Transcript

6.11.26 · Smithsonian Magazine

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Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye and to
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Speaker 1: day I will be reading from Smithsonian Magazine presents America
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Speaker 1: at two fifty The Revolutionary Spark. It's a special edition
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Speaker 1: celebrating our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. As a reminder,
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Speaker 1: Radio I is a reading service intended for people who
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Speaker 1: are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult
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Speaker 1: to read printed material. Please join me now for the
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Speaker 1: first part of the article titled America's original travel Influencer
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Speaker 1: drew up a revolutionary itinerary two hundred years ago. There
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Speaker 1: is still plenty to see along the way. Follow along
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Speaker 1: as we retrace the route one journalist laid out in
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Speaker 1: the Fashionable Tour from New York City to Niagara Falls,
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Speaker 1: when memories of the fight for Independence were still fresh.
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Speaker 1: By Tony Parreta. Last summer, I made a pilgrimage to
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Speaker 1: the rare Book Division of the New York Public Library
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Speaker 1: in Midtown, Manhattan. Taking a seat at a polished wood
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Speaker 1: table in the austereily silent, windowless chamber, I requested several
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Speaker 1: near forgotten texts, original surviving copies of the Fashionable Tour,
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Speaker 1: which qualify as the earliest practical travel guide books to
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Speaker 1: the independent United States. The first edition, published in eighteen
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Speaker 1: twenty two, was a pocket sized volume with a battered
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Speaker 1: brown leather cover and stained brittle pages. A more detailed
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Speaker 1: second edition in eighteen twenty five had trimmed pages and
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Speaker 1: a secure binding, and later editions included alluring illustrations of
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Speaker 1: America's natural and historic attractions. The publication timing is what
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Speaker 1: attracted me. On July fourth, eighteen twenty six, a year
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Speaker 1: after the second edition appeared, Americans celebrated the fiftieth anniversary
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Speaker 1: of the duckl of Independence with parades, banquets, and fireworks.
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Speaker 1: By coincidence, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died that day,
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Speaker 1: but patriotic travelers who wanted to mark the country's coming
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Speaker 1: of age that summer knew where to go, thanks in
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Speaker 1: part to the fashionable Tour. By the time it was circulating,
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Speaker 1: an incipient American tourist trail had been established north from
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Speaker 1: Manhattan through the Hudson Valley to the spa town Saratoga Springs,
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Speaker 1: then west to Buffalo and the country's most renowned natural wonder,
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Speaker 1: Niagara Falls. This American Grand Tour, which took shape during
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Speaker 1: a period of national unity that a Bostonian newspaper man
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Speaker 1: dubbed the Era of Good Feelings was deeply appealing to
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Speaker 1: the first generation to grow up in the independent United States.
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Speaker 1: After their victory over Britain in the War of eighteen twelve,
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Speaker 1: Americans were finally becoming confident that their democratic experiment, which
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Speaker 1: which many observers feared might fragment, would survive and even thrive.
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Speaker 1: By the eighteen twenties, the Industrial Revolution was gaining pace,
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Speaker 1: creating a budding urban middle class with disposable income, time
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Speaker 1: to travel, and to desire for locally grown attractions and
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Speaker 1: artistic creations rather than European imports with their fusty old
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Speaker 1: world air. It was a historic convergence, said Jonathan Palmer,
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Speaker 1: the historian for Green County in the Catskill Mountains, when
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Speaker 1: I met him in an archive in the Hudson River
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Speaker 1: Port town of Kingston. The invention of the steamship transformed
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Speaker 1: our relationship with the natural world, he said. Travel used
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Speaker 1: to be prohibitively expensive or time consuming for most Americans. Now,
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Speaker 1: for the first time in history, humans could go faster
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Speaker 1: than horses could carry them or wind move them. It
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Speaker 1: was a technological leap as dramatic as the invention of
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Speaker 1: the first past passenger jets, said Palmer. Then, in eighteen
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Speaker 1: twenty five, the completion of the Erie Canal opened a
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Speaker 1: new and comfortable route west of Albany to magical Niagara.
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Speaker 1: The Fashionable Tour offered advice each step of the way.
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Speaker 1: It was written, appropriately enough, by a self made entrepreneur
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Speaker 1: who was part of the pioneer tourist class to whom
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Speaker 1: he was appealing. The journalist Gideon Minor. Davison was born
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Speaker 1: in Vermont and worked with the publisher in Manhattan before
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Speaker 1: settling around eighteen eighteen in Saratoga Springs, which was emerging
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Speaker 1: as the epicenter of the fledgling New World travel industry.
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Speaker 1: There he founded the Saratoga Sentinel and had a sideline
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Speaker 1: printing bibles. Eventually he made a fortune in real estate.
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Speaker 1: Hardly a household named today. Davison is one of the
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Speaker 1: country's great unsung travel innovators, according to historian Richard H.
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Speaker 1: Gassen in the Birth of America and Tourism for the
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Speaker 1: eighteen twenty two edition, Gasen writes, the thirty one year
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Speaker 1: old Davison organized his entries geographically, and he quote pulled
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Speaker 1: the reader along a very specific route quote by using
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Speaker 1: quote an omniscient, even commanding tone. Go here, then see
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Speaker 1: that end quote for the first time. Gassen ads practical
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Speaker 1: travel tips, schedules, prices, hotel recommendations were combined with edifying
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Speaker 1: stories from American history, particularly the Revolutionary War. The first
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Speaker 1: edition was cheap, disposable, and sold only in the reading
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Speaker 1: room Davison had founded in Saratoga Springs, but his eighteen
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Speaker 1: twenty five edition made it to book stores in New
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Speaker 1: York City, and later editions, at least six over fifteen
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Speaker 1: years spread beyond that. Soon luxury steamers were plying the Hudson.
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Speaker 1: New hotels were sprouting in the Catskills in Niagara, copy
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Speaker 1: cat guide books flourished, and aristocrats were complaining of the
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Speaker 1: Haipuloi flooding upstate enclaves like Hyde Park. By the eighteen thirties,
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Speaker 1: scenes from the trail were printed on Staffordshire's china for
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Speaker 1: American homes in the library's windowless room. Last summer, with
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Speaker 1: the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of seventeen seventy six approaching,
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Speaker 1: I pored over the fashionable tour and yearned to escape
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Speaker 1: the air conditioned archives and recreate the journey a traveler
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Speaker 1: might have taken for the fiftieth Jubilee in eighteen twenty six.
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Speaker 1: Apart from a few short seasonal tourist jaunts, commercial passenger
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Speaker 1: boats no longer service long distance routes along the Hudson
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Speaker 1: River or the Erie Canal, but you can follow Davison's
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Speaker 1: classic trail by car on back roads through upstate New York.
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Speaker 1: I also dropped messages to members of New York's maritime community,
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Speaker 1: including shipbuilders in Buffalo. I'd heard handmade a replica Erie
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Speaker 1: Canal boat from eighteen twenty five. Along the way, I
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Speaker 1: planned to explore the forests, mountains, lakes, and waterfalls that
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Speaker 1: bewitched the first travelers in the eighteen twenties, and to
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Speaker 1: visit the inspiring revolutionary battlefields and memorials. The excitement of
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Speaker 1: that era I hoped could be recaptured today for travelers.
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Speaker 1: In eighteen twenty six, the itinerary inspired adventurous wanderlust, so
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Speaker 1: two hundred years later, I set out with anticipation to
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Speaker 1: see how Davison's directions have held up. My grand tour
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Speaker 1: started in downtown Manhattan and several of the era's attractions
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Speaker 1: survive among the glass sky scrapers of the Financial District.
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Speaker 1: I strolled from City Hall quote one of the most
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Speaker 1: beautiful edifices in America end quote, according to Davis's guide Book,
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Speaker 1: to Trinity Cemetery, where the marble plinth of Alexander Hamilton
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Speaker 1: still receives attention from tourists thanks to the hit musical Hamilton.
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Speaker 1: From there, I navigated the jumbled seventeenth century streets to
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Speaker 1: Battery Park, where New Yorkers gathered in seventeen seventy six
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Speaker 1: to hear the first reading of the Declaration of Independence.
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Speaker 1: But for travelers in the eighteen twenties, the goal was
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Speaker 1: the Cortland Street Wharf, the berth for steamships running up
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Speaker 1: the Hudson River, where they would dodge pushy touts and
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Speaker 1: purchase a three dollar passage equivalent to about one hundred
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Speaker 1: dollars to day to Albany including meals. Recalling the hubbub
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Speaker 1: now is an active imagination. The wharf closed in the
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Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, and in the nineteen sixties and seventies it
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Speaker 1: was buried under landfill for the World Trade Center, but
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Speaker 1: a few steps north of the site, a moored vintage
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Speaker 1: schooner is now a sun soaked bar and oyster restaurant
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Speaker 1: called Grand Banks. Taking a seat by the rippling waters,
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Speaker 1: I watched local ferries shuttle back and forth across New
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Speaker 1: York Harbor. The next day I was ready to start
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Speaker 1: my own revolutionary expedition. To maximize daylight hours for sight seeing,
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Speaker 1: The Fashionable Tour recommended a six a m steamship departure,
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Speaker 1: so I chose the same time to head north in
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Speaker 1: my rental car. Navigating up the West Side Highway, I
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Speaker 1: squinted to imagine the eighteen twenties experience. Back then, cigar
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Speaker 1: shaped Manhattan Island was still settled only as far north
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Speaker 1: as to day's Greenwich Village, leaving the rest green and lush,
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Speaker 1: the scenery becoming more majestic as travelers steamed past the
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Speaker 1: cliffs of New Jersey's Palisades on the Hudson's Western Bank
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Speaker 1: toward Forest's teeming with bird life. By mid morning, travelers
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Speaker 1: approached one of the first great revolutionary sites, at the
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Speaker 1: River narrows of West Point, where a military academy had
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Speaker 1: sprung up in eighteen o two. Around Fort Putnam, a
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Speaker 1: mold ring ruin Davison told his readers, though it was
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Speaker 1: only half a century old, it was here. Davison explained
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Speaker 1: that General Benedict Arnold plotted to betray the Continental Army
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Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty by passing its defensive layout plan to
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Speaker 1: the British agent Major John Andre, before Andrea was captured
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Speaker 1: by a trio of American rebels down river in Tarrytown, exposed, tried,
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Speaker 1: and hanged as a spy. To day, daily tours of
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Speaker 1: West Point are conducted in small buses by guides who
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Speaker 1: likewise recount the dramatic saga of Benny as he's known
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Speaker 1: at the Academy, or at least as he's known to
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Speaker 1: my guide, Glenn Goldman, who liked to take in a
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Speaker 1: reverent tone. Passing a field where the Continental Army garrison
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Speaker 1: camped out, the fort itself was too small to house
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Speaker 1: all the troops, we disembarked at a headland with a
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Speaker 1: spectacular view of the river. This was the most important
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Speaker 1: piece of dirt in the entire North Northeast during the
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Speaker 1: Revolutionary War, said Goldman. A West Point graduate, George Washington
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Speaker 1: called the Hudson River the key to the continent, and
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Speaker 1: West Point commands its most strategic stretch, with its narrowest
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Speaker 1: passage and a squirreling current. Goldman indicated a statue of
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Speaker 1: General Thaddius Kazushko, a brilliant Polish engineer who organized the
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Speaker 1: fort's defense, including the deployment of an enormous chain laid
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Speaker 1: on rafts across the river to block British shipping. As
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Speaker 1: for the fate of the British agent, Andre Goldman took
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Speaker 1: an ironic view of his heroic apprehension by Patriots. Three
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Speaker 1: drunk New York militiamen basically mugged him, and they found
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Speaker 1: the West Point plans when they were stealing his boots.
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Speaker 1: The scenic portion of an eighteen twenty six river trip
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Speaker 1: began in earnest by late afternoon, when the steamship pulled
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Speaker 1: into the river port of Katskill, a tidy town where
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Speaker 1: many old farmers still spoke Dutch. After a night at
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Speaker 1: a local inn, travelers would take a stagecoach for one
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Speaker 1: dollar up into the Catskill Mountains. The winding twelve mile
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Speaker 1: road could induce quote an unwelcome degree of terror end quote.
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Speaker 1: Davison warned. On steeper stretches, passengers might be forced to
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Speaker 1: get out and walk. The effort was rewarded when they
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Speaker 1: arrived at the edge of a two hundred foot high
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Speaker 1: cliff to lay eyes on The Catskill Mountain House, America's
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Speaker 1: first rural luxury resort, which opened in eighteen twenty four.
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Speaker 1: Built in Greek Revival style, the grandiose hotel had a
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Speaker 1: whitewashed exterior and a panoramic porch with thirteen Corinthian columns,
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Speaker 1: one for each of the original states, though when it opened,
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Speaker 1: the flag flapping over the hotel had twenty four stars,
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Speaker 1: a consequence of the nation's expansion. Inside were glittering chandeliers,
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Speaker 1: piano music, and the happy chatter of more than two
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Speaker 1: hundred guests, who dined at tables that groaned with lobsters,
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Speaker 1: fish and meats ferried by liveried waiters. Brandy was served
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Speaker 1: at a busy bar. The Mountain House was the crown
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Speaker 1: jewel of the Hudson Valley. Palmer told me Americans had
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Speaker 1: never seen anything like it. You could go up to
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Speaker 1: a remote cliff side and have a five course meal
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Speaker 1: and enjoy sumptuous accommodations. It also provided unprecedented access to nature.
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Speaker 1: Every morning, staff knocked on doors to wake guests for sunrise,
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Speaker 1: which Davison assured them was quote more enchantment than reality.
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Speaker 1: Mist filled the valleys, creating a dawn gloaming, then burned
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Speaker 1: off to reveal as one anonymous eighteen twenty six visitor
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Speaker 1: raved in the Boston Recorder and Telegraph, quote, a distant
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Speaker 1: Eden flooded with light. The same visitor marveled at the
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Speaker 1: sheer scale of the vista, quote, an area wide enough
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Speaker 1: for the territory of a nation lies beneath you, like
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Speaker 1: a picture, with the Hudson winding through like an inlaid
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Speaker 1: vein of silver. Guests hiked through gnarled forests to the
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Speaker 1: novel and romantic Catterskill Falls, where a viewing platform had
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Speaker 1: been installed to observe the two hundred and sixty foot cascades.
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Speaker 1: To reach the site of the mountain House. To day,
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Speaker 1: I parked by a lakeside trailhead in Catskill State Park
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Speaker 1: and hiked up the same steep switchbacks used by the
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Speaker 1: old stage coaches. Passing through the stone remains of the
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Speaker 1: once grand entry Gate. I emerged onto a cliff top
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Speaker 1: plateau with views that are still jaw dropping. Although the
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Speaker 1: beloved hotel has now vanished, The wooden structure fell into
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Speaker 1: decay in the nineteen fifties when local kids would break
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Speaker 1: in and throw its antique porcelain plates like frisbees, and
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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three rangers burned it down because it
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Speaker 1: was a safety hazard. Still, a note on the notice
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Speaker 1: board reminds visitors that the view before you was for
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Speaker 1: many years the most famous in America, while a nostalgic
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Speaker 1: plaque boasts that President Ulysses Grant, Grover Cleveland, and Theodore
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Speaker 1: Roosevelt were guests at the hotel. Arguably the earliest influential guests, however,
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Speaker 1: were the novelist James Fenimore Cooper and the English born
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Speaker 1: aspiring artist Thomas Cole, later the founder of the Hudson
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Speaker 1: River School of Painters. Their work would secure the Hudson
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Speaker 1: Valley's reputation as the quintessential American landscape. It was a
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Speaker 1: one two punch combining art and literature, Palmer said. In
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Speaker 1: novels like The Pioneers and the Last of the Mohicans,
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Speaker 1: Cooper told historical tales about specific Hudson Valley locations. Then
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Speaker 1: Cole came along with his paintings. It was like an
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Speaker 1: accidental marketing campaign. For upstate travel. Beginning in eighteen thirty three,
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Speaker 1: art loving travelers could even pay a visit to Cole himself.
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Speaker 1: While down in Catskill, the artist moved there full time
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Speaker 1: as a tenant on the property of a Federal style
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Speaker 1: manor called Cedar Grove. Three years later, he married his
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Speaker 1: landlord's daughter, Maria Bartow, and graduated to residing in the
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Speaker 1: Cedar Grove mansion itself, turning it into Upstate New York's
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Speaker 1: first private art gallery, with his wife managing sales and
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Speaker 1: his sister's giving tours. Today, the Cedar Grove House is
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Speaker 1: preserved as a charming museum on the grounds of the
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Speaker 1: Thomas Cole National Historic Site, displaying original landscapes and an
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Speaker 1: audio visual presentation using the artist's words. Cole grew up
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Speaker 1: in Lancashire at the time of the Luddites the anti
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Speaker 1: industrial movement. Jordan Shook, a staff member, told me, as
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Speaker 1: we wandered from the blue painted entrance hall to the
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Speaker 1: upose stairs family bedrooms. Here in America, he was awe
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Speaker 1: struck by the Hudson Valley landscape, but he saw the
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Speaker 1: dangers of what he called the ravages of the Axe,
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Speaker 1: and became a pioneer preservationist. We are still in Eden
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Speaker 1: was one of his typical declarations. She added, nature has
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Speaker 1: spread for us a rich and delightful banquet. Shall we
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Speaker 1: turn from it? Cole's timing was impeccable. After his first
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Speaker 1: steamboat trip up the Hudson in eighteen twenty four, the
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Speaker 1: self taught artist placed three oil landscapes in the window
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Speaker 1: of a friend's gallery in Manhattan and was surprised to
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Speaker 1: find that they were immediately snapped up, followed by a
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Speaker 1: rave review in the New York Evening Post titled another
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Speaker 1: American Genius. When Cole showed his first Hudson paintings in
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Speaker 1: New York, everyone lost their minds. Palmer said, here was
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Speaker 1: an American landscape that embodied the full checklist of European Romanticism.
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Speaker 1: This local vision of what Davison and other esthetes called
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Speaker 1: the sublime showed the hand of God at work in nature,
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Speaker 1: inspiring later devotees of the Hudson River School. Cole soon
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Speaker 1: met the best selling novelist Cooper on a visit to Manhattan,
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Speaker 1: and the two became fast friends and collaborators. By eighteen
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Speaker 1: twenty six, travelers could see Cole's painting of a scene
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Speaker 1: from the Last of the Mohicans in the dining room
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Speaker 1: of the upscale steamship Albany. Whether offering luxury and art
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Speaker 1: or budget cabins. Hudson's steamships ended their routes in the
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Speaker 1: state capitol Albany, but few travelers dallied in the city.
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Speaker 1: Some made excursions to the nearby Shaker community to admire
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Speaker 1: the quote order, neatness and cleanliness end quote of their
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Speaker 1: unworldly celibate community, or to the imposing mansion of the
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Speaker 1: last Dutch patroon, a semi feudal landowner that loomed at Rensselaerswick.
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Speaker 1: History buffs would call in at the river front waterve
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Speaker 1: Arsenal's handsome brick and stone buildings, built in eighteen twelve
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Speaker 1: and functioning as an informal Revolutionary war museum, with muskets, bayonets,
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Speaker 1: swords and pistols arranged with great taste and kept in
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Speaker 1: fine order. Davison wrote, visitors could admire captured British cannons
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Speaker 1: and French rifles donated by Louis the sixteenth, whose ornamental
19:34
Speaker 1: brass shafts were engraved with Latin mottoes. But the majority
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Speaker 1: quickly climbed aboard one of the daily stage coaches nine
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Speaker 1: a m And two p m fare two dollars, that
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Speaker 1: whisked them from the dock in Albany, some thirty five
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Speaker 1: miles north to Saratoga Springs. Thanks to its healthful mineral
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Speaker 1: water springs, the town had become the most popular tourist
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Speaker 1: destination in the U S, the answer to refined European
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Speaker 1: spa resorts like Badenbaden in Germany. Checking into splendid hotels
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Speaker 1: such as the Pavilion and Congress Hall, which each charged
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Speaker 1: a hefty eight dollars a week for bed and board,
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Speaker 1: the voyagers swapped their traveling clothes for the elegant formal
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Speaker 1: outfits stashed in their trunks to attend balls, piano concerts,
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Speaker 1: art shows, and the theater. In a self promotional flourish
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Speaker 1: Davison also recommended visiting his newspaper office for its quote
20:32
Speaker 1: large and airy end quote reading room with one hundred
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Speaker 1: newspapers and maps, and a second floor of mineralogy Museum.
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Speaker 1: On my visit to the town, I strolled Broadway in
20:44
Speaker 1: search of the address at number four seventeen and was
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Speaker 1: delighted to find that it still exists. It's a three
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Speaker 1: story town house with large upstairs windows on enclosed balconies.
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Speaker 1: The ground floor now houses a bar called Bluntly the
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Speaker 1: Wine Bar. A tiny metal plaque by its steps even
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Speaker 1: commemorates Davison's residence here, although it is nearly hidden by
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Speaker 1: electric wires. But Saratoga's Reisondetre was its twenty one mineral
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Speaker 1: water springs, most still protected by ornate pergolas as they
21:19
Speaker 1: were in the eighteen twenties. Every spring had its own
21:23
Speaker 1: medicinal property, and physicians would recommend which one was good
21:27
Speaker 1: for your skin or back pain or gastrointestinal problems, said
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Speaker 1: Lorne Roberts, the county historian, when we met on the
21:35
Speaker 1: sunny porch of the Saratoga Arms Hotel, which dates to
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Speaker 1: the Gilded Age. Several springs are in Leafy Congress Park,
21:44
Speaker 1: where Davison described little urchins dispensing the waters in cups
21:48
Speaker 1: to a varied crowd. While noting that doctors admired the
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Speaker 1: water's fuzziness, which could quote sparkle with the life of
21:56
Speaker 1: a good champagne, Davison warned that the first taste is
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Speaker 1: quote frequently unpleasant. As I cupped my hand to taste
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Speaker 1: the waters. His warning rang true. The salinity was something
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Speaker 1: of a shock. Congress Park is also home to an
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Speaker 1: old majestic casino turned history museum, where hidden high in
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Speaker 1: a corner, I spotted a dark and murky oil portrait
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Speaker 1: of Davison himself. Eleven miles southeast of Saratoga Springs was
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Speaker 1: another attraction, a battlefield where two engagements in seventeen seventy
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Speaker 1: seven together referred to as the Battles of Saratoga, decisively
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Speaker 1: changed the course of the War of Independence. For vivid Insight,
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Speaker 1: Davison recommended seeking out a then octagenarian Continental Army veteran
22:47
Speaker 1: named Major Ezra Buel, who lived on site and gave tours.
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Speaker 1: Quote his memory is still good quote. The guide book
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Speaker 1: went into great detail about the actions at Freeman's Farm
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Speaker 1: on September nineteenth and Bemis Heights on October seventh, which
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Speaker 1: led to the surrender of General John Burgoyne and his
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Speaker 1: seventy four hundred strong army, the greatest British military defeat
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Speaker 1: in history at the time. The Continental Army's forces swelled
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Speaker 1: from around nine thousand to more than eleven thousand during
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Speaker 1: the engagement. The upset victory was so shocking that it
23:23
Speaker 1: persuaded the French to enter the war on America's side,
23:27
Speaker 1: turning a remote colonial struggle into a global conflict that
23:31
Speaker 1: sprawled across the Caribbean and Europe. Today, the battlefield site
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Speaker 1: is a serene pastoral setting with rolling flower filled fields
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Speaker 1: fringed by forests, and can be toured by car. Davison
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Speaker 1: singled out for a poetic reverie the picturesque hilltop where
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Speaker 1: the mortally wounded British General Simon Fraser asked to be buried,
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Speaker 1: delaying the British Army's retreat with disastrous results. My own
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Speaker 1: tour ended at a surreal monument depicting a sculpted boot
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Speaker 1: unveiled in eighteen eighty seven. It was a tribute to
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Speaker 1: the general who led the Americans to victory and was
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Speaker 1: wounded in the leg on the spot none other than
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Speaker 1: Benedict Arnold, who, because of his later treason, was not
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Speaker 1: named or identified in any way. While earlier generations knew
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Speaker 1: the story by heart, I learned about it at stop
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Speaker 1: seven on the National Park's audio narration on the ten
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Speaker 1: mile Battlefield Tour road. The decisive moment for the final
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Speaker 1: stretch of the Grand Tour, American engineering took center stage.
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Speaker 1: The Erie Canal's eighteen twenty five completion was a three
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Speaker 1: hundred sixty three mile triumph that transformed transportation in the
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Speaker 1: United States by connecting the Hudson River to Lake Erie,
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Speaker 1: and thus the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes overnight.
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Speaker 1: A journey that had been the province of intrepid adventure
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Speaker 1: travelers willing to endure two weeks by stage coach along
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Speaker 1: difficult roads, could be completed in five relaxing days for
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Speaker 1: less than eight dollars, including meals. Sightseers could choose from
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Speaker 1: an array of new boats that were pulled by horse
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Speaker 1: teams on land, a gentle pace that continued day and night.
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Speaker 1: In fine weather, they could bring chairs on to the
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Speaker 1: roof to take in the scenery and marvel at the
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Speaker 1: workings of the eighty three locks that changed the canal
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Speaker 1: level en route. Although the Erie Canal fell into disuse
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Speaker 1: in the twentieth century, you can follow its length by
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Speaker 1: car through drowsy hamlets north of the Finger Lakes, a
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Speaker 1: region whose temperate microclimate now makes it a fertile wine district.
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Speaker 1: I broke the journey at Aurora on the eastern side
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Speaker 1: of Cayuga Lake, where boats loaded with peaches stopped while
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Speaker 1: sailing to the canal. The village is near intact from
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Speaker 1: the early nineteenth century and has been restored as a
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Speaker 1: unique collection of lodgings called the Inns of Aurora. At
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Speaker 1: its heart an eighteen thirty three Federal style tavern built
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Speaker 1: by E. B. E. Morgan, the wealthy co founder of
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Speaker 1: the New York Times and the first president of transport
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Speaker 1: company Wells Fargo. In a quirky architectural success story, the
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Speaker 1: string of historic structures was saved and renovated over the
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Speaker 1: past two decades by Pleasant T. Rowland, the founder of
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Speaker 1: the American Girl Doll Company. For an experience of the
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Speaker 1: canal itself, I arranged a rendezvous at its end point
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Speaker 1: in Buffalo. After driving through industrial back blocks, I met
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Speaker 1: members of the city's Maritime center at the ruins of
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Speaker 1: the canal's western terminus, where the seventy three foot long
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Speaker 1: wooden replica of an eighteen twenty five canal boat called
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Speaker 1: the Seneca Chief, painted canary yellow with green and brown trim,
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Speaker 1: was moored. Davison found Buffet Quote a beautiful and thriving
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Speaker 1: village destined to become one of the most important ports
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Speaker 1: of the state. He was right. The city did boom.
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Speaker 1: To day, it is scattered with stunning Art Deco civic
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Speaker 1: structures and Tudor style mansions, and the water front exploded
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Speaker 1: into a red light district catering to sailors from the
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Speaker 1: Great Lakes and canallers, as canal boat crews were known.
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Speaker 1: The district has since been renovated as Canal Side, with
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Speaker 1: the promenade, outdoor cafes and bars moved along by a
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Speaker 1: push boat. The Seneca Chief left the dock and entered
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Speaker 1: the canal proper at the village of Tonawandah. Like any
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Speaker 1: good eighteen twenties traveler, I sat on the Chief's roof
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Speaker 1: and watched the verdue press in on either side of
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Speaker 1: the canal, while flocks of Canadian geese passed overhead as
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Speaker 1: we glided. John Montague, the Maritime Center's President emeritus, talked
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Speaker 1: about the center's history. This concludes readings from the Smithsonian
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Speaker 1: Magazine for today. Your reader has been Rebecca Shore. Thanks
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Speaker 1: for listening, and have a great day.