Binghamton

A New York State 19-Century Baseball All-Star Team

July 13, 2026 by Phil Brown 2 Comments

Major League Baseball’s annual all-star game (taking place Tuesday in Philly) invariably fosters debates. Who’s the more worthy first-baseman, Vladimer Guerrero Jr. or Ben Rice? Should Aaron Judge be on the roster if he hasn’t played in over a month? Why is Cody Bellinger starting in the outfield over Randy Arozarena?

Baseball fans love arguing these sort of questions every year as the midsummer classic approaches. They lead naturally to questions about who was the greatest of all time. Babe Ruth? Ted Williams? Barry Bonds?

I don’t have the answers, but I would like to recognize a class of players who are often overlooked in these debates: the nineteenth-century greats. [Read more…] about A New York State 19-Century Baseball All-Star Team

New York Historic Pools Designed by Wesley Bintz

January 28, 2026 by Bill Orzell 2 Comments

Wesley Bintz was a Civil Engineer who received his training at the University of Michigan, earning a BCE in 1916 and MS in 1918. He moved on to municipal work in Flint, Michigan with two pools made of reinforced concrete, and funded by municipal bonds, which he designed as their City Engineer and completed in 1920.

Bintz subsequently accepted an Engineering position with the City of Lansing, Michigan whose citizens also desired an ovoid swimming pool, and saw their aspiration fulfilled with another a Bintz designed 80 x 120 foot pool constructed during 1922-23. Other communities saw the need for such facilities, which caused Bintz to patent his design, and specialize in his own swimming pool enterprise. Many Blintz pools were built in New York State. [Read more…] about New York Historic Pools Designed by Wesley Bintz

The Chenango Canal: An Unrealized Dream

June 9, 2025 by Richard Williams Leave a Comment

The success of the Erie Cavnal which opened 200 years ago in 1825 caused folks around New York to petition the State to build a canal to their town. At that time roads were typically very rough – early turnpikes were mainly oriented east-west across New York, few went north or south.

Eventually, 16 lateral canals were built off the Erie Canal by the state totaling more than 750 miles and extending to various parts of New York. [Read more…] about The Chenango Canal: An Unrealized Dream

2025 New York State Historic Preservation Awards Winners

May 27, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced that 13 projects and individuals have been recognized with 2025 New York State Historic Preservation Awards. This year’s awards recognize several preservation advocates for their work in the field and highlight historic rehabilitation projects that have made impacts in New York’s communities, including initiatives that address food insecurity, generate incubator spaces for businesses, and create affordable housing units. [Read more…] about 2025 New York State Historic Preservation Awards Winners

Willis Sharpe Kilmer: Swamp Root & Thoroughbreds

March 11, 2025 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Born in Brooklyn, Willis Sharpe Kilmer (1869 – 1940) was a patent medicine manufacturer, newspaperman, and horse breeder, perhaps best known for advertising and promoting his uncle’s Swamp Root patent medicine formula until it became a household name. [Read more…] about Willis Sharpe Kilmer: Swamp Root & Thoroughbreds

In The 1920s Thousands of New Yorkers Joined The Ku Klux Klan

August 24, 2024 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

On August 17, 1923, about a thousand white men and women took part in a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony near Warwick, New York.

According to newspaper reports, motorists traveling between Warwick and Florida in the southwestern part of Orange County on August 16th were stopped by Klansmen and asked for a “password” to enter area where the Klan rally was being held in an open field near the highway. [Read more…] about In The 1920s Thousands of New Yorkers Joined The Ku Klux Klan

Binghamton Thoroughbred Owner and Breeder Willis Sharpe Kilmer

March 21, 2024 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Willis Sharpe Kilmer was an influential businessman with a dynamic personality, who parlayed wealth derived from sales of patent medicines into his participation in horse racing. With his intense competitive spirit, he thought of thoroughbred horse racing and breeding as a perfect blend of business and competition.

Kilmer was active in the sport as an owner and breeder from 1915 until his death in 1940. His racing stock competed across North America and won major races such as the Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes. [Read more…] about Binghamton Thoroughbred Owner and Breeder Willis Sharpe Kilmer

The Bridging of Early America: Bridge Builders and Forgotten Timber Spans

October 24, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Theodore Burr (1771-1822) was the most prominent of America’s three early nineteenth century timber bridge-building pioneers, the others being Timothy Palmer (1751-1821) and Lewis Wernwag (1769-1843). All three built long-span timber bridges in the Northeast.

A transplant from Connecticut, Theodore Burr moved to Oxford, Chenango County, New York in 1792-1793. In less than thirty years, he erected timber bridges over major rivers – the Hudson, Schoharie, Mohawk, Delaware, Potomac, and Susquehanna – in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, District of Columbia, and Maryland. [Read more…] about The Bridging of Early America: Bridge Builders and Forgotten Timber Spans

Binghamton to the Battlefield: The Civil War Letters of Rollin B. Truesdell

October 22, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

From Binghamton to the Battlefield: The Civil War Letters of Rollin B. Truesdell (SUNY Press ‎ Excelsior Editions, 2022) draws the reader alongside Rollin B. Truesdell, a prolific letter-writer and an early enlistee in the 27th New York Volunteers, an infantry regiment that was one of the first to form and that was in the thick of some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. [Read more…] about Binghamton to the Battlefield: The Civil War Letters of Rollin B. Truesdell

The Canal Era in the Finger Lakes

October 1, 2023 by Guest Contributor 3 Comments

As the population of interior New York increased, developers pushed for a faster method of transportation between the area and developed population centers like the city of New York.

The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, revolutionized inland travel and ushered in a broader era of canal construction across the state, connecting the state capital of Albany on the Hudson River to Western New York and the Great Lakes. [Read more…] about The Canal Era in the Finger Lakes

Bobcat Ranney: The Hermit of Dogtown

October 27, 2022 by Dave Waite Leave a Comment

According to “A Who’s Who of Adirondack Hermits,” in the Fiftieth Anniversary edition of Adirondack Life magazine there were only two in Warren County: artist John Henry Hill at Phantom Island on Lake George and Archie “Bobcat” Ranney of Baker’s Mills.

Hill only lasted six years, from 1870 until 1876: the year he was picked up and sent to an asylum, never to return to the county. Archie, on the other hand, made his mark in Adirondack history and lore by “hermiting” for twenty years in Baker’s Mills, a hamlet in the town of Johnsburg. [Read more…] about Bobcat Ranney: The Hermit of Dogtown

Joe Gingras: A Major League Baseball Career Thwarted By War

October 2, 2022 by Dave Waite 5 Comments

In 1870 Francois Dieudonné Gingras left his native Canada for Manhattan where he met and married Mary Roohan. By 1896, now with three children and another on the way, this couple had settled in Saratoga Springs where they opened a grocery store.

Their oldest son, Frank, was soon brought into the family business and the store was renamed, F. D. Gingras & Son. Their youngest son, whom they had named Joseph Elzead John Gingras, was looking to pursue a far different life: baseball. [Read more…] about Joe Gingras: A Major League Baseball Career Thwarted By War

Catskills Klan: The KKK in Sullivan County, New York

January 23, 2022 by John Conway 4 Comments

Many people – even those with more than a passing interest in Sullivan County history – are surprised to learn that the Ku Klux Klan was once fairly active in parts of the county. And yet, throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, there were several chapters in the Catskills, most set up by recruiters from the Binghamton area.

These Klan chapters, whether in Livingston Manor, Jeffersonville, Liberty, Woodbourne or some other hamlet, often started out as social organizations, and it was not unusual to see newspaper articles and even advertisements about their charitable activities or their clambakes, sometimes in conjunction with the Kamelias, the organization’s women’s auxiliary. [Read more…] about Catskills Klan: The KKK in Sullivan County, New York

SUNY Broome Culinary Center Wins Historic Preservation Award

November 30, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

SUNY Broome’s Culinary & Event Center has won a 2021 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of NYS.

The Beaux Arts-style Carnegie Library opened in downtown Binghamton in 1904 and was home to the city’s library for 96 years. The building remained vacant from 2000-2016, falling into a state of disrepair. [Read more…] about SUNY Broome Culinary Center Wins Historic Preservation Award

The Sinking of the Ford Freighter Green Island

November 3, 2021 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

When hostilities in 1939 created a combat situation between allied European nations and Germany, initiating the Second World War, the United States was officially neutral. However, the construction of ships began in America, to aid Great Britain and her allies.

When the events of 1941 pulled the U.S. into the conflict, the Navy and the Wartime Shipping Administration had a very serious need for vessels to transport war materials. This task was the duty of the country’s Merchant Marine, and all possible craft were requisitioned, including those on the Great Lakes and inland waterways. [Read more…] about The Sinking of the Ford Freighter Green Island

Fred Hazel: Binghamton’s Fighter For Racial Justice

May 19, 2020 by Richard White 1 Comment

After moving to Binghamton from the City of New York in 1911, Fred C. Hazel’s civil rights work spurred his biographic inclusion in the 1915 edition of Who’s Who of the Colored Race.

His notable pre-1911 accomplishments included graduating from the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (the Hampton Institute, who boasted Booker T., Washington as an alum), and owning a business, the Hampton Upholstering Company. After the 27-year-old man relocated to the Parlor City, he quickly pursued two ventures that were completed by the middle of 1912. [Read more…] about Fred Hazel: Binghamton’s Fighter For Racial Justice

Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Hazel Scott in 1940s Binghamton

January 13, 2020 by Richard White Leave a Comment

“Whether Binghamton appreciates good music and other cultural programs was a matter of dispute today.” This observation in The Binghamton Press on May 3, 1946 arose when the newspaper interviewed residents about an upcoming music festival.

If the newspaper had conducted the same interview when Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Hazel Scott presented their “cultural programs” one year earlier, there would not have been many negative responses. As the Second World War drew to a close, the city welcomed three iconic African American artists. [Read more…] about Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Hazel Scott in 1940s Binghamton

Time Clock History: Binghamton’s Bundy Museum

June 21, 2018 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This week on The Historians podcast, Andy Pragacz from the Bundy Museum of History and Art in Binghamton, NY tells us about the museum and the Bundy company, makers of time clocks. The firm was a predecessor of IBM. The Bundy Museum’s new community radio station, WBDY, carries episodes of The Historians Podcast Sundays at 4:30 pm. Listen to the podcast here. [Read more…] about Time Clock History: Binghamton’s Bundy Museum

Broome Co Local History Conference Set For April

January 7, 2018 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

The Bundy Museum of History and Art in Broome County has announced that they are planning to hold a conference on local history on Saturday, April 21, 2018.

The museum is seeking a wide range of histories and historians. Submissions from amateur enthusiasts, family historians, K-12 teachers, preservationists, high school and college students, professional historians, storytellers, librarians, and museum employees. Papers on any aspect of Broome County’s history, from any time period, will be considered. [Read more…] about Broome Co Local History Conference Set For April

The 1862 Binghamton Race Riot

January 19, 2017 by Richard White 3 Comments

For a few hours on the night of October 7, 1862 in the village of Binghamton, N.Y., law and order vaporized when a mob of white men attacked black residents, their homes, and their churches. The trigger for this race riot was an interracial fight at the circus in town. According to the Broome Republican, the rioters’ expressed goal was to “clean the negroes out.”

Right after the circus performances ended, “all the colored persons present” were attacked. Many suffered bloody injuries at the hands – and stones and clubs – of 20 to 30 rioters. There was no organized resistance as the victims fled for safety. In addition, there were no arrests, or police presence or response. [Read more…] about The 1862 Binghamton Race Riot

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