Brockport: Through Time

During the twentieth century Brockport, NY was transformed from a village whose economy relied heavily on manufacturing to a college town. The Erie Canal that had given the town its birth, growth, and prosperity faded as a means to ship freight, and rose as a recreational area. An educational hub grew out of a Normal School with a few hundred two-year students to a four-year comprehensive college and graduate school with 8,600 students.The types of retail businesses in the historic commercial district of Main Street changed dramatically. Streets transformed from dirt to cobblestone to bricks to asphalt. Transportation shifted from trolleys and trains, horses and buggies, to automobiles. Yet, much remained the same. The Victorian homes and commercial structures on Main Street survived a near brush with Urban Renewal. With the canal continuing to be the heart of the village, the college and many schools serve to enrich Brockport’s mind. This short book attempts to document the most visible–and vivid–aspects of that transformation.