A voice student of Community Music School teacher Maria Goodrich, Keyes was one of two winners in the ages 18-20 category. She will receive a $50 scholarship to the school.

Judges for the 2018 competition included soprano Cheryl Hudson, guitarist Peter VanDyke and pianist Anna Whistler, all members of the Community Music School faculty. Other 2018 competition winners were Jackson Lasher of Lockport, Waylon Mattimore of Buffalo, Andreea Merzianu of Buffalo, Lauren Roetzer of Lockport and Ellie Zhu of East Amherst.

Founded in 1924, Community Music School provides instrument and voice lessons for people of all ages. For information, contact the school at 884.4887 or info@cms-buffalo.org, or visit w.

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I have faithfully continues to follow the web site in England and enjoy reading all about the fabulous activities they offer. They also have great video of the whole restoration process and the history of the pottery making industry in their area.   Recently a former student of mine from

Middleport Elementary School, Stephanie Cuzzacrea and her husband Steve Bradshaw, made a visit to England, where Steve once lived and where his mother still resides. They sent me this lovely book, which was delivered to my home the same day that I received a special post card from the marketing manager at Middleport Pottery. It really is a small world after all. I will be sharing more about our Middleport with their Middleport in the near future.

If you would like to learn more about Middleport Pottery, check out www.middleportpottery.co.uk.

Also check out some of the old dishes great granny or someone left behind. You just might have a treasure from the original Middleport Pottery brought over by an early ancestor.

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PLEASE do not flush unwanted items as that has had a tremendously negative impact on the environment. All drugs and supplements deposited in the dropbox are disposed of responsibly by the proper authorities.

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Copies can be purchased for $12 plus tax at the Middleport Family Health Center, the Book Shoppe on Main Street in Medina or the Village Hall.

For those who no longer live in the area, you may make your purchase from Amazon in book form or in Kindle editions ($5).  Thank you to all of you for your patience and constant support in getting this book to print.

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The building of the church was accomplished with smooth, egg shaped stones gathered by the congregation from the shore of Lake Ontario and under the supervision of stone mason Emery Smith.

Reverend Linus Everett was chosen to dedicate the church in 1842. In 1870 the Middleport Church was valued at $8 thousand dollars with the only church bell withing the village as well as the first organ. Due to diminished membership, the church closed its doors in 2015 and the building was sold. Many of their books and some other artifacts were donated to the office of the Village Historian, and are currently on display at the Middleport Village Hall.

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By 1893, James Hulihan and Thomas Conley owned the Royalton Basket Company which supplied local fruit farmers with different size baskets ranging from berry baskets to fruit crates. The logs were floated down the canal and held in the log pond until they were needed. The lower level of the building was used to cut the logs into strips while the assembling of the baskets took place on the top floor.

Deliveries of the finished baskets were made by horse and wagon to local farmers. Owners of the business at its closing in 1934 were James and Timothy O’Shaughnessey.

Today we look forward to once again having the building in use as the Basket Factory Restaurant.

*See this article about the Basket Factory Restaurant re-opening. 

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All history lovers, especially those who love learning more about our little village, will be pleased to hear that the history written by our previous historian, Anna Wallace, is about to go to press.  During her 30 year tenure as historian, Anna collected stories that go back to the beginning of our community in the early 1800s up to her retirement in 2010.

I recently had a visit with her at her residence in Rochester where I shared with her a proof copy of her writings,  now compiled in a book entitled “A Friendly Community, A History of Middleport, New York.”

The book will contains lots of interesting facts as well as 130 pictures from old newspapers, post cards and private photos. After a little more editing, we should be going to press in a few weeks.

The history will be available locally and also through Amazon.

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In a newspaper article from 1972, Mrs. Wilmot was quoted that she took up painting when a local art class needed new members. She had never had any formal training but often admired scenes, thinking they might make a good picture. She would spend the next twenty years of her life painting scenes mostly of local interest.

Today many of her works can be found in the collection of the Royalton Hartland Community Library and the Village Hall in Middleport. Mrs. Wilmot lived until 1974 and after the passing of Mr. Wilmot in 1975, the major portion of their estate was left in trust to numerous educational, religious, health and civic organizations.

This photo shows Myrtle Lewis Wilmot with her father Elgie Lewis.  Her father will be featured in a future article about his incredible inventions.

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Since many of these names are no longer part of our business community, you might enjoy stopping by on Tuesdays or Thursdays between 10 and 3 to learn a little about the history of these businesses.

Richard Maedl of Maedl Woodcrafts generously donated his time, talents and the wood to creating this beautiful display cabinet. Displays will change every few months with topics like Middleport churches, Dr. Kent Williams, banking from the early days of private bankers and Middleport Union School already in the planning stages.

I always enjoy hearing from visitors their own recollections of growing up in Middleport so please make a stop at the historian’s office the next time you are on Main Street and passing by the village hall.

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