LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - APRIL 15, 2018 Birds-Eye-View of LeRoy by Lynne Belluscio Published birds-eye- view maps were very popular from 1840 through 1920 – be- fore the airplane made it pos- sible to actually get an aerial view. These maps are some- times called pictorial maps, il- lustrated maps, panoramic maps and perspective maps. They were not used as a map per se. Drawing these maps required a lot of work. The map mak- ers would have to walk all the streets and roads of the village and sketch the buildings from the ground level, and then trans- fer their sketches to the map of the village and draw them from an imaginary perspective point. (Even today, birds-eye- view maps are used to highlight tourist spots such as restaurants, specialty shops, historic places and museums.) Sometimes the maps were exaggerated, show- ing a bustling town with facto- ries and mills, when in reality, the main street was deserted and the factories were much smaller than depicted. There were several leading panoramic map artists in the United States: Herman Brosius, Camile Drie, Thaddeus Fowler, Henry Welge and oth- ers. The Library of Congress has a collection of over 1800 panoramic maps and many of them have been reproduced. The Historical Society has two original 1892 LeRoy maps by Lucien Burleigh of Troy, New York. He also produced a map of Caledonia and he is known for 228 different maps. Lucien R. Burleigh was listed as a civ- il engineer in Troy in 1883 and three years later he was listed as a lithographer. His firm was known for doing “fine work in all branches of engraving and printing with views of buildings and villages a specialty”. Most of his maps were published be- tween 1885 and 1890. Recently, we acquired an excellent reproduction of the LeRoy map and had it framed and it is now hangs in the Vil- lage Hall, with a couple other reproduction maps of LeRoy. The LeRoy map has many de- tails, including the LeRoy salt well derricks, the three rail- road bridges across the creek as well as the old suspension walk bridge. The O.F. Woodward Medicine Company is locat- ed in the Lampson building on the north side of Main Street. (This was seven years before he bought the rights to Jell-O.) The large malt factory can be seen between the creek and Church Street. The old town hall on Bank Street is pictured with the tower used to dry fire hose. The buildings of Ingham University, which was to close in 1892, are also pictured. There is a lot of history recorded on this map. If you have the chance, stop by the Village Hall and take a close look at the map, or if you stop by the Jell-O Gal- lery, we have a framed original on display in the basement. If you are interested in acquiring a reproduction of this map, we bought ours on Ebay, but there are other sources for them. T-shirts • Hats • Visors • Tank Tops • Jackets • Towels GREAT GIFTS FOR YOUR FAMILY • FRIENDS • ETC. 1 Church St., Le Roy, NY • 585-768-2201 • Fax 585-768-6334 • Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8:00-5:00 E M B R O I D E R Y lpgraphics.net