New Hartford Historical Society

This week's TBT photos are in Honor of "National Police Week" The following photographs depict various stages of New Hartford's Police "Departments" throughout the years. The Village of New Hartford had its own full-time department without interruption. The Town had a department, in one form or another, on and off for many years. When there was no Town force, the Sheriff's department or State Police provided coverage. In the early 1980's, the Town contracted with the Village ...for police protection. After early success with that arrangement, the Town and Village entered into a contract where the Town took over the Village department and a joint Police Commission was formed to oversee its operation. The first Photo is a 1953 picture of Village Police Chief LeGrande Linger picking up their Ford patrol car from Dahl Motors on Elizabeth Street in Utica. The second is Officer Douglas Bowman on a traffic detail with the department's "portable" traffic light. The third photo is from a 1974 newspaper article on the Village Police Chief Monroe Fox and his 20th year of community service. The forth picture is of the Town's force taken in the parking lot of the Presbyterian Church in the Village. It's of Chief Doug Bowman addressing "his men". If you look closely behind the men, you may recognize that small building. It was the Oneida National Bank's "drive-up" facility. Finally, there's a picture of the Town Police Officers assembled on the Village Green as they are being honored by the N.H. Chamber of Commerce. At the podium is then Chamber President Stephen V. Scanlon. The N.H. Historical Society wishes to thank the New Hartford Police Officers and all Police throughout our Nation for everything they do!

This week's Throwback Thursday looks at the storied History of the Partlow Corporation. The Partlow Corporation, founded in 1920 by Howard Webster Partlow, was a leading manufacturer of quality controls, controllers, and recorders dedicated to product quality. Partlow specialized in a range of temperature controllers. The company was sold to Chicago Pneumatic in 1973. Later, Chicago Pneumatic merged with its sister company, Jacobs Manufacturing. In 1986 the companies were acq...uired by the Danaher Corporation. The following year, Danaher sold off the Chicago Pneumatic portion and Partlow was then acquired by the West Corporation forming Partlow West in New Hartford. In December of 1999 it was announced that the New Hartford plant was closing its doors and moving its operations to facilities in the Carolinas. On a recent hiking excursion in St. Lawrence County, Society Treasurer Ray Philo stumbled upon the small town of Oswegatchie, just outside of Ogdensburg. Inside their Visitors Center was a Photograph and tribute to Howard Webster Partlow. Howard, born there in 1884, was an inventor who founded the Partlow Corporation in 1920. Interestingly noted in the short bio, Howard’s father Webster Partlow (1846-1934) was an Adirondack Guide.

Today's Throwback Thursday post highlights Lewie Smith's Service Station in Washington Mills. Lewis Smith is a WWII Veteran and former Director of the Historical Society. Having served his country courageously and his community faithfully, Lewie is affectionately referred to as the "Mayor" of Washington Mills.

Today's Throwback Thursday highlights the "era" of the Movie Theaters. Who remembers seeing a movie on the "big" screen at the Paris Cinema on Genesee Street? But I'm sure many of you probably never went to the movies at the New Hartford Theater as it once was called? Here it is as it appeared in 1948. Still a source of family entertainment and/or classic "date night", movie theaters certainly aren't what they once were. Cable TV and internet streaming services have taken away the glitz and glamour of the "Big Screen".

For This week’s Throwback Thursday, we will examine the Merritt Place area and how it developed over the years. Located in the Southern part of the Town of New Hartford, the Merritt Place area was part of Coxe’s Patent. Coxe’s Patent was a Royal land grant issued to William Coxe and several others in 1770. Much of this land grant was seized by the State of New York in 1778 when the owners stayed loyal to England during the Revolutionary War and fled to Canada. After the war m...uch of Coxe’s Patent, including the area of Merritt Place, was granted to George Washington and George Clinton in recognition of their service to the new United States. Washington and Clinton quickly sold off much of their land holdings in Upstate New York to settlers who were seeking inexpensive land, many Revolutionary War Veterans such as Jedediah Sanger, the founder of New Hartford. James Auld (1827-1901) took possession of what is now the Northern part of Merritt Place sometime in the 1850’s. A map of this area dated 1858 shows Auld as the owner (see Map). Auld developed much of the acreage into a prosperous dairy and vegetable farm. An apple orchard was planted in the area of what is now Evalon Road. Property records show that James Auld maintained ownership of this part of the Merritt Place area until 1900 when it was transferred to his son, Richard Auld (1864-1933). James Auld quickly sold the land to Crowell Acken, who in turn sold the acreage to his brother-in-law Floyd Merritt in 1902. For the next 20 years Floyd Merritt ran a successful farm operation on the property. Merritt’s house and barns were located on the old Seneca Turnpike approximately where the Veterans Memorial is today. In the 1920’s Merritt recognized the value of developing portions of his farm into residential building lots and started selling lots where homes were built. What is now Merritt Place was once a cow path and dirt road for the original farm. Merritt continued to selloff home building lots from his original farm into the 1950’s, including the Evalon Road area. This area was the last to be developed by Merritt, selling off building lots starting in 1947 and continuing into the 1950’s. Many of these new homes were built by World War ll veterans who were starting families and careers in the area. Floyd Merritt died in 1957 and by the time of his death most of his farm land had been sold off for housing development. His home remained at the northern end of Merritt Place until the early 1960’s when it was torn down for the Routes 5, 12, 12B and Genesee Street interchange.

Welcome to this week's "Throwback Thursday" Today we go back to John Komanecky's "Wy-Knot" Ice Cream and Drive-Ins. John began the business in 1946 on Campion Road beside the old DeVall Moving & Storage (where Cafe CaNole and All American Fitness is now). In May of 1950, a fire broke out in the attic of the restaurant causing significant damage. John was not deterred. In March of 1952, he would open at another location on Seneca Turnpike near the intersection of the "Truck Route" (Route 5A) now called Commercial Drive. Here John poses in front of his new location. He would run the business until the end of 1968 when the property was sold and the building was razed to make way for Shakey's Pizza.

This house in Chadwicks in the Town of New Hartford has gone above and beyond again this year! Located on Florence Court off of Kay Circle. Be sure to drive slow so you can see it all!

More Christmas lights from the village and the town! We will be posting more right up until Christmas day! If you have a good suggestion, please message us and we will get a pic of it! Thank you!

The New Hartford Fire Department and the Village Park is looking so festive! We will be posting more pics of homes and businesses in NH. Feel free to show off your decorated place for all to enjoy as well!

The N.H. Historical Society is Proud & Privledged to name our newest display in our museum at 2 Paris Road in Honor of WWII Veteran and Director Emeritus Lewie Smith. Dedicated Veteran's Day November 11th, 2020

Just to confirm what most already know or presume. Due to the current CDC guidelines and restrictions on mass gatherings, we will not be holding our annual fall banquet this year.

Since January 1, 2020 our website www.newhartfordhistory.com has had 831 Visitors. That includes 720 first time lookers. In all, 3,292 pages have been read. If you haven't been one of those visitors, you're missing out. Our webmaster Carl has been very busy during the shut down and new material is being added monthly. Please surf to our site and look around. And as always, we welcome any memorabilia , old photographs or artifacts!