ctb:

I put a crack team of historians on this project and this is what has been
learned to date:

The lumber yard I remember from the east end of Ithaca, between Buffalo and
Green Streets with a mill hanging out over "The Inlet," was Robinson &
Carpenter.  It was managed (and perhaps owned) at one point by John Fiester
and at one point John Clynes (former liquor store owner and brother of Judge
Jim Clynes) was listed as the general manager and Fiester was still the
manager.

I'm told the mill and building supply store located on Six Mile Creek was
Driscoll Brothers, a large operation in a brick building that may've fronted
on State Street.  It apparently shut down between 1956 and 1960 (judging by
business directories from those years), part of the business being sold to
become Baker Lumber or possibly (Bob?) Baker Kitchens (a WoodMode rep) and
later forming the partnership called Baker-Miller Lumber of Groton.  It's a
little hard for me to picture exactly where it was located but it sounds as
though it was east of Aurora Street in the area where Green Street (which
didn't used to come that far east) forms the south side of "The Tuning
Fork."

The bus station was located behind the Ithaca Hotel (west of Aurora Street)
but I'm told there wasn't room for much else before the creek.

As to hydro powering the Driscoll Brothers mill I haven't learned anything
on that yet.  In general one whould think that the use of belt drives
would've gone out when centralized power sources  or "prime movers" in
factories (hydro, large steam or gas engines) were replaced by small
electric motors, one for each piece of equipment.  That some mills kept them
in use for a long period after the advent of good electric motors (I would
think shortly after WWII) suggests they didn't want to make the investment
or had a decent central power source they didn't want to give up.  I would
think that the losses and maintenance associated with spinning all those
long shafts and belts had to be pretty high.

I hope to have more on Stoddord's Tannery in the next few days.

Bruce

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