SKETCH OF SAVOY
The Old Time Business Locations at the Head of Seneca
Lake.[July 7, 1910 paper]
It was July 4, 1828, eighty-two years ago this week
that the first steamboat, the “Seneca Chief,” came up Seneca Lake and the
steamer service was inaugurated upon its waters. The settlement was known
as Savoy, and then straggled along the hillside in that portion of Watkins
now included in the town of Reading.
The territory of the town of Reading was sold to original
land owners in sections of about 1,500 acres each. Section No I was bought
by Col. John Lamb of the Third Regiment of the New York Line, from which
a detachment of artillery went forth in the Military Expedition of 1779.
John Lambs daughter was Catharine Lamb, who became the wife of Charles
Tillinghast, and their daughter Catharine Tillinghast, became the wife
of Isaac Q Leake. The John Lamb holdings at the Head of Seneca Lake
comprised 1,540 acres of land, and Isaac Q. Leake became by descent
the possessor of that portion which he named Savoy.
The site of Savoy extended about the southwest corner
of Seneca Lake. Its streets extending north and south along the western
shore, were named as follows: Water Street, now Madison Avenue; First Street,
now Monroe Street; Second Street, now Jackson Street; Third Street, now
Glen Avenue. The streets leading from the water westward, were named from
the southward to the northward as follows; Division Street, Cross Street,
Partition. Street, Catherine Street, Bath Street, Reading Street.
These streets bear the same names to this day, with the exception that
Catharine Street, was abandoned as a thoroughfare and taken from
them some years since.
Water Street was the principal highway of Savoy, and
along its course in the 1820's was located all the business houses at the
Head of the Lake. The warehouses at that time were located. along the bluff
of the shore, with stores in the landward front and storage rooms for grain
and goods on the lakeside. They were extensive structures for the time,
built of massive timbers, and all with one or two exceptions fell a prey
to flames. The Leake warehouse and steamboat dock, near Quarter Mile Creek,
were built in 1828, and the former was taken down to make room for a railway
track in 1850. The Delavan warehouse was next to the southward it buried
in 1872, having been occupied for a number of years previously by Charles
Miller. The Tillinghast and the Cass storehouses were located just
at the corner of the lake, and both were destroyed by fire the latter in
August 1864.
The building that is now the Lake Shore House
was was formerly a warehouse occupying a location west of its present
one and fronting on Water Street.
The enterprises of Savoy in addition to
the mercantile houses were a lime kiln and brick yard
run by Henry Coger and Jacob Harrington, a tannery
conducted by Joseph Ross, and a cooper shop kept by the father of
Charles Beckwith, These establishments were all in the vicinity
of Quarter Mile Creek, on what is now known as Glen Avenue.
In later years at the foot of the stream on the site of the
Seneca Lake Malt House were the grist and saw mills the blacksmith
shop and foundry, established by William Mott and A C Kingsley. They were
built in 1840, and Conducted for nearly a score of years therafter.
In 1864, these buildings were removed be by Frederick Davis to make
room for the construction of the malt house. The endeaver of
Isaac Q.
Leake to upbuild Savoy though but three-quarters is
of a century has passed since the time already read like romance.
The foundations of his steamboat dock and his warehouse may still
he traced, but the scenes of activity, that once prevailed above them,
will never he repeated in the history of Seneca. There is much sadness
in the lore of the lake but no greater example of thc transitoriness of
human effort can be found along its shores than in the story of Savoy.
It is true that tlse enterprises of the pioneers have given place to greater
ones of the present day, but to the student of the past, there ever comes
a feeling of regret, as is brought to mind the ruins of some olden
day undertaking, on which hopes of permanency which could but end in disappointment,
were built high in the days of settlement.
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