Arcade Historical Society

05/28/2026

ACS FOOTBALL PLAYERS FITTED FOR MOUTH GUARDS – May 1962. Doctors Donald Watkins and George Evans volunteered to fit players with the newly required mouthguards as a public service. The protectors were mandated by a new law from the National Football Rules Committee in 1962. Any boy playing football had to wear a mouthguard. In the photo are Doctor Watkins, left, Doctor Evans, right. Seated are Craig Stone, left, and Ronnie Ashworth, right.

05/25/2026

HISTORY SPEAKS PROGRAMS BEGIN TOMORROW, TUESDAY, MAY 26

The Arcade Historical Society’s lecture series kicks off tomorrow, Tuesday, May 26th, at 7pm. Jane Oakes presents a new program on Clara Barton featuring the Red Cross founder’s never-before-revealed correspondence with friends in Dansville, NY. In addition to Barton’s story, a local soldier-in-hospital anecdote will be on display. First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln comforted East Arcade native and Union soldier James Agen while he was in a Washington, D.C. hospital and wrote his mother a note.

You are also invited to sign our 250th National Anniversary Quilt. This quilt has been designed, sewn and donated by Arcade’s well-known quilt authority, Sandy Pirdy. Autograph quilts have a long history and the society has several in their collection from 1858, 1920s, and the 1976 bicentennial. These quilts are a snapshot of their time. Come sign your name and become a part of history!

The program is approximately one hour in length and is held at the Arcade Historical Society’s Old Fire Hall, 15 Liberty Street. The hall is air conditioned and fully accessible with an entrance ramp and a lift to the second-floor lecture hall. The building will open half an hour before the program.

Funding for this program is provided by the NYS 250th Commemoration Commission & New York State Education Department.

05/24/2026

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

05/21/2026

CHANGE IN SCHEDULE AT THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR ARCADE ELEMENTARY VISITS TO GIBBY HOUSE. The Old Fire Hall office and research center (15 Liberty Street) will be closed on Tuesday, May 26th during the day because we will be busy with the 4th graders graduation tour of the Gibby House. However, the History Speaks Clara Barton lecture will be held that evening, opening the building at 6:30pm
The Gibby House (331 W. Main) will also be closed to the public on the following two Thursdays while we host the rest of the elementary classes: May 28th and June 4th.

05/18/2026

HISTORY SPEAKS LECTURES START TUESDAY, MAY 26TH - This year, the Arcade Historical Society’s History Speaks series highlights several points in our 250 years as a nation along with local connections to that history. Kicking off the series on Tuesday, May 26th, at 7pm, Jane Oakes presents a new program on Clara Barton. During Barton's years in Dansville, New York, she founded the Red Cross. Barton maintained correspondence with her Dansville connections until her death. This never-before-revealed correspondence is part of Jane Oakes’ presentation.

In addition to the presentations, the society has a special 250th Anniversary quilt for people to sign at the lecture programs (pictured here). This 250th autograph quilt has been designed, sewn and donated by Arcade’s well-known quilt authority, Sandy Pirdy. Autograph quilts have a long history, and the society has several in their collection from 1858, 1920s, and from the 1976 bicentennial. These quilts are a snapshot of their time. Come sign your name and become a part of history!

Other programs to follow this summer include a World War Two exhibit opening on June 30th with a presentation on Heroes of the Holocaust; next, is Revolutionary War Battles of Lexington & Concord on July 28th; and on August 24th, “Vintage Tweets,” a program about the postcards and ads promoting women’s suffrage in the early 1900s. See the society website for more information.

Each program is approximately one hour in length. All programs will be held at the Arcade Historical Society’s Old Fire Hall 15 Liberty Street. The hall is fully accessible with an entrance ramp and a lift to the second-floor lecture hall. The building will open half an hour before the program.

Funding for these programs is provided by the NYS 250th Commemoration Commission & New York State Education Department. Donations gratefully accepted.

05/14/2026

REMEMBER WHEN – the stores closed on Wednesday afternoons? This notice was in the paper on May 20, 1938. Effective for June, July and August. Yours truly remembers stores closed Wednesday afternoons in the 60s.

05/11/2026

SS. PETER & PAUL’S LAYING OF THE CORNERSTONE, MAY 1908 – In the early 1800s, Arcade area Catholic families journeyed to St. Patrick’s at Java Center for their services until the creation of St. Mary’s Church at East Arcade in 1846. But many wanted a parish in the village. As noted in Harry Douglass’ book, Progress With a Past, “In January 1906, an active campaign to raise funds to build a church began at a social in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Rowan.” By 1907 they felt they had a strong case to present to the bishop to create a new parish. June 29, 1907, Ss. Peter & Paul’s Roman Catholic Church was founded by the Most Reverend Charles H. Colton, Bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo. Services were held at the Masonic Temple, followed by the Macabee Hall (on second floor at SE corner of Park & Main) until sufficient funds were raised to purchase a site on West Main Street and commence construction of the church.

Harry Douglass writes about the day the cornerstone was laid: “May 12, 1908, saw the laying of the cornerstone by Bishop Colton, who came to Arcade aboard a private car on the Buffalo & Susquehanna Railroad. This granite stone contains coins of 1908, an historical document relating to its laying, copies of newspapers and the names on parchment of all who contributed to the church. Twelve priests were present and were entertained at the rectory by the pastors while other guests dined at the Masonic Temple. Fisher’s Band of java Village, the Fire Department, and numerous delegations from neighboring Catholic churches were in the welcoming parade.”

05/04/2026

ARCADE & DELEVAN-MACHIAS MERGER VOTE, MAY 1966 – Residents of the two school districts were voting on the future of the area’s educational facilities and it was a much-debated topic. The Arcade Herald solicited opinions - students, teachers, businessmen, farmers, house wives - and printed them in the paper along with advertisements encouraging people to get out and vote on May 31, 1966.

04/30/2026

BUILDING HISTORY, 259 MAIN STREET, THE BEARDSLEY BLOCK -
The first buildings in this location were wooden and burned in the December 1898 fire. The brick buildings, built in 1899, were known as the Beardsley, Keeney and Hayes Blocks—see the names on the pediments at the top of the buildings. In 2026, Studio 259 Salon is in what once was the Beardsley Block.
Other businesses that have been in this location include:
1899 - McKerrow Store
1900s - Gem Theater, later the Amusu Theatre with Amusu Billiards and lunch room
1940s - Hammonds Billiard Room
1947-1970s - Western Auto
2000s - Joseph’s Styling Center
April 2018 - Studio 259 Salon

The storefronts were remodeled in 1960.

04/27/2026

LOCAL STORIES OF WWII – The Arcade Historical Society is working on an exhibit of local veterans of World War II. There are hundreds of men and women who served from our area, in all the various theatres of that war – Europe, Africa, Middle East, Mediterranean, Pacific, India, Burma, Japan. The exhibit will debut at the end of June and include a book of all the veterans we have found. Come look up your guy or gal and add to our information about them.

Over the years we have assembled a number of WWII stories from our Memorial Day Walking With Heroes Tours in local cemeteries. At Yorkshire cemetery, we were surprised to learn about Railway Operating Battalions, courtesy of the late Donald G. King’s family. Don King had been an employee of the Arcade & Attica Railroad for roughly 14 years before he entered the service in WWII as a Tec5 in the 741st Railway Operating Battalion (R.O.B.). King did not talk about his military service, but he did make a photo album from his time in the war. One photo had a note on it: “4 Aces of the 741 R.O.B.” That was the clue that led to more research into the Military Railway Service. Following are excerpts from the web page armyhistory.org/railroaders-in-olive-drab-the-military-railway-service-in-wwii.

“The mission of a railway operating battalion was to manage and maintain a designated section of a military railway in a theater of operations. Unlike civilian railroads, however, the battalions also had to be prepared to destroy the line it operated. In general, a railway operating battalion could maintain and operate between ninety and 150 miles of single-track railroad, although its actual area of responsibility in wartime depended on the military situation. When conducting rail operations in friendly areas or occupied territory, the battalion used local civilian technical and skilled railway employees to augment its capabilities, but they had to be supervised by military personnel to safeguard against possible sabotage. It also presented challenges to the English-speaking American soldier-railroaders who were not always familiar with how other countries operated their railways.

“Between D-Day at Normandy and V-E Day, MRS [Military Railway Service] loaded and moved more than eighteen million tons of military freight. On 7 June 1945, American railroaders were operating 1,937 locomotives, 34,588 freight cars, and 25,150 miles of track in Western Europe.

Come to the exhibit to see more on the Railway Operating Battalion Don was a part of. And let us know about the WWII vet in your family so we can add them to the exhibit.

In July 1861, Confederate Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston dramatically demonstrated the importance of railroads in modern warfare when he moved 12,000 troops by rail from Piedmont Station (now Delaplane), […]

04/23/2026

FASHION KNITTING MILL IN ARCADE – This photo is an advertisement which appeared in the 1902 New Century Atlas of Wyoming County. This factory, which used the power of the Cattaraugus Creek near present-day Sanford Avenue, was one of several early major industries in Arcade. The original building for the Fashion Knitting Mill stood idle between 1893 and 1898 when John C. Sanford acquired it.

As described by the late Harry Douglass’ in his book, Progress with a Past, “Within in a brief time Mr. Sandford endeared himself to the community and his Fashion Knitting Mill was successful. He was drowned in a tragic accident, March 23, 1904, when he was working with two other men to pry a large piece of ice from the mill pond above Water Street. His body was swept over the dam and recovered the same day in the stream opposite West Main, a half-mile from the scene of the accident. He had been a manufacturer in Cohoes until fire destroyed his knitting mill; was two years in Buffalo, and then came to Arcade.”

The property was sold in 1904 and then operated as the Oak Knitting Company. Things went well for 22 years until increasing competition from southern textile mills made the firm choose to move their machinery south as well. Close to 150 employees – many of them women – lost their jobs just before the Depression.