Home – Fair Haven History

Save the Date – Saturday, August 8th

Get ready to step back in time…

Mark your calendar to stroll Main Street in Fair Haven along with characters from way back when the Lehigh Valley Railroad once roared through the village.

Get your tickets for the Bus Tour to explore what vestiges remain to be seen of the rails that once made Little Sodus Bay the largest grossing port on Lake Ontario. And peruse the walking tour of Main Street’s railroad era buildings and locations.

Vintage automobiles, period fashions, lively melodrama, hotdogs, popcorn, and games for all ages.

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Check back here for the full schedule and more details to come!

The 90 minute Bus Tour has two times to choose from.

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Sponsored by the Fair Haven Area Chamber of Commerce.

Seeking volunteers. Let us know if you’d like to participate. Join us in celebrating Fair Haven’s railroad era.
info@FHhistory.org

Now the Hardware Cafe and General Store

Sponsorship levels

Main Street owners
Owners of land along Main Street and walking vicinity, businesses and private homeowners will be asked to participate at these levels:

Iron Spike Supporter: $25:
♦ Yard-sign* with picture of the building that was there and history
♦ Named as Iron Spike Support on the Old Railroad Day Program

Silver Spike Supporter: $50
♦ Yard-sign* with picture of the building that was there and history
♦ Named as a Silver Spike Supporter on social media
and Old Railroad Day program

Gold Spike Supporter: $100
♦ Yard-sign* of the building that was there and history
♦ Named as a Gold Spike Supporter on social media
and a 2×3.5 ad on Old Railroad Day program

* Yard-signs remain the property of the FH Chamber to use for future years
* Copies of pictures of buildings on yard signs available at Main Street Emporium

Non- Main Street Owners and Businesses
Community members including business owners not on the Main Street vicinity are asked to participate at these levels

Iron Spike Sponsor: $25
♦ Named as a Iron Spike supporter on social media
and on Old Railroad Days

Silver Spike Sponsor: $50
♦ Named as Silver Spike supporter on social media
and on Old Railroad Day program

Gold Spike Sponsor: $100
♦ Named as a Gold Spike Supporter on social media
and a 2×3.5 ad on Old Railroad Day Program

Please make checks payable to Fair Haven Area Chamber of Commerce
or Donate Online here

Donate Online here

Books Make Great Gifts

Looking Back at North Fair Haven, New York

An Autumn Day on Chrysler’s Bluff

by Reverend George Lansing Taylor
This article from the Auburn Daily Bulletin, December 16, 1873
was contributed by John Duda.

In a recent issue of the New York Christian Advocate, the Rev. Geo. Lansing Taylor gives a charming description of a day spent on Chrysler’s Bluffs, in the vicinity of Little Sodus Bay, on Lake Ontario.

Mr. Taylor, who is a graceful poet and prose writer, as well as preacher, grew up from boyhood to manhood in the town of Sterling, in this county. Last October he spent several days amid the old scenes, giving one whole day to a ramble on the lake shore, among haunts of his boyhood. His description of the visit is a beautiful word-picture, and moreover possesses local interest, though we presume few of our readers were even aware so charming a locality lay within the borders of our county.

Mr. Taylor describes his adventures as follows :

On the morning of the 18th of October [1873], Jacob Chrysler, Esq., of Fair Haven, drove me in his buggy from Fair Haven, some five miles, by roads familiar to my memory, past well-known farms and old houses, past “M.Knight’s red school house,” whence several of my schoolmates Continue reading “An Autumn Day on Chrysler’s Bluff”

1913 Sterling Creek Bridge

This is the bridge over Sterling Creek on Old State Road just west of Center Road. Edna Williams took the first photo in 1913 from the northeast corner of the bridge, looking southwest.

Zip Northrup in Fair Haven

The subject of the 2013 Academy Award winning Best Picture is the kidnapping of Solomon Northup (also spelled Northrup and Northrop by some family members). Northup had been born a “free man of color” in upstate New York. He was a well educated, talented violinist who was abducted in 1841, transported to Louisiana and sold into slavery. The film is based on his 1853 autobiographical book titled Twelve Years A Slave. In January 1853 friends in Saratoga, New York received intelligence regarding Solomon’s whereabouts and, with the help of New York Governor Washington Hunt, arranged for his freedom. The story of his ordeal and survival fascinated readers at the time as well as preserving a firsthand account of the slaveholder practices in that era of America’s history. Continue reading “Zip Northrup in Fair Haven”

1955 Fair Haven Aerial View

This aerial postcard of Fair Haven was contributed by Ted Stojkovski. In this view the hotel next to Roy Maynard’s garage is gone. It was torn down in 1953. The Bayside Market across the street at the corner of Fancher Avenue is not there yet and the previous store is gone, having burned March 17, 1955. The new store opened August 2 of the same year and it appears that the new construction has not yet started. Only some of the trees have spring leaves. This photo was probably taken in April of 1955.

Continue reading “1955 Fair Haven Aerial View”

1955 Fire

Just before midnight on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1955 Harold Wallace smelled smoke. He and his family were living above the store he owned on Main Street at the corner of Fancher Avenue. Today this is the location of new store he built after the fire.

Continue reading “1955 Fire”

1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic

Documentary on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Current events seem to bring history closer to home, as does walking through one month in Fair Haven during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Would we now be better prepared had we been more aware of our grandparents’ personal experiences one hundred years ago?

My grandfather’s first cousin, Libby Hills, grew up in North Fair Haven. She died from influenza at age 24, leaving her husband with two small children to raise. The names below are those I found today. In addition, Continue reading “1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic”

The Suffrage Movement

The first Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls in 1848. The ideas born here spread quickly. Below is what we’ve found so far about the Suffragists in Fair Haven. Please contribute any additional information you have for this page.

Below is an excerpt from a paper written by Belle Kirk Rea and read by her at the Oswego Historical Society on the evening of May 17, 1949. Mrs. Rea was then 76 years old and died three years later. He was born in February of 1873 at Sterling Center. Her paternal grandmother, Martha McCrea Kirk, died in 1886 when Belle was 13 years old, placing the probable date of the meeting mentioned between 1878 and 1885. Continue reading “The Suffrage Movement”

Rasbeck Home Movies – The Wedding

Tom Rasbeck had his family’s home movies converted to video. Among the shots captured on film were these three clips of the wedding of Elizabeth Frost and Don Hadcock, June 15, 1946. The first half is the footage as it was originally taken. Following this are the same clips with a couple of titles. Continue reading “Rasbeck Home Movies – The Wedding”