Village History
Middleport Resident Recollections
Stories, memories and images from the Village of Middleport archive. Choose an item below to read more.
Car in the canal
I and my family were present when the car parked outside of the hardware store had somehow slipped into reverse… It was running at the time… And plunged into the canal, closing it for the…
On the job in Middleport
Recollected by Bill Shaw, long-time Middleport resident We worked on Saturdays too in those days. Someone realized that I didn’t have my working papers. I got sent to old Doc Wilmont. He…
Delivering to the Basket Factory
By Anna Wallace, Former Village Historian This is how the Basket Factory look in about 1908. Seated on the delivery wagon is Paul McClew of Watson Ave. how is about to leave to deliver…
Taking the trolley
The trolley depot was at the corner of Main and Park Ave. It was torn down to build the post office. The trolley stopped at all the crossroads. The horse shed for the Universalist Church…
Middleport High School’s last play
The Star Theatre was referred to as the opera house and was on State Street. On the second floor was a dance hall. The last play put on by the Middleport High School was performed there in…
A dairy in Middleport
Harry Shaw started a milk business from his car. He would load the milk from the family farm on Griswold St. and sell it in glass bottles. He built a little block building on South St. in…
Farming memories
My father owned a large farm north of Middleport known as the Mather Farm. My father, Jay B. Mather, farmed what was the old William Van Horn farm on the Stone Road. Stone Road at one time…
The Lamp Lighter
By Edwin T. Sheldon I was born in 1941 at 25 Francis Street. I spent the first 25 years of my life there. I have been reading over the information on the Erie Barge Canal but there was no…
Westy’s by the bridge
In the 1950’s and into the early 60’s, there a little ramshackle store called “Westy’s” that was situated next to the bridge tower. It was run by an old man named Raymond Midaugh. He used…
Down on Main Street
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…