Growing up in Wayne County in the 1950s and 1960s, I was barely aware of the Barge Canal through towns like Lyons, Newark, and Palmyra.  The canal seemed isolated from the town, something to be hidden.  Homes and businesses faced the roads and streets.

This CSNY photo shows the feeder canal in the town of Oneida, and it reminds me of old photos of my mother’s birthplace in Arnhem, a Dutch city on the Rhine.  

Here the homes, streets, and walkways line the waterway.

I wonder if some of these stately homes are still there.

Ditto Montezuma.  When the canal was both local and regional transportation infrastructure, services were provided from structures integrated into the system.

 

Ilion too.  I’m not familiar enough with Ilion to know whether 

this would correspond to 130 West or more likely East Main Street.   

Here also in Ilion is the double lock 44.  Note the firewood piled up to the left of the left lock, fuel for folks transiting the regional thoroughfare.  Here are some photos of lock 44 being dismantled in 1936.

One more case in this post, Geneva.  Here’s practically the same scene on a postcard stamped 1909.

The sign to the right is strangely cropped.  Here’s the rest of the sign stating “Fay & Bowen” on the top line with “motors and motor boats” below it.

Look at all the boats and workmen in the distance.  This would make an interesting place to attempt a “then and now” photo study, as here.  Actually any of the locations in this post might.

More in this series to come.  Anyone with local knowledge of these places . . . can I motivate you to do the then/now photos?