Thanks, Carl for the history lesson. I agree with you about the name. I've lived in the area nearly 51 yrs. & have NEVER connected the name Fuertes with Renwick or Stewart because NO ONE ever, in my hearing, called it that, even the elderly woman I knew whose bro., a conductor on the trolley, was killed by a robber.
And yes, the old entrance to Stewart Park was much different than today. Fritzie ----- Original Message ----- From: Carl Steckler To: cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 10:31 AM Subject: [PMX:#] Re: [cayugabirds-l] Renwick vs. Fuertes Having grown up in Ithaca and after 64 years it is hard to change old habits. Also some of us are resistant to change :?) Having said that here is a piece of Ithaca history that you might find interesting. In the late 1790s, Andrew Moodie received Military Lot No. 88 as part of his land grant after service in the Revolutionary War. James Renwick, a prominent American architect, bought part of this grant. In the early 1890s, the Cascadilla School purchased forty acres of land to develop athletic facilities.Then a trolley line was constructed to the lake and the Cayuga Lake Electric Railway Company developed an amusement park. These forty acres and Port Renwick became Renwick Park, which opened in 1894 to the general public. In the early nineteen-teens, the Renwick Park and Traffic Association privately leased the park to the Wharton brothers to use as a film studio. The City purchased the park from the Renwick Park and Traffic Association in 1921. One month before the park's formal opening, Mayor Stewart died and the park was renamed Stewart Park in his honor. In the mid-twentieth century, the park contained a zoo, a merry-go-round, and the renovation of the dance pavilion for use as Ithaca's first vaudeville theater. In 1908, due to the decrease in ridership, the Cayuga Lake Electric Railway Company was dissolved and the Renwick Park and Traffic Association was formed to replace it. Sometime around 1915, trolley access to the park was discontinued. At this same time, 55 acres south of the park were set aside as a bird sanctuary and maintained by the Cayuga Bird Club.The area at the southeastern end of Cayuga Lake where Stewart Park and the Newman Municipal Golf Course was a marsh until the early twentieth century, when the marsh was filled in to extend available area for homes and businesses in the West End. In 1927 Fuertes died in an automobile accident in Ithaca. At that time he was the President of the Cayuga Bird Club. The club, in his honor, renamed this part of the Renwick Estate Fuertes Bird Sanctuary. So now you can see why there is some confusion, and "now you know the rest of the story" One more little bit of trivia that Dave Nutter reminded me of, The access to where the Yellow-throated Warbler was seen was the original access to Stewart Park. Rt. 13 as we know it now didn't exist until the early 1960s Carl Steckler -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics Rules and Information Subscribe, Configuration and Leave Archives: The Mail Archive Surfbirds BirdingOnThe.Net Please submit your observations to eBird! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
