LVRR Agriculture dept. and LV Agriculturist Fred Stevens.

[scottychaos]

Hey everyone,
We are very privileged to have some beautiful never-before-seen LV photos!

I recieved an email from Dave Stevens, along with the following two photos. Dave is the grandson of Fred Stevens, who was an official Agriculturist for the LVRR around the 1911-1914 time period.
Fred worked for the LV in NY state, Geneva-Ithaca and environs.

Dave wanted to know what the building in the background of the passenger car picture is..Im not sure..
my immediate thought was Glen Springs in Watkins Glen, but the LV didnt have tracks in front of Glen Springs like that..
(photo could have been anywhere along the LV I suppose..although Fred worked in NY)

I never even KNEW the LV had an Agriculturist!
very interesting..

Dave gave me permission to share the photos here, and he said he would join the forum to share more information about his Grandfather..
thanks Dave! and welcome aboard!

(I have larger-res scans, if anyone wants to see more details on anything..I resized the two below smaller for web use..)

thanks,
Scot

[scottychaos]

hmmm..im wondering now..
Cornell University has always been very strong in the study of Agriculture..still is to this day.
and Cornell always had very strong ties to the LV..
I wonder if the LV Agriculture department was in some way affiliated with Cornell??

and maybe those buildings are the back of the Cornell campus?
taken from the EC&N tracks behind the university?
maybe..although they dont look much like "Cornell buildings"..
but I dont know what Cornell looked like in 1911!

its a theory anyway..

Scot

[scottychaos]

detail of buildings:

[scottychaos]

I just flew around Cornell using:

http://maps.live.com/

and I found a few buildings on campus that have a similar look:



same number of floors, same window pattern..roof isnt quite the same, but details can change a lot in 100 years..

I think its Cornell..it all fits.

Scot

[AeroDave]

Wow Scot, I think you have a winner there. I never thought about the Cornell connection but the recent photo is really close to the same building style and layout.

I'm going to send a blowup of the buildings to my mom, she'll know if it's Cornell. She probably never saw this RR car photo until today.

Dave

[AeroDave]

I have sent the photo of the Agriculturist car to some historians at Cornell. They have forwarded the photo to others who may be able to confirm the identity of the buildings.

My mom, a '48 grad of Cornell, says it looks like the Ag school at Cornell but remembered that the LVRR tracks run into downtown Ithaca and not up on the hills... as you figured Scot...

I'm betting it's Cornell.

Dave

[scottychaos]

Dave,
there were also LV tracks "up on the hill" behind Cornell..
they ran south and east of the campus...they ran right next to the powerplant near the big football stadium.

Im thinking the photo of the passenger car is to the east of campus, looking generally west, or north-west, with Cayuga lake behind the campus.

and yes, there were also LV tracks downtown at "lake level"..two different LV lines.

The "upper" LV tracks no longer exist..the "lower" tracks do still exist.

Scot

[EastIthaca]

Yep, those are Stone, Roberts, and East Roberts halls at the College of Agriculture at Cornell, completed 1907 and demolished in the 1980s. The photograph would be looking roughly northwest from the EC&N.

[EastIthaca]

Here's a quick and dirty diagram, using a Microsoft image from 1995. (Please excuse the sloppiness; had to use GIMP, which I find very difficult to use.)

[AeroDave]

I have to say, I'm impressed! You guys sure know your LVRR and Ithaca/Cornell history.
I found 2 other photos of my grandfather in a folder marked LVRR. One is of him at a desk in an office. Same era so it probably is a LVRR building. There's a large map on the wall behind him with a "winged locomotive" logo on it. At least it looks that way.
The other photo is of the old guy standing on a porch, revolver in hand, pointing at something or someone. I can't help but laugh when I look at it. Probably because I remember his voice changing to a "Yosemite Sam" kind of tone when he got mad about some injustice or outrage. He was normally a very quiet, well spoken man. I will post them, if I can figure out how.

Thanks again for the in-depth history on the photo of the rail car.

Dave

[AeroDave]

I have to say, I'm impressed! You guys sure know your LVRR and Ithaca/Cornell history.
I found 2 other photos of my grandfather in a folder marked LVRR. One is of him at a desk in an office. Same era so it probably is a LVRR building. There's a large map on the wall behind him with a "winged locomotive" logo on it. At least it looks that way.
The other photo is of the old guy standing on a porch, revolver in hand, pointing at something or someone. I can't help but laugh when I look at it. Probably because I remember his voice changing to a "Yosemite Sam" kind of tone when he got mad about some injustice or outrage. He was normally a very quiet, well spoken man. I will post them, if I can figure out how.

Thanks again for the in-depth history on the photo of the rail car.

Dave

[AeroDave]

Cornell historians/archivists have confirmed even the names of the Cornell Ag buildings in the LVRR car photo exactly as EastIthaca called them.

It turns out that the photo is archived at Cornell... looks better than the one I have.

http://he-photos.library.cornell.edu/im ... record=260

try that link and you will be able to view the Cornell scan, I hope. It is very clear... better detail of the car.

My thanks again to Scot and EastIthaca!

Now lets see if I can post this just ONCE.

Dave