Wellsville's Old Roadside Park

Ok hootch2, here's a couple for you...

These two pictures are both of the old Roadside Park that was at the intersection of Route 45 and Wells Avenue in Wellsville. Both were taken at slightly different angles from a vantage point along Highland Avenue.

The black & white is dated July 1957. You can see the roof of the big shelter that contained about six or eight full sized picnic tables on one side of Rt. 45 and the roof of a pump shelter directly across the road. That water pump was great for getting a cool drink of water on a hot summer day. The house hidden by the trees in the center of the picture was a grand old house that sat on the hill side directly behind the Boy-With-The-Boot. The front gate and part of the stone stairway is still there. There use to be a road that went from Wells Avenue up along there and twisted along the hillside parallel to Rt. 45. The entrance for that road is across from Huntington Bank.

The color photo was dated October 1960. Exactly when the picture was taken is unknown. Back in those days you had to the send the roll of film off to be developed and sometimes it took a while to send it. The date is when it got developed.

The big school building in the top left center is the old McKinley School. It was located where McDonalds now sits. We believe that is the WHS Band in the orange coats beginning to parade across the Wells Avenue bridge. We also think that is the American Legion Honor Guard standing at parade rest on the corner. The canons in the lower left center of the picture use to face Wells Ave. They are now located in Springhill Cemetery next to the chapel. They were used in WWII originally.

The park is just a memory now. The only part that is left is the small portion now known as Phyllis' Park. The rest was claimed in the late 1960s when Route 7 was expanded to the four lane highway it is now. Even though that area is a lot different now there are a lot of fond memories for a kid that grew up in that neighborhood.

ole nib