July 16, 2017 Sunday
What we like about renting from Enterprise is that they will pick us up and drop us off at our marina. This time the car was a little pricey so we rented it for only one day. Since the Herkimer Enterprise office was closed on Sunday we needed to find a different way home, since it was such a nice day we decided to drop the car off, tour the town, have lunch, and walk the 3.7 miles back to the boat.
During the American Revolution, the residents in this area were protected by Fort Dayton. In 1777 General Nicholas Herkimer mustered the Tryon County Militia here to march west in order to aid Col. Peter Gansevoort at Fort Stanwix. They were all fatally ambushed at Oriskany, five miles short of their goal. In 1788, after the Revolution was over and Fort Dayton was dismantled, the Village of Herkimer was established and in 1788 Herkimer became the county seat.
On our tour of the city, we passed many beautiful homes, churches, and public buildings. Four of Herkimer’s most historical buildings can be found at the corner of Church and Main Streets: the 1834 Herkimer County Jail, the 1834 Herkimer Reformed Church, the 1873 Herkimer County Courthouse, and the 1884 Suiter Building.
In 1906, Chester Gillette was interned at Herkimer County Jail during his famous trial for the murder of Grace Brown, the trial was held at the Herkimer County Courthouse with Gellette being convicted of murder. This murder was the basis for the novel “An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser. The 1834 Reformed Church was built on the same site as the 1722 church that was built by the Palantine Germans that arrived in this area after fleeing religious persecution in Europe and is still active. The 1884 Suiter Building is now the home of the Herkimer County Historical Society.
The current Folts Center for Rehabilitation & Nursing was originally The Folts Mission Institute, which opened in 1893 as a training school for young women.
A more recent icon of Herkimer, the Crazy Otto’s Empire Diner, housed in a 1952 Vintage Mountain View prefabricated diner, was our lunch destination. Our first lunch in a classic New York dinner was just what we hoped for, excellent food, good service, and a fantastic people watching location. After that lunch, we needed that walk back to the boat.
