Comments on: A Reader’s Response to Utica’s History

By: Louis Barile

Louis Barile — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:47:29 +0000

The Imperial Restaurant and other adjacent structures were demolished to make way for the EastWest Arterial. Ironically, the East-West Arterial also was planned as an elevated roadway but the operators of the Boston Store objectgedd strenously and so it was constructed at ground level. The Imperial Restaurant moved to Seneca Street across from the Hotel Utica where it did a grat business until the owners decided to call it quits. So, the Imperial Restaurant closed after a stint in business on Seneca Street. Len and Howard Cramer were good friends of mine.

By: S. Williams

S. Williams — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:07:51 +0000

Imperial Restaurant closed in 1983 after being in business 57 years. Both owners, Leonard and Howard Cramer, are deceased.It was the official club of the Observer Dispatch employees.

By: R.B. Phillips

R.B. Phillips — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:02:58 +0000

How did Dewey’s moustache look, Mr, Barile? He was the only politician who had one when I was small.

You are right in pointing out the Genesee Street bridge (c.1969), which stole a corner of the Bagg’s Square Memorial and encouraged speeding past Union Station, was not part of the arterial. But the arterial isolated the entire area from nearly the old DL&W coal dock (west of the auditorium) through the great old neighborhood between Oriskany Blvd. and Whitesboro Street (where Nookie’s delicatessen, spelled “delicat Essen” on the sign – remember? – and New York bakery shared a building) through to John Street and beyond.

Together with the Potter Street housing projects and ethnic changeover making people think that area was unfashionable or even dangerous (baloney), the arterial provided another shove to folks looking for reasons to shop & eat elsewhere. I was writing in my usual semicoherent way and don’t always think in the clearest way either.

With your seniority, can you tell me when the Imperial Restaurant closed? I know the Club George finally closed ~2006. I hear they have torn down the old police station. How does that open things up?

The Genesee St. bridge, which will cause you to miss the turn for Union Station if you aren’t sharp, did come from the same thinking that it is OK to bisect streets and disregard abutters that is evident in the arterial. It smells the same to me still.

Best wishes,
R.B.

By: Louis Barile

Louis Barile — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:54:36 +0000

I get the impression from reading your “blog” that the north-south arterial is adjacent to the Union Station. TheNorth-South Arterial is a distance away. You may be confusing the construction of the Bagg’s Square Bridge, at the site of Bagg’s Square Museum location and near the Union Station. That has nothing to do with the ARterial and was State of New York Project. The North-South=Arterial was part of the construction of the Federal Highway program. The Thruway was opened in 1954 at Lowell, New York., I was the ribbon cutting and hear the remarks by then Gov Thomas Dewey,the final construction of the Thruway and its vast network of arterials (all roads leading to Thruway entrances) was to have been completed by 1960. The original design of the North-South Arterial was an elevation of road to Oswego Street but that plan was blocked by an effort, led by the pastor of Holy Trinity Church, to construct at street level. The reason cited was a disturbance to the students of Holy Trinity Elementary School. So the statement of a sop to a former political boss is in error. The entrance to the Bagg’s Square Bridge begins at Oriskany Street. There’s renewed discussion about elevating the North South Arterial. The more things chance, the more they remain the same.