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200
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Title
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Gratwick Family: Cumming Photo Collection (c. 1905)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Boathouse Gang" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/139.jpg" /> <span class="cover-caption">The "Boat House Gang," probably photographed at the Gratwick slip. Colorized by Dennis Reed Jr.</span> In 2018, I was asked by a local woman and family friend if I could help her scan some c. 1905 glass negatives she inherited from her grandfather <strong>William Herbert Cumming</strong>, an amateur photographer who marries <strong>Treassa E. King</strong> January 31, 1905. The amazing and intimate images we found on the long-unseen negatives mostly depict life in the Gratwick section of North Tonawanda, centered around the family home at 130 Fredericka Street. The photos feature New Year's Eve dinners, friends playing croquet, neighborhood kids asked to hold still for the six seconds most exposures took, and Albert posing with his gun and dog.
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VIDEO: The Cumming Family of Gratwick (Featuring photos c. 1905).vid
Description
An account of the resource
A family's old (c1905) box of glass negatives reveals fascinating views into the early days of the Gratwick community. Watch for the chicken! Narrated by the photographer's granddaughter, Linda Cumming Nadbrzuch. Produced by Dennis Reed Jr for NThistory.com.<br /><br /><iframe width="900" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UyhLDTqtg0A?rel=0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1905
gratwick
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/9859d9c896cb6e453e1c03c306302215.jpg
84fe1372da2c108db891a5f4e8139337
Video
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VIDEO: Downtown Tonawanda Before--and During--Urban Renewal (1967 + 1973).vid
Description
An account of the resource
Two sets of photographs depicting the businesses that lined the south sides of Young and Niagara streets in Tonawanda, New York, before their demolition by urban renewal. Produced by Dennis Reed Jr for NThistory.com.<br /><br /><iframe width="900" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/exsOCz2oCcg?rel=0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1967
tonawanda
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Title
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Buffalo Norsemen Hockey Club (1975-1976)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="A team photo of the Buffalo Norsemen in their only season, 1975-1976." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/9c.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">The Buffalo Norsemen team photo at Tonawanda Sports Center. <em>Front row, L-R:</em> Mario Viens, Paul Crowley, Willie Marshall (GM), Larry Gould (C), Guy Trottier (player-coach), Bill Steele (A), Jim Mackey. <em>Back row, L-R:</em> Gary Stevens (trainer), Derek Harker, Wayne Morin, Shane McConvey, Reg Lahey, Dave Peace, Greg Neeld, Charlie Labelle, Claude Noel (A), Jim Stanfield, Keke Mortson, Denis Anderson, (unknown), Dave Given. Photo from late in the season, after Feb. 7, 1976.</span> This NAHL semi-pro hockey team plays a single season (1975-1976) at the <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/116">Tonawanda Sports Center</a> on Ridge Road in North Tonawanda. Today, the facility is used at the North Tonawanda bus garage and NT Inter-Church Food Pantry.<br /><br />
<div style="margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><img src="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Norsemen-mascot-Hagar-small-1.png" style="width: 150px;" /></div>
<div style="font-size: 0.8rem; font-weight: 800; width: 100%; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.14em; color: #244b2e; display: block; text-align: center; margin: 2.6rem 0 3rem 0; padding: 1.1rem 0 0.9rem 0; border-top: 5px solid #244b2e; border-bottom: 2px solid #a4b89f; background: #f2f5f1; margin-top: 0px;">THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BUFFALO NORSEMEN</div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/buffalo-norsemen-part-1/">Part 1: Tonawanda Sports Center</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/buffalo-norsemen-2-training-camp/">Part 2: Countdown to Training Camp</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/buffalo-norsemen-3-norsemen-v-sabres/">Part 3: Hockey Night in Tonawanda: Norsemen v. Sabres Rookies</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/norsemen-4-characters/">Part 4: Inside the Norsemen Locker Room: The Cast of Characters</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/buffalo-vs-everyone-the-norsemens-winter-of-discontent/">Part 5: Buffalo vs. Everyone</a></li>
</ul>
<div style="border-bottom: 2px solid #a4b89f; background: #f2f5f1; margin-top: 0px;"></div>
Video
A moving picture.
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Title
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Buffalo Norsemen vs. Buffalo Sabres exhibition game, stills from video, rosters (1975-09-26).
Description
An account of the resource
From <a href="https://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/items/show/83451">University at Buffalo</a>: "<span>Color, silent film showing a portion of an exhibition hockey game between the National Hockey League (NHL) Buffalo Sabres and the North American Hockey League (NAHL) Buffalo Norsemen most likely played on September 26, 1975 at the Tonawanda (NY) Sports Center."</span>
<h3>Sabres Rookies & Norsemen Rosters (as appeared in Tonawanda News that day)</h3>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Sabres Rookies</th>
<th colspan="2">Norsemen</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>No.</th>
<th>Name / Position</th>
<th>No.</th>
<th>Name / Position</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>28</td>
<td>Bob Sauve (G)</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>Peter Crosbie (G)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>30</td>
<td>Ken MacKenzie (G)</td>
<td>30</td>
<td>Dave Miller (G)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>31</td>
<td>Don Edwards (G)</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>Wayne Morin (D)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>—</td>
<td>Paul McIntosh (D)</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>Shane McConvey (D)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>Jean Landry (D)</td>
<td>—</td>
<td>Scott Mabley (D)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>Grant Rowe (D)</td>
<td>18</td>
<td>Kevin Walker (D)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>K. Breitenbach (D)</td>
<td>19</td>
<td>Joe Greentree (D)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>22</td>
<td>Bob Young (D)</td>
<td>20</td>
<td>Murray Markie (D)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>23</td>
<td>Steve Warr (D)</td>
<td>17</td>
<td>Dave Coons (C)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7</td>
<td>Derek Smith (C)</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>Charlie Labelle (C)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10</td>
<td>Jack Surbey (C)</td>
<td>7</td>
<td>Jim Tunney (C)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20</td>
<td>Neil Korzcak (C)</td>
<td>15</td>
<td>Claude Noel (C)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>8</td>
<td>Terry Martin (LW)</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>Larry Gould (LW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9</td>
<td>Andre Deschamps (LW)</td>
<td>9</td>
<td>R. Montgomery (LW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15</td>
<td>Michel Deziel (LW)</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>Jim Vanni (LW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16</td>
<td>Jim Minor (LW)</td>
<td>6</td>
<td>Reg Lahey (RW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>—</td>
<td><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zka4_DGBlXk">Morris Titanic (RW)</a></td>
<td>10</td>
<td>T. Ampleford (RW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17</td>
<td>Gary McAdam (RW)</td>
<td>11</td>
<td>S. Atkinson (RW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>—</td>
<td>Yvon Dupuis (RW)</td>
<td>14</td>
<td>F. Hunt Jr. (RW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>18</td>
<td>Bob Smulders (RW)</td>
<td>16</td>
<td>Mike Klym (RW)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1975-09-26
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
https://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/items/show/83451
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ac0d2f4ab10853aea0d7b1f3879e818b.jpg
0c91920f194a3ab1e77ed3590e0859d2
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Title
A name given to the resource
Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<em>Wurlitzer: 100 Years of Musical Achievement</em>. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Chicago, Illinois. 1956.
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/52.jpg" alt="The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters." /> <span class="cover-caption">The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940.</span> <span style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.7em;">Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and Martinsville for over 100 years. The sprawling industrial campus left behind by the world-famous Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company produced merry-go-round organs, band organs, church organs, theater organs and jukeboxes that have left an indelible mark on the world, and on generations of North Tonawandans. </span><br /><br />Wurlitzer founder Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) was a German immigrant who (after stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia) landed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854 at the age of 23. He worked for a bank, and down the street was a musical retail store. His father, Christian, was a successful music retailer in Germany, and Rudolph's experience told him the Ohio store's instruments were of poor quality, and priced too high. In 1856 he begins importing quality musical instruments from his family in Germany to sell at a profit in American retail stores. The business grows; Wurlitzer begins making instruments themselves for the U. S. military and for retail. The company branches out into "automatic" musical instruments, such as music boxes and player-pianos. Rudolph's three sons, Howard, Rudolph H., and Farny become involved along the way, and take on aspects of the growing family business.<br /><br />The youngest son, Farny, is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. (de Kleist was building player pianos and band organs for Wurlitzer and others since 1893). Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ, which provides sound for the silent films of the day, and entertainment in its own right. This business evaporates when sound comes to movies, and electrical sound amplification permits musical entertainment to be furnished to venues of all types much less expensively. <br /><br />When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations.
Video
A moving picture.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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VIDEO: Wurlitzer Music Roll Department Exhibit - Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum.mov
Description
An account of the resource
<iframe width="900" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bjj66yc_Rto?rel=0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/59a6469aa45cbe4cd00a98132857e4c1.jpg
f50fcd8afc808b75667d9353aad2319a
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Title
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Boathouse Park, Weatherbest Slip
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Boathouse Park" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/124.jpg" /> <span class="cover-caption">PHOTO: Dennis Reed Jr.</span> Around the junction of Tonawanda Creek and the "Little River" three small slips cut into the land. The slips were dug in the 1870s to accommodate Great Lakes and other vessels necessary to North Tonawanda's world-class lumber industry (<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2668">Buffalo <i>News</i></a>, 2006). Great piles of lumber towered around them.<br /><br />That lumber industry, as residents know, eventually moves elsewhere. By the 1950s* dozens of private boathouses occupy the area. The city owns the property; the boaters own the structures, pay taxes on them, and lease the land annually.<br /><br />In 1965 the city of North Tonawanda sells the land to the boathouse owners at their request, only to have the sale almost immediately deemed illegal by Mayor Durkee, and nullified. Still, the annual lease continues.<br /><br />In the 1970s the boathouse residents' status becomes contentious when the county health department threatens to fine the city steeply for the <em>effluvium</em> the boathouse residents are releasing into the Little River. The city threatens to evict tenants, to stop renewing leases, and—at the nadir of the clash—to turn off water service to the area. After all, the city argues, the lease does not permit use of the boathouses as living quarters. The park residents' right to enjoy the waterfront property at the exclusion of all other city residents is also called into question.<br /><br />One mayor wants to evict the tenants and turn the area into a carousel park. In the 1980s developer Wilbur Holler wants to turn the area into townhouses. None of these plans is successful. In 2008 a row of boathouses is demolished, as they are built over a city sewer. But in 2021 the community appears to be all but intractable.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: 0.8em;">*It is unclear how long the structures have been there; </span><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2688" style="font-size: 0.8em;">a similar slip at Gratwick</a><span style="font-size: 0.8em;"> (since demolished for the wastewater plant) appears to have had boathouses since at least 1905.</span>
Video
A moving picture.
Dublin Core
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Title
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VIDEO: Sights and sounds of Wardell Boat Yard, North Tonawanda, March 2017.vid
Description
An account of the resource
<iframe width="900" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_8pnFJnSET0?rel=0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/c45f2095106439fffafa8b1833aae5b4.jpg
e16c04d41511f067a0a5b80600986b25
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> <span class="cover-caption">The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas.</span> The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music.<br /><br />
<div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" />
<div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div>
</div>
Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience.<br /><br />Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929.<br /><br />Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year:
<blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. <br /><br />Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote>
Video
A moving picture.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
VIDEO: A video tour of an Artizan "Style D" Band Organ.mov
Description
An account of the resource
<iframe width="900" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yDDYUJhCDf0?rel=0" frameborder="0"></iframe> This working organ at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum of North Tonawanda, N.Y. is the largest of the Artizan line of military band organs. This video tour shows the mechanics of the back, the painted facade of the front as five songs play on the organ, as well as views of the Artizan Factories, Inc. grounds in 1926 and 2017. Built in 1925, the organ was first installed in a roller skating rink in Ohio and last used at the State Fair of Texas. It uses a compressed air system to operate its 203 organ pipes, two drums, orchestra bells, and cymbal.
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2017
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e4bc6e5cda4f810e8922ab8032031e1b.jpg
90bd8fa4d8499a76381684c262ec4d1c
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Title
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Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company
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<em>Wurlitzer: 100 Years of Musical Achievement</em>. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Chicago, Illinois. 1956.
Description
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<img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/52.jpg" alt="The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters." /> <span class="cover-caption">The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940.</span> <span style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.7em;">Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and Martinsville for over 100 years. The sprawling industrial campus left behind by the world-famous Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company produced merry-go-round organs, band organs, church organs, theater organs and jukeboxes that have left an indelible mark on the world, and on generations of North Tonawandans. </span><br /><br />Wurlitzer founder Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) was a German immigrant who (after stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia) landed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854 at the age of 23. He worked for a bank, and down the street was a musical retail store. His father, Christian, was a successful music retailer in Germany, and Rudolph's experience told him the Ohio store's instruments were of poor quality, and priced too high. In 1856 he begins importing quality musical instruments from his family in Germany to sell at a profit in American retail stores. The business grows; Wurlitzer begins making instruments themselves for the U. S. military and for retail. The company branches out into "automatic" musical instruments, such as music boxes and player-pianos. Rudolph's three sons, Howard, Rudolph H., and Farny become involved along the way, and take on aspects of the growing family business.<br /><br />The youngest son, Farny, is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. (de Kleist was building player pianos and band organs for Wurlitzer and others since 1893). Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ, which provides sound for the silent films of the day, and entertainment in its own right. This business evaporates when sound comes to movies, and electrical sound amplification permits musical entertainment to be furnished to venues of all types much less expensively. <br /><br />When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations.
Video
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VIDEO: Paper Slitter Demonstration - Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum.mov
Description
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<iframe width="900" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nQ3wCo83DOg?rel=0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Date
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2017
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/a5d1d19bffcfdf23ebc50624c4f3499b.jpg
61d326a8f5d96a75419b07e7db39077e
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Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> <span class="cover-caption">The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas.</span> The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music.<br /><br />
<div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" />
<div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div>
</div>
Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience.<br /><br />Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929.<br /><br />Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year:
<blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. <br /><br />Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote>
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VIDEO: A Factory Tour, Former Artizan Factories Inc. (2017).mov
Description
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<iframe width="900" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7CKa8tnciTU?rel=0" frameborder="0"></iframe> I take a walk around the interior of the North Tonawanda, New York factory built by the 1922-1930 band organ and office furniture makers.
Date
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2017-05-15
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/d9a977548d0b581ae4b4962e389ac3f3.jpg
ee9e0176900c1cbfcfd3e3b53c8968da
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Pine Woods Park
Description
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<img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/86.jpg" alt="Postcard, c. 1920" /> <span class="cover-caption">"Sweeney Park Entrance." Postcard, c. 1920</span> The largest park in North Tonawanda is also the oldest. Originally named "Sweeney Park," it is comprised of 33 acres of picnic space and virtually untouched forest in the heart of the city. <br /><br /> In 1912, wild areas of North Tonawanda are disappearing fast as land is converted to residential or industrial use. Citizens realize if they don’t put aside land for a public park of some scale, it may soon be too late. <br /><br /> Sweeney Park, although privately owned, is already being used by the public for picnics and gatherings, and so seems a natural choice. But other sites are under consideration. <br /><br /> One is Payne Hill, bounded by Payne, Wheatfield, and the railroad. It has been a popular sledding site since time immemorial, but its owners are rumored to be planning to sell lots privately. Another often-suggested site is along Tonawanda Creek. Skeptics point out that the canal's importance to commerce and industry makes the environs unsuitable for a park. <br /><br /> In 1915, rumors swirl that a certain unnamed “syndicate” has plans to carve Sweeney Park up into residential lots. The Tonawanda News warns that if the city does not act fast, “Sweeney Park as a breathing spot would soon be a thing of the past.” Finally a plan is put forward to preserve the park for its citizens: the taxpayers will have to subscribe to $85,000 in bonds, to be repaid over seventeen years. A special vote will be held at the City Market on Robinson on July 26, 1917. <br /><br /> The Tonawanda News predicts a landslide 4-1 victory for the park plan. The proposed park's location in the center of the city, away from more established neighborhoods, does not seem to be a problem for voters. Gratwick merchant J. C. Kinzly states, "The people of Gratwick have never stood in the way of the progress of the City of North Tonawanda simply because that improvement was not to take place in Gratwick." Martinsville is on board. The Women's Civic Club enjoins Brontëesquely—and presciently:
<blockquote>From lumber men and college students come the same expression, that it would be a crime to allow those trees to be cut down in order to make room for buildings. The call of the wild in each of us makes any reasonable price seem small which is necessary for the preservation of this tract of woodland.</blockquote>
The plan passes the special vote by a 2-1 margin, and thus is secured our "breathing spot," and our inalienable access to Frisbee golf.<br /><br /> The Women’s Civic Club changes the name to ‘Pine Woods Park’ in October 1939. <br /><br />See <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2172">Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources of City of North Tonawanda pp 23-27</a> for more.
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VIDEO: Our Breathing Spot: Pine Woods Park (2017).vid
Description
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<iframe width="900" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jikqvIqFXY8?rel=0" frameborder="0"></iframe>