This post will be updated as needed to provide the public with documents being generated as a part of the review of the proposed Dollar General.
August 9, 2018 Correspondence – NYS OPRHP
July 31, 2018 Correspondence – MRB Group – SEQR
Photo taken ca. 1919
The above photograph of an unidentified boy, most likely taken in Gaines, comes from a small photo album that belonged to Virginia Lattin Morrison. Below is a photo of Virginia found in that same album. She was a longtime resident of Gaines. Coincidentally, today was Virginia’s birthday. She was born July 4, 1906.
Photo taken ca. 1919
In 1919, she turned 13. To celebrate her birthday that year, Virginia could have gone to the recently opened ice cream parlor above Mr. Spaulding’s grocery in the rebuilt White’s Hall. White’s Hall, located on the southwest corner of 104 and 279, was a social hub. Prior to a devastating fire in 1910, it housed a grocery store, post office, grange hall and was Town Meeting headquarters, among other social activities. She would have been too young to attend the box party that evening with the Swarts Orchestra at the Grange Hall, which had moved across the street to what used to be Thurber’s Hotel in 1915. Admission was $1.00, plus 10 cents war tax. A box party was essentially a dating game. Women would make a meal for two and put it in a cardboard box they had decorated. Then men would bid on boxes, not knowing what was inside or who the creator was with whom they would share the meal. Dances and social events like this were common fund raisers for the Grange.
Adrienne Kirby,
Town Historian
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
July 3, 2018
Town Supervisor Joseph Grube has coordinated an agreement to allow an access path to be created and maintained by the New York State Canal Corporation at Gaines Basin Road in the Town of Gaines.
Many residents and visitors have expressed an interest in having easy access to the Erie Canalway Trail at Gaines Basin Road. This canal crossing is one of the only in Orleans County that does not have easy access, and creating a usable path to the Canalway Trail was a focus of the Supervisor and Town Board.
The Panek Family of Albion, who owns the farm land adjacent to the Erie Canal and Gaines Basin Road at this location, graciously allowed for the establishment of a access path suitable for walking and biking across their land. The Supervisor and Town Board are grateful for the cooperation of the Panek Family in granting this access without question, and without any cost incurred by the Town of Gaines.
The access path will begin being cleared and improved in the coming weeks. The Town of Gaines Highway Department will assist crews from the Canal Corporation as needed.