstand was then erected, but never really
completed. The board was charged with sponsoring the project without
having asked for a public vote on its construction. It was used for band
concerts until 1952 and then stood idle, serving only to block the view
across the park. On March 16, 1954 by a vote of 50 to 35 village voters
authorized the board to spend up to $1,000 to tear down the bandstand
and replace it with landscaping and a floral bed.
In 1955 the direction of vehicular traffic around the park was
reversed for a seemingly practical reason - to improve the flow of
traffic and make it a safer situation for both cars and pedestrians.
There arose such a cry of outrage over this turn of events that before
long it was put back the way it had always been ... and the way it
remains today.
In 1970 ten sixty nine year old trees, 4 maples and 6 elms were
sawed into 4' logs and hauled away from Park Square. Jim Pritchard was
the Mayor at the time.
Park Square was then reforested with five thirty foot maple trees.
To further improve the park the Jaycees donated gas lights for the park
at a cost of $800. They have since been removed.
Eventually the maples were removed and replaced by four spruce
trees, one at the outer edge of each quadrant of the park.
In 1972 a flag pole was placed in the park. In 1995 that was also
removed.
Two of the joys of life, music and food, blended together in Park
Square on the evening of August 6th, 1992 to provide a memorable
evening.
The Big Band Revival sound of Bob Lucia's professional musicians
floated over the audience gathered in and around Park Square to hear
then, proving you don't have to have a concert shell to put on a
concert.
Over on the west side of Morgan Hall, the town hall built in 1885,
the dedicated members of the Ischua Valley Historical Society served
home made pie and ice cream.
An extra touch was added by the mingling through the crowd of former
residents returning for the reunion of three classes of Ten Broeck
Academy and Franklinville Central School to be held two days later.
The event was blessed by one of the few truly summer like evenings
experienced that year. As the concert ended, people walked away
carrying, in addition to their lawn chairs, a memory of a truly pleasant
evening ... and for the older people in the crowd a touch of nostalgia
dedicated to the memory of the Saturday evening band concerts
Franklinville used to have in the first half of the Twentieth Century.
And, once, there was a wedding: On June 12, 1993 just before 11am,
passers-by noted cars arriving and parking around Park Square. Soon a
small group of people had gathered in the park, pictures were being
taken, and a nervous young man in a dark suit with a boutonniere was
seen pacing about, occasionally chatting with Mayor Ray Doty (who was
also an ordained minister). Meanwhile an antique hand cranked
gramophone was carried in and carefully set up. Suddenly, just after
the hour, a vehicle pulled up at the west sidewalk of the Park, and a
bride emerged and walked down through a corridor of friends who lined
the sidewalk as the gramophone played The Bridal March. Joining hands
with the groom, a young lady from Lockport, N. Y. became the wife of a
young man from Middleport, N. Y. As quickly as they had assembled, the
entire wedding party was gone, leaving behind the notes from the music
dancing among the sun and shadows of the lovely June morning ...... and
one could almost see the pioneer W. W. Waring smiling.
To read more of the Park Square story:
|