This article entitled “Middleport Connection” was published on the front page of the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, and the paper has given their permission for it to be reproduced here. Article written by Michael Canfield

Back in January, Village of Middleport Historian Christa Lutz received an email from an English man who was interested in learning about the village. The man, who hails from Burslem, England, is employed by the Prince’s Regeneration Trust, an initiative working to rehabilitate historic sites around England.

As it turns out, there is a Middleport in England. It is a suburb of Burslem and is situated on a canal, like its American counterpart.

“He wondered how we were alike and how we were different,” Lutz said, noting that she sent him pictures of the village.

The man, Alan Christian, was also interested in the former name of the village, Tea-Pot Hollow. While no one knows for sure, there was a store owner in the area whose store became the hub of the area, Lutz said.

“It is said that he always had the tea pot on in the hollow,” she said. “Do we know it’s true? Who knows? Everyone believes that Middleport comes from the fact that we’re halfway between Albion and Lockport.”

When Lutz first took office as village historian, she had a box of artifacts to go through. Among the artifacts was a small dish, with a stamp on it that says it was made at Middleport Pottery, from Burslem, England.

At the time, the stamp didn’t mean much to Lutz, but as she corresponded with the man, she began to realize that there may be a connection between the two Middleports.

“I realized when he and I started communicating that Lockport, Newport, Albion, Royalton, Hartland, Lyndonville, all those names that we have around here, they have over here, as well,” she said.

Vermont also had similar names on old maps, Lutz said, leading her to believe that people from the Burslem area in England moved to Vermont first and then on to Middleport.

“We think, and we haven’t shown any proof, that those people moved here,” she said. “And this little dish may have belonged to some family a long time ago. Middleport Pottery is from the 1850s. It’s conceivable that the dish came with some family, moved to Vermont and ended up here, and when the canal was built, maybe someone said, ‘Why don’t we call it Middleport?’.”

As part of the regeneration project, Middleport Pottery was relaunched in June. Before the relaunch, Christian asked Lutz what the back stamp on the tea set in the village hall for visiting dignitaries read in Middleport.

“I said, ‘Well, I love your comment about the fine China for the visiting dignitaries, but here you tend to end up across the street at the pub for beer and Buffalo chicken wings, which is everyone’s favorite,'” she said.

As a gift for the relaunch, Christian sent the village two handmade bowls, for the beer and the chicken wings, especially made for Middleport, NY. The dishes were dedicated at a recent Village Board meeting.

“He said, ‘These are one of a kind and custom made just for you,'” Lutz said.

As for the ties between the two Middleports, Lutz said she will continue to look for evidence of a connection between the two regions.

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On the 1860 map of the Village, the first after incorporation, the area between Main Street and Vernon Street, now “the park”, was “Common Hall”. Possibly developed in a way similar to the old New England villages where the public buildings surrounded the village square, in that in 1827 the Methodist Episcopal Church was built on the southwest corner of the Common in 1841 the Universalist Church was erected on Main Street at the end of the Common, and in 1843 the Academy was built across from the Methodist Church.

At the southeast end of the Common, District #1 school was built in 1846 with the third addition in 1898. Across the corner the Vernon Hotel was erected by 1874, becoming the Grove House by 1886 and burning in 1899. In 1889 the Presbyterian Church was built at the east end of the Common on Vernon Street. The new Methodist Church was built on its site in 1899.

Trees on either side of the park were planted between 1878-1884.

The coming of the trolley in 1908 created a furor as the route was planned to come down Liberty Street (presently the east end of Park Avenue), go across the park and out Church Street. After litigation, the tracks did go through the park. Possibly to appease those people opposed, the whole street was named Park Avenue. It officially became a street in 1915. Curbing was laid in the early 1920s. Park Avenue was repaved and newly curbed in the summer of 2003 and remnants of the old trolley tracks were removed.

The original buildings in the park burned: The hotel in 1896, the church and school in 1910 and the Common became a park. $1000 was received from the estate of Truman Jennings, Mayor of the Village (1907-1910) for a fountain to be placed in the park. The next year, a $500 memorial was donated by the wife of R. S. Hawkins, Village Clerk from 1907-1910, to beautify the park.

In 1930 a pond was put in near the southeast end of Park Avenue to surround the memorial fountain, and the addition of shrubbery and benches created a small park that became a popular spot for the citizenry to relax and “watch the world go by”. The fountain statue chosen for the pond was Berge’s “Duck Mother”.

The park was abused and in 1950 the bronze statue was removed and placed in the Village Public Works Garage. About 30 years later, the head of the Department found it and cleaned it. It now graces the hallway as one enters the Village Board room. Because of a complaint about the small nude statue where “everyone could see it,” for several years it was draped with a beige crocheted shawl. It now stands as it was intended.

The area of the fountain pond now blossoms with flowering bulbs in the spring and impatiens in the summer.

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