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
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