Hey Bruce I guess it's been about 32 years since I've seen you, but it's
good to see your well and kicking. Yes, your right , Robinson and Carpenter,
but east side of Ithaca? Boy , memory is a funny thing. I wonder if we could
get Richard Pieper to pipe up, seeing as he wrote Ithaca Then and Now a
photo history of Ithaca ctb
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Marcham" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 6:29 PM
Subject: Ithaca Lumber Yards


> 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
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>