We met up and headed out to Hartwick. When we arrived, we saw that the front of the store had been covered up.........which is why I had not noticed this interesting old building on a previous explorations trip last year.
The open house was great. We were allowed to explore most of the first floor, and the second floor, and on the first floor there were a lot of items from the days when the building functioned as a store. It opened up in 1879 and closed in l959. Here are pictures of how it looked long, long ago.................
We decided that since we were already out, we had time to do some exploring. I pulled out my LANDMARKS OF OTSEGO COUNTY book, and we headed off. The first place we found was a place I have wanted to see for a long time. The original BRESEE'S STORE. We found it rather easily, and here is a picture of it.
It was especially neat to see this old building now since Bresee's Department Store in Oneonta is being torn down as I type this. Of course, its a big project, the demolition has been going on for weeks and will probably continue for several more weeks. But this old place still stands on a back road in Hartwick, New York. We drove back to the village of Hartwick, stopping a couple of times so I could take pictures. The next building we looked for was an old district school house in the Town of Hartwick that was pictured in "the book". We located the intersection in the book but no schoolhouse. We figured that maybe it had been torn down recently, but as we continued down 59 we found it at the corner of 59 and Bush Road. Here is a picture.
We also found a small old cemetery down Bush Road, and I want to return to hide a geocache there in good weather. Then we located a "Hop House" that is in the book. Here is a picture:
We saw at least one more "landmark" from the book and then headed back. We were going to try to find one geocache THE BEEHIVE, but the batteries in Leslie's GPS gave out, and I did not have my GPS with me. We got a bit lost right around that time, but eventually I recognized a back road that I knew would take us to Laurens where Leslie had left her car.
It was a great afternoon even though it was cold. It was fun driving my Subaru Forester SUV on those back roads. Thats what SUV's are for! If you see this Leslie, thanks for telling me about the Open House at the old store.
Pictures for this adventure can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157625758883247/
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