January 2002

I live across the street from Austin Park, in 8 E. Austin. Recently, I was asked to write a short history of the park for inclusion in the signage at the new Skaneateles Community Center. To write a short one, I needed to write a long one. Here's the long one:

First, the Austins

Aaron Austin, one of four sons of Joab Austin and Eleanor Kellogg Austin of Sheffield, Massachusetts, came to Skaneateles around 1796 and established the county's first cloth dressing and fulling mill, located about where the
McLaughlin store is now on Fennell Street.

(Fulling was a two-part process: Newly-woven cloth was cleaned by soaking it in clean water and then beating it, usually with water-driven mechanical paddles; the cloth was thickened by scrubbing it with "fuller's earth" (aluminum oxide) which provided a good texture and initiated bleaching, a process later completed by stretching the cloth out to dry over a wooden frame called a "tenter," using tenterhooks to hold the cloth and prevent shrinkage.)

Most of Aaron's family came to Central New York for some time; his brothers James and Asa lived in Homer; Henry settled near Owasco, and Elijah settled on a farm near Moravia. Aaron lived in Skaneateles, in a small house known as the mill house near the site of the present Milford Office Building at the corner of Fennell and Jordan Streets.

(This house was eventually moved to Jordan Street on the Key Bank site. Asa Sherwood who operated the foundry, on the site of today's Byrne Dairy on Jordan Street, occupied the house. The woolen mill was operated by a number of owners after Aaron Austin until it burned in 1842 when Dorastus Kellogg was the owner.)

About 1810, Aaron Austin bought 150 acres of Lot #27 from William Vredenburg, who had purchased it from Robert Earll. On this land, Austin built a house facing Austin Street at the corner of Jordan and Austin Streets. He lived there for some years before leaving for Michigan, where he died in 1831.

Upon Aaron's death, Ebenezer Ensign Austin, Aaron's nephew (the son of Aaron's brother, Henry Austin, and his wife Prudence Ensign Austin), obtained ownership of the farm from Norman Austin, one of the heirs. Ebenezer and his wife, Sarah Harvey Austin of Rose Hill, lived on the Austin farm for more than 50 years. Ebenezer, a widely known and well-respected man of wealth, died May 24, 1867, at the age of 71 years.

Franklin Ensign Austin, Ebenezer and Sarah's son, had lived in the home from infancy. He brought his wife, Louisa Plunkett Rice Austin of Elbridge, to the farm in 1860. Their son, Clarence Mason Austin, was born there on November 17, 1861, and grew up in the family home.

Clarence attended Skaneateles Academy and then left the village to earn a B.S. degree at Amherst College, where he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity and a graduate in the class of 1885. From college, Clarence went into the wholesale coal business in Chicago, Illinois. In 1889, he left Chicago for Seattle, Washington, where for the next 30 years he dealt in bonds, mortgages and investment securities.

Clarence's father, Franklin, continued farming in Skaneateles until he died on December 16, 1917. Upon his father's death, Clarence, the only child, returned home from Seattle to live in the Austin homestead. Described as refined, cultured and well-read, he became active in the cultural affairs of the village. Childless, he was also known for chasing children off of his land. He died suddenly August 26, 1927.

The Gift

In his will, to the surprise of more than a few, Clarence Austin bequeathed a portion of his land to the Village for use as a park and another portion to provide additional land for the school. The family home was given to the Village for use as a community center.

The text of Austin's will (filed on July 10, 1922), regarding the bequest, reads as follows:

SEVENTH: I grant and devise to the Village of Skaneateles all that part of my real estate on Block 4 in the Village of Skaneateles, according to Griffin's map, bounded and described as follows: Bounded on the west by Jordan Street, on the north by the north line of said village, on the east by Syracuse street, and on the south by the center line of the gulch or stream running from said Syracuse Street southwest to Austin Street and from the point where said stream crosses Austin Street, on the south by Austin Street, together with my house and barns thereon, in trust however that said parcel of land shall be held and kept perpetually as a public park for the use and good of the people and the same to be known as "Austin Park" to commemorate the Austin family, a name associated with this section from the early days.

(Note: Syracuse Street is today known as State Street.)

The remainder of Austin's land, "including real estate north and south of the above described," was to be sold by his executors "as soon as practicable" with the proceeds going into "The Austin Park Trust Fund." The money was to be invested in securities and the income of said fund was to be used and paid out "each year for the care, upkeep and improvement of said Austin Park perpetually."

Within six months of Austin's death, his clear intent was already being clouded by those with other plans for the land. On February 17, 1928, a news item in the Skaneateles Press announced that the land was "destined to become the Skaneateles Airport," and added, "Austin left it to the village with the provision that it might be converted into a park or used for any purpose the town should see fit." (Note: The italics are mine. KW)

One of the prime movers in this effort was Eugene Horle, local pilot and would-be airplane salesman. In the Village at least, this is the first recorded instance of a pilot attempting to hijack a park. The rationale given in the article was that Austin had known pioneer aircraft builder William Boeing, had been interested in aviation, and therefore would have approved of these plans.

(It is possible that Austin knew Boeing. Both were in Seattle from 1908 to 1917. Austin dealt in investments, and Boeing, son of a lumber baron and himself a self-made lumber baron, had money to invest. Boeing moved to Seattle in 1908, became interested in flying in 1910 after visiting a Los Angeles air show, and flew for the first time in 1914. He founded Pacific Aero Products to build his own plane, and changed the name of the company to the Boeing Airplane Company in 1915. Austin, as noted above, lived in Seattle until his father's death in December 1917.)

Boeing or no, Horle and his supporters did not prevail. But neither was the land developed as a park; it lay fallow for at least 10 years after the bequest.

A Nature Preserve

In 1938, an effort began to make a part of the park a bird sanctuary. Irma Lukins, who lived on State Street, remembered walking from the Mottville Schoolhouse that year, with her classmates, to watch the Boy Scouts plant pine seedlings. Over the next ten years, hundreds of pine seedlings and hundreds of berried shrubs were planted. Among the birds attracted were pileated woodpeckers, scarlet tanagers, flickers, red-winged blackbirds, black and white warblers, wood thrush, tufted titmice and chickadees, as well as pheasants, turkeys and geese. The woods were also home to white-tailed deer, raccoons, gray squirrels, woodchucks, skunks, muskrats, rabbits and weasels.

The fields and woods were also used by villagers, young and old, for play, walking and relaxation. Lukins recalled Sarah Brice Milford, an active member of the Skaneateles Garden Club, who in warm weather would walk into the pine woods and take a nap under the trees. It was Milford who taught Lukins not to pick the wildflowers, so they would be there for the next person who passed.

The brook known as Austin Brook once flowed across the land and emptied into Skaneateles Creek after passing under Austin, Elizabeth, Jordan and Fennell Streets. The brook was a favorite play area for village children.

But many residents anticipated the park would become more than a nature preserve. An item on June 11, 1943, in the Skaneateles Press noted:

"Mr. Adams, (neighbor to the north) deplores the handling of the Austin bequeath to the village. C. M. Austin left the home and 95 acres and money for a park. A brass plate was supposed to be over the door of the house for a community center."

(The house was used during World War II by the Red Cross, the Scouts and other organizations. The May 17, 1946, Skaneateles Press carried the news that the Austin house was for sale. Some citizens were unhappy about this move on the part of the village officials. The home was purchased by George Dudman and moved to the former Howlett lot on East Street in September of 1946. The house was renovated and pillars, not part of the original structure, were added to the front. It stands there today, screened by a high hedge from the high school across the street.)

Hockey in Austin Park

The north end of the farm (park) bordering on Jordan Street was quite low and, in the autumn, water accumulated there. During the winter, this froze over and provided a place for children to skate. The high school also flooded an area along the north where boys played hockey. As early as 1948, Sedgwick Smith, an avid skater and ice hockey coach, was voicing the need for a permanent public skating rink.

(Smith had been coaching hockey in Skaneateles since 1922. A Skaneateles native who returned from Harvard to teach in the high school, he began by coaching a Boy Scout hockey team. As the boys grew older, they kept playing. They practiced on the ice on Skaneateles Lake in the cove in front of Smith's house on West Lake Street. [Smith also let the boys wear their skates in his home, where the floors bear the marks to this day.] When the lake wasn't frozen, Smith flooded tennis courts, parking lots, athletic fields - wherever and whenever it was possible to make ice.)

(Bill Allyn recalls that his father, William G. Allyn, started a youth hockey program in 1950. The Skaneateles Maple Leafs played for two or three winters.)

The Park Shrinks

The Austin land, meanwhile, was shrinking. In 1949 and 1950, town and village officials negotiated with the American Legion for a site for a new post office. The Legion owned Sundial Park, bordering the lake's outlet on Genesee Street, and it seemed to be an appropriate site for the new post office. The Legion was offered part of Austin's land in exchange for Sundial Park and $1500 in cash. And so the post office acquired Sundial Park, and the town and the village released part of Austin Park to the Legion.

(The U.S. Post Office building on the Sundial Park site was abandoned in 1999, sold to developers, and sat derelict in the heart of the Village, until the new Packwood House, named after one of The Sherwood Inn's earlier appellations, was built on the spot.)

The land swap had one immediate repercussion. When the Garden Club learned that Austin Park land was passing into the possession of the American Legion, they abandoned any further plantings.

Baseball, Basketball, Tennis and Microds

Austin Park sat undeveloped for eight more years, until 1958, when the Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) stepped in and began improvements. Jaycees President Al Krause, D.W. Winkelman, John Dougherty and Arvin Wikstrom were a few of the many who donated plans, labor and material for the creation of baseball diamonds, basketball and tennis courts. Over the years, the Jaycees continued their involvement, donating ideas, manpower and money, repairing the fireplaces and constructing the creative playground. (After Wikstrom's death in a plane crash, his family asked that donations in his memory be made to the Austin Park Development Fund.)

The park also sprouted a "microd" track. In the 1950s, a father and son team, Edwin and Bob Robinson, created the microd - a forerunner of the go-kart - a small car made of plywood, powered by a lawn mower engine. The design was simple enough for a 9- to 13-year-old child to build. In 1954, a 550-foot dirt track was constructed by A. S. Wikstrom Construction Company. Later the track was black-topped and maintained by the Dougherty Construction Company. The track was located about where the Allyn Arena is now. Over 30 cars were built and raced for about ten years. The popularity of microd racing declined by 1964 and the races ended.

Among the "planned but never realized" items were hillside gardens and a municipal nine-hole "chip & putt" golf course designed by the architectural firm of Quinlivan, Pierik and Krause in 1961.

The Austin Park Committee

The first meeting of the Austin Park committee was held in 1963. All community organizations were represented. By the end of the year, picnic tables were donated by Skaneateles Lumber, the woods were cleaned out by the Auburn Rehabilitation Center, and the Sims Building was dedicated on behalf of the Rotary. The park's facilities included five fireplaces, three ball fields, the microd track and three drinking fountains.

At the end of the year, the Garden Club donated the proceeds of its annual house tour to the Austin Park Committee, and also donated trees and shrubs on other occasions. Fund raising was a primary concern, with talent shows, chicken barbecues, benefit baseball games, and "Camp-O-Rama" equipment shows being used to raise money to develop the park.

Hockey Returns

In 1967, Mayo Snyder, a former student of Coach Smith, returned to Skaneateles and, at the request of the Austin Park Committee, formed the Austin Park Boy's Hockey Association and organized a hockey team. The parking lot to the west of the current rink was flooded; volunteers sprayed it with water at midnight and shoveled when it snowed. But the rink was still at the mercy of unseasonably warm weather and ice time was limited. The community again raised the issue of the need for an enclosed rink with artificial ice - a place for the public to skate and hockey games to be held regardless of the weather.

In 1969, William G. Allyn (another of Coach Smith's students, and the captain of the Skaneateles High School baseball and hockey teams in 1925) offered to pay half the cost of a new rink with the State paying the other half, and the Village moved forward. Ahrendt Engineering, a firm that had designed 200 municipal and college rinks, submitted tentative plans for an uncovered rink. When State officials saw the plans, they suggested instead a pavilion style semi-enclosed rink. (They could not legally contribute to an enclosed building.) Agreement was reached and the long-awaited rink was
begun; it cost $440,000, with half of the money being raised locally. The Allyn Arena was completed in 1971, an event celebrated with the Skaneateles Jaycees "Sno Fest 71." The arena was enlarged with the addition of a warming room in 1979-80; the community raised $122,000 to fund that project.

The arena has served Skaneateles since the 1970's as a sports center, and in the summer for community programs such as Symphony concerts, antique shows, roller skating, Friday night movies, Firemen's Field Days, and the Rotary Club Father's Day Pancake Breakfast.

Among those who have served and contributed to the park over many years, are the Austin Park Board, the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, the Skaneateles Garden Club, the Jaycees, the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Skaneateles Volunteer Fire Department, Youth Hockey, Figure Skating, Town and Village government, the Skaneateles Schools, and many area businesses. Individuals like John Dougherty, Chester Hahn, Al Krause, Ted Lavery, Dave Sheppard and Dwight Winkelman left a legacy of hard work and public spirit.

The Skaneateles Community Center

In the 1960s, the Winkelman family offered the Village help for a pool, an effort rekindled in the 1990s by Mike Parker, Eileen Price and Mike Connor. William G. Allyn, along with Stephanie Devins and Chuck Gridley, advocated a second ice rink. A group including Joe Delaney, Dave Furth, Marty Hubbard, Jack Reid and others advanced the idea of a community center.

This in time led to the formation of the Skaneateles Recreational Charitable Trust, a group chartered to turn ideas into plans, to advocate and listen to the community, raise funds, acquire additional land, construct a building and donate the finished property back to the community. They were successful and the Skaneateles Community Center opened its doors in January of 2002.

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Sources:

Last will and testament of Clarence M. Austin
Filed July 10, 1922

Amherst College Biographical Record, Centennial Edition (1821-1921)
Published in 1927

"New 4-Passenger Monoplane Nearly Ready for Last Test"
Skaneateles Press
February 17, 1928

"The Skaneateles Recreation Center: A Brief History"
Anonymous typed manuscript
December 1970

"A Man Named Smith Lives on in New Rink"
Jean Bishop
Syracuse Herald-American
February 14, 1971

"Austin Park Development Fund, Inc."
Jill Newton
March 1980

"Austin Park Remembered"
Irma Lukins
Skaneateles Press-Observer
March 30, 1988

"Musings on the History of Austin Park"
Linda Russell
Speech to Rotary, 1988

Helen W. Ionta
Skaneateles Town Historian
Handwritten manuscript
August, 1992

Pat Blackler
Skaneateles Village Historian
December, 2001

Conversations with Bill & Lew Allyn
January, 2002

Kihm Winship
Copywriter, ChaseDesign
December 2001/January, 2002