GenevaNYNY 1916
Apr 11
War correspondent and novelist Richard Harding Davis dies, in Mount
Kisco.
Apr 16
60,000 members of New York City's International Ladies' Garment Workers
Union walk off the job. They will win ILGWU recognition, standardized
collective bargaining agreements, and binding two-year contracts.
Apr 22
Violinist-conductor Yehudi Menuhin is born in New York City.
Apr 23
The Socialist Party, meeting in New York City, nominates Arthur E.
Reimer and Caleb Harrison.
Jun 12
The Ziegfeld Follies of 1916 opens at New York's New
Amsterdam Theatre, featuring Will Rogers.
July
New York City's first comprehensive zoning ordinances are passed.
Jul 2
Henrietta (Hetty) Howland Green, the richest woman in the United
States, dies, in New York City leaving a $100,000,000 estate.
Aug 7
3,000 members of New York City's Actors Equity Association (AEA) walk
off the job.
Aug 16
New York City's Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway
Employees (AASERE) walk off the job.
Sep 6
Actors Equity members return to work, having gained a closed shop and
an eight-performance week.
Sep 17
AASERE workers return to their jobs, having gained little.
Oct 6
Mystery writer Stanley Ellin is born in New York City.
Oct 16
Margaret Sanger opens the first birth-control clinic, in Brooklyn.
Nov 7
Jazz composer-pianist-trumpeter Joseph "Joe" Bushkin is born in New
York City.
City
The New York Central & Harlem River Railroad switches all passenger
traffic to Grand Central Terminal, carrying it through Spuyten Duyvil
and along the Harlem River. ** Typhoid outbreaks cause the
condemnation of Staten Island oyster beds. ** City resident
Toyohiko Takami graduates from Cornell University Medical College.
State
A barn is built at the Shaker colony in Albany, to replace one recently
destroyed by a fire. ** Buffalo clockmaker Myles Hughes completes
the apostolic clock he began in 1881. ** Wyoming, New York,
breath mint manufacturer and politician Martin Van Buren Ferris dies.
** Jell-O inventor Pearl Bixby Wait dies at the age of 42.
Batavia
When Grand Rapids, Michigan, railroad executive Daniel McCool dies, his
widow Kate Fisher McCool returns to Batavia, her home town, to live
with her mother Alice Fisher. ** Anna Dailey, owner of the Dailey
Furniture Store and mother of pianist Monica Dailey, dies. Her daughter
Anna takes over the business.
Rochester
The U. S. government turns down a request by the city for $500,000 to
be used for port improvements. ** Residents of Charlotte approve
the village's annexation by the city, which also annexes Lake Avenue,
increasing its own size to 26.28 square miles. ** Claude Bragdon's
Chamber of Commerce building opens. ** The Genesee River floods
the downtown area. ** Nearly half (983) of those enrolled in the
city's citizenship classes, are Italian. ** New York State
Railways purchases new cars from the Cincinnati Car Company. These
Peter Witt 1220 series cars are nicknamed submarines, due to a vague
resemblance to German U-Boats.
1917
May
An elevated line is completed to New York City's Jackson Heights
neighborhood.
Jun 12
The Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 opens at the New
Amsterdam Theatre, features Eddie Cantor.
Aug 3
Jazz composer, arranger, vocalist and trumpeter Charles James
"Charlie"Jefferson is born in New York City.
Aug 16
Rida Johnson Young and Sigmund Romberg's Maytime opens
at New York's Shubert Theatre.
Aug 28
Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse and Jerome Kern's Leave It to
Jane opens at New York's Longacre Theatre.
Sep 19
New York's Rochester, Syracuse & Eastern Railway interurban is
reorganized as the Rochester and Syracuse Railroad.
Sep 24
Jazz vocalist and bass player James H. "Jimmy" Butts is born in New
York City.
Sep 30
Jazz drummer-vocalist Bernard "Buddy" Rich is born, in Brooklyn.
City
The city begins drawing its water supply from the Catskill Mountains
when the tunnel is completed. ** The co-op at 121 Madison, on
30th Street, is converted to rental apartments. ** Brooklyn
politician John Francis Hylan, running on the Democratic ticket,
defeats incumbent John Purroy Mitchel and Socialist Morris Hillquit to
become mayor; serves 1918 1925. ** Richard F. Walsh starts as an
apprentice electrician in Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue Theater. **
Composer W. C. Handy arrives from Memphis, Tennessee.
State
Amateur archaeologist Max Schrabisch arrives in Woodstock and is
suspected of being a German agent. He's vouched for by State Supreme
Court judge Alphonso Trumpbour Clearwater in Kingston. ** The
former Protestant Reformed Dutch Church building in Geneva is sold by
its owner, the Catholic Church, and becomes a Masonic Temple. **
A terminal building is built on the Champlain Canal at Whitehall
(Skenesborough). It will become the Skenesborough Museum, site of
today's Urban Cultural Park Visitor Center. ** The New York State
Barge Canal opens, replacing the Erie.
Batavia
St. Jerome Hospital opens. ** The city's Brisbane Mansion is
inspected, with an eye toward future municipal use. ** Troop A
of the New York State Police is established.
Rochester
The city annexes the Lake Ontario port village of Charlotte. **
Nearly 1000 of the city's Italian population receive full citizenship.
1918
Feb 5
Batavia's Ellicott Hall, center of the village's government, burns to
the ground, probably due to an overheated furnace. The mayor will move
into temporary Ferris Street quarters and the superintendent of public
works will move to the Municipal Building.
Feb 6
Batavia's government records are found to be safe, in a basement
vault.
Mar 23
Builder Frank Homelius is given the contract to convert Batavia's
Brisbane Mansion to a City Hall.
May 10
The Barge Canal bypass at Rochester opens.
Sep 28
The conversion of Batavia's Brisbane Mansion to a City Hall is
completed, and the building is opened for public inspection.
October
Father Victor Fasella, pastor of Batavia's St. Anthony's Church, dies
of influenza.
November
The Reverend William Kirby is named to replace Father Fasella.
City
Houses along St. John's Park are destroyed during a street-widening
project. ** Anarchist Mollie Steimer is arrested for agitating
against U. S. troop landings in Russia. ** Dr. Toyohiko Takami
steps down as head of the Japanese Mutual Aid Society.
State
The New York State Barge Canal is completed. Downtown Utica is
bypassed.
Batavia
Ely's European Restaurant is sold and the name is simplified to Ely's
(later The Metropolitan). ** The Buffalo Cut Glass Company
closes. ** George Day and his sister Alice Day Gardner change the
name of their late father Harris Day's law firm, which they've run
since his 1904 death, to Day and Gardner.
Rochester
Claude Bragdon is chosen to design Peterborough, Canada's Hunter Street
Bridge. ** The city buys up resorts at Charlotte and converts the
property into a public beach.
David Minor
Eagles Byte Historical Research
Rochester, New York
716 264-0423
http://home.eznet.net/~dminor