Chemung History
Elmira, New York

By Diane Janowski © copyright - all rights reserved     I may be the only person who knows what the “Elmira Compact” was, although there...

by Diane Janowski, Elmira City Historian The Mountain House, located about three miles west of Elmira, was a famous roadhouse in the...

By Diane Janowski, Elmira City Historian A bear pit was completed at Eldridge Park the last week of June 1891. Two caverns and a pen were...

by Diane Janowski Over the years, many fine products have been made locally. If you grew up here, you learned about our fire hydrants,...

By Diane Janowski, Elmira City Historian Historians sometimes lie awake at night, thinking about things. I spent several nights this week...

By Diane Janowski, Elmira City Historian Louis Leon was born in Darmstadt, Germany, on November 27, 1841. Louis and his German-born...

By Diane Janowski, Elmira City Historian Those of us past a certain age remember our beloved Iszards on North Main Street. We recollect...

by Diane Janowski Matthias Hollenback was born on February 15, 1752, in either Virginia or Jonestown, Pennsylvania, depending on the...

By Diane Janowski, Elmira City Historian In my capacity as Historian of the City of Elmira, New York, one of my greatest pleasures is...

By Diane Janowski, Elmira City Historian I do a lot of research using old Star-Gazette newspapers. One of the names I often see is Police...

by Diane Janowski, Elmira City Historian Parts of New York Route 17 (today’s Interstate 86) were designated in 1924. It was constructed...

By Diane Janowski On July 27, 1891, forty-year-old Reverend Wellington White and family were on sabbatical from their lives as Christian...

by ©Diane Janowski, Elmira City Historian, all rights reserved Modern hydropathy – a system of treating illnesses using water was...

By ©Diane Janowski Last year, someone asked if I knew anything about an Elmiran named Frank Converse. Instantly, I thought of sneakers....

By By©Diane Janowski, all rights reserved From the Elmira Gazette, Saturday & Sunday, March 1 & 2, 1902 “Elmira is shut off from the rest...

By©Diane Janowski, all rights reserved You know that I love mystery photos. I recently acquired this one marked “J.H. Clark” with a...