Phoenix NY, population under 3000, ranks third in population among the seven places in the US bearing that name.  Alexander Phoenix had a grist mill built in the town as early as 1829. 

The undated photo above is identified as Phoenix NY, although I can’t identify the location.  Parts of the photo are enlarged in the next two images, showing bridge,  horse/carriage, telephone (?) poles, house, and a woman and a man standing beside a deep well lift pump (?).

Might that bridge be over the 1828 Oswego Canal?

Fast forward to September 1916, the year of the fire that destroyed much of the center of Phoenix, after starting at the Sinclair Chair Factory.

The photo below is looking east, Oswego is to the left.

This photo looks north.  What’s now called Island Lock Park is to the left.

I believe this is looking south.  Would Doyles Dredging have been involved in clean up after the fire?

The photo below showing Richard J Barnes in 1936, heading north toward Oswego through a rebuilt town of Phoenix.

Possible errors here in my assumptions, so please correct the record if I’m in error.

Let me end this saying that before I learned about the Alexander Phoenix 1820s story, I thought the town carried the name “phoenix” because it was rebuilt after the fire.  Oh well, it’s good to discover errors.

Intrigued enough by Canal Society of New York photo collections?