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damontIn this second part of my series about Thousand Island Park, I turn my attention from the Guzzle to the rest of the center of town.
The southeast corner of the intersection of St. Lawrence Avenue and Rainbow Street is currently the ball field, used on summer weekday mornings for kids softball and/or soccer, and on occasional weekends for a "adults can play too" game. I once took a picture of it many years ago, but don't have a digital image of that, and didn't snap it this trip. But I can point to a picture of what USED to be there, from the 1890s until 1912: The Columbian Hotel. This picture is from a vintage postcard, courtesy of CardCow.
The Columbian was destroyed by fire in 1912 and was never replaced. The bulk of "hotels" in T. I. Park after that were smaller affairs or even collections of cottages. The Columbian Hotel fire also destroyed the building across Rainbow Street, where I gather the Guzzle's predecessor ice cream parlor and social center had been; but that building WAS replaced, by the building discussed in the previous post that stood from 1914 or 1915 until 2014.
Catty-corner across from the Columbian, on the northwest corner of St. Lawrence and Rainbow, was a newer hotel, built in 1903. Due to impressive efforts on the part of the folks on the scene, that hotel was spared from the fire and still remains standing today: the Wellesley Hotel.
My apologies for the bad view, as the sky conditions at the time led to the hotel being backlit in a very bad way.
Some local group used to hold a flower show at the Wellesley when I was a child. My grandmother, a well respected flower arrangement judge nationwide, was always recruited to judge the flower show, which was useful in finding the family good cottages to rent. I also remember the Wellesley for arts and crafts classes, often in the hotel basement. But it wasn't an active *hotel* when I was growing up: they didn't rent the rooms, had no restaurant, and barely used the kitchen at all. Once I was off to college they did some renovations, converted many rooms into boutique shops, started renting out a small handful of the remaining rooms, and eventually got a restaurant reopened.
The southwest corner of St. Lawrence and Rainbow is the playground. There had been many additions to the playground equipment since my last visit, but I was glad to note that the old equipment was still there.
The above pic shows the slide and swings, which have been there my entire life, but because of the crap lighting, they are best visible if you view the picture at full size.
I will say that the new playground stuff looks pretty nice.
The biggest new piece of playground equipment is only partially obscured by the swing sets in the above shot.
The old-school Spinny Thing Of Doom is still there, nestled amongst some of the newer additions.
As one heads down towards the river, right next to the playground on St. Lawrence Avenue is the library. As a young child I would go in the mornings for story hour or kids reading programs; when I was older I'd go to the library in the afternoons instead.
The library is one of the very few buildings in town with a basement (the Wellesley Hotel being another) and the downstairs room was sometimes used to show children's films.
Continuing down towards the water, next to the library is the one public structure for which I was present during its construction and at its dedication.
Please do not attempt to harm the Gazebo.
Things at, near, in, or across the water will be covered in part 3.
The southeast corner of the intersection of St. Lawrence Avenue and Rainbow Street is currently the ball field, used on summer weekday mornings for kids softball and/or soccer, and on occasional weekends for a "adults can play too" game. I once took a picture of it many years ago, but don't have a digital image of that, and didn't snap it this trip. But I can point to a picture of what USED to be there, from the 1890s until 1912: The Columbian Hotel. This picture is from a vintage postcard, courtesy of CardCow.
The Columbian was destroyed by fire in 1912 and was never replaced. The bulk of "hotels" in T. I. Park after that were smaller affairs or even collections of cottages. The Columbian Hotel fire also destroyed the building across Rainbow Street, where I gather the Guzzle's predecessor ice cream parlor and social center had been; but that building WAS replaced, by the building discussed in the previous post that stood from 1914 or 1915 until 2014.
Catty-corner across from the Columbian, on the northwest corner of St. Lawrence and Rainbow, was a newer hotel, built in 1903. Due to impressive efforts on the part of the folks on the scene, that hotel was spared from the fire and still remains standing today: the Wellesley Hotel.
My apologies for the bad view, as the sky conditions at the time led to the hotel being backlit in a very bad way.
Some local group used to hold a flower show at the Wellesley when I was a child. My grandmother, a well respected flower arrangement judge nationwide, was always recruited to judge the flower show, which was useful in finding the family good cottages to rent. I also remember the Wellesley for arts and crafts classes, often in the hotel basement. But it wasn't an active *hotel* when I was growing up: they didn't rent the rooms, had no restaurant, and barely used the kitchen at all. Once I was off to college they did some renovations, converted many rooms into boutique shops, started renting out a small handful of the remaining rooms, and eventually got a restaurant reopened.
The southwest corner of St. Lawrence and Rainbow is the playground. There had been many additions to the playground equipment since my last visit, but I was glad to note that the old equipment was still there.
The above pic shows the slide and swings, which have been there my entire life, but because of the crap lighting, they are best visible if you view the picture at full size.
I will say that the new playground stuff looks pretty nice.
The biggest new piece of playground equipment is only partially obscured by the swing sets in the above shot.
The old-school Spinny Thing Of Doom is still there, nestled amongst some of the newer additions.
As one heads down towards the river, right next to the playground on St. Lawrence Avenue is the library. As a young child I would go in the mornings for story hour or kids reading programs; when I was older I'd go to the library in the afternoons instead.
The library is one of the very few buildings in town with a basement (the Wellesley Hotel being another) and the downstairs room was sometimes used to show children's films.
Continuing down towards the water, next to the library is the one public structure for which I was present during its construction and at its dedication.
Please do not attempt to harm the Gazebo.
Things at, near, in, or across the water will be covered in part 3.
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Date: 2019-07-17 05:03 am (UTC)