The Village of Ellicottville Before 1890

March 11, 2008 to March 11, 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Cattaraugus County. This is the thirteenth in a series of historical articles provided by Ellicottville Town Historian, Mary Elizabeth Dunbar.

If we were to visit the village not long before 1890, we would recognize the streets and many of the buildings, yet its general appearance would be quite different than today.

Les Fox Sr. & George Fox (his father) taken around 1908

For one thing, the streets were unpaved. That meant that they were dry and dusty in summer, wet and muddy in the spring and fall, and when there was not enough snow in the winter for good sleighing, full of ruts and holes.

Along Washington Street, between Jefferson and Monroe, the gutters were paved with cobblestones. That was where the horses were tied to the hitching posts and stomped their feet so that, if there had been no solid bottom, they would have dug deep holes in the mud.

Where sidewalks had replaced footpaths, they were built of planks which were slippery when wet. Plank walks quickly fell into disrepair. Nails worked loose; rot attacked the edges of the planks so that the spaces between them widened and became traps for the wheels of velocipedes and bicycles, sometimes giving their riders bad falls. In front of stores, rats lived under the sidewalks. One boy threw a stone at a rat. The stone missed the rat, bounced through a store window, but at that time the store windows still had small panes, so the damage was not great. In the 1890’s some plank sidewalks were built of concrete.

Most houses had vegetable gardens in the rear. Many had barns for a cow or two and a flock of hens of mixed ancestry.

The fences in front of the houses and inside the sidewalks were not there for quaintness. When cattle or sheep were driven through the village to the market, the fences kept them from trampling the yards and gardens. But fences, too, fell into disrepair. Posts rotted off, boards worked loose and and the hinges of gates broke. By 1890, however, fences were no longer needed and were gradually taken down. In front of many houses, grass and weeds grew high between the road and the ditch and even up to the house itself. The householder might mow two or three times a year with a scythe. The invention of the hand operated lawnmower and the increase of pride in appearances began to improve the looks of the village but, by present standards, it still was untidy. Part of the public square was untended; horses from the hotel livery barn and sometimes cows, found pasture there. Stray animals were not uncommon and were sometimes taken to the pound which stood on Martha Street about where Rockwell Avenue joins it now.

Source: “Village of Ellicottville Sesquicentennial Program 1837 – 1887” -- Author Unknown