Being a former long-time resident of Middleport, I found the article in the Union Sun and Journal about the Village’s sesquicentennial celebration very interesting. I was eight years old the year of the bicentennial and my parents purchased a derby hat for me for the occasion at Harputer’s store on State Street. (No, I’m sorry, that was Sam’s Grocery Store—Harputer’s was on Main Street near Jones Hardware.)

I still have and display the two commemorative plates from 1959 even though I live in Lockport now.

I remembered more of the establishments that no longer grace Main Street. There was J & J’s, the after school hangout, the Fenton Hotel that my friends and I used to explore, hoping not to get caught. Then there was Germain’s Grocery, and the Middleport Theater, which Holy Cross used for services for a few years. Now we can’t forget Litchfield’s next to the dry cleaners that had been the Middleport newspaper before that. Last but not least, Plowies and Mike’s barber shop.

R. Douglas Voelker