"Modern" Furniture and Historical Remains

We left Syracuse on Tuesday morning and backtracked a bit.  We wanted to visit the Stickley furniture factory and the Stickley Museum in Fayetteville.  The factory tour was fascinating.  We know now why this lovely furniture is so expensive.  Even though the factory is larger and more efficient, much of the work is done by hand, one piece at a time.  I have always loved the mission style and prairie style furniture designed by Stickley and his craftsmen.  We saw it being put together, dyed, and varnished.  New or old, it is beautiful, durable and timeless.

We travelled on to Camillus to see the Nine Mile Aqueduct which was rebuilt and re-watered by a group of citizen volunteers who wanted to preserve this bit of history.  When we saw it, we finally understood how the aqueduct worked and why it helped with the flow of traffic along the canal.  Rebuilding this was a lot of work and those who did it have created a lovely, peaceful park along the canal.  I'm sure it is much more peaceful than the canal was in its heyday.

 Stone pillars supporting aqueduct

 Aqueduct "bed" of water carrying boats over rapids

 

One of many spots to rest and reflect along the canalway

We drove through a couple of small towns without stopping and then we came into Seneca Falls.  We wanted to see a couple of the locks on the Cayuga-Seneca Canal.  It is not part of the Erie system but is part of the New York State Canal System.  In many ways Seneca Falls is considered the birthplace of the fight for women's rights.  Here is just one reason for that designation.

The house was simple, strong and straightforward.  Thank you Ms. Stanton for your pioneering work.  

We found the locks and discovered that this set of locks was a double lock.  Boats moved from one to the next in order to climb the 49 feet.

 Lock 2 with lift gate

 Lock 3 with swing gate

Since we were in Seneca Falls, we decided to visit one of the Finger Lakes wineries.  We visited Montezuma Winery and found out that it is the same winery we visited five years ago on our trip through New York to Maine!

This morning, Wednesday, it was raining.  A lot.  We decided to travel farther than usual and to stop briefly to take pictures of places we wanted to record.  So we headed back to the Erie Canalway and drove to Lyons.  We found Lock 27.  Then we found some terrific murals in Lyons.  They were located all over town and beautifully done.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

The town of Lyons is old and many storefronts are empty, but the murals depict the influence of the canal on the vibrant past and the restoration work that is going on now.

It started raining really hard, so we got back in the truck and headed on down the road.  We stopped outside of Brockport to photograph Holly Falls.  Fortunately, the rain stopped long enough for us to take those pictures and to photograph a special visitor at the falls.

It was interesting to note that every time there was something we really wanted to photograph, the rain let up long enough for us to do that.

Having driven this far, we decided to go to Lockport and book a room so we can take our time exploring all of the canal related sites tomorrow.  I think we will be ON the canal - not just along it!