New Deal Network Photo Gallery Documents Classroom
The Resident Work Center at Lima, New York
Previous | Contents | Resources | Next In due course, I learned from the New York State Office that the Center I would direct was in Lima, N.Y., a small community about 30 miles south of Rochester, a major industrial city. The site had been deliberately chosen because of its proximity to Rochester and its industries. The NYA had taken over for the Center, the former Genessee Wesleyan Seminary, another church-related educational institution, somewhat similar to the one in Hartwick. Both of them had fallen victims of the depression. Shortly after being notified, I made a preliminary visit to Lima. The memory of it still remains with me. I arrived at the Seminary property just as it was getting dark. There was not a light, sound or person anywhere around. The buildings on the grounds were only large dark shadows in the dim light. I was mystified as to what to do. I was alone, knowing nothing about the community. As I recall I had no names of anyone connected with the former Seminary or in the community of Lima. The NYA, I thought, may have expected its staff to be able to cope with any situation that came along and this certainly must have been one of them. At last, to my relief, a figure appeared out of the gloom. It seemed unreal, even ghostly. It turned out to be old Dean Edgerton, who introduced himself as the former dean of the Seminary and a representative of the remaining Trustees. He was a lone survivor of such eminence as had once been attached to this unfortunate institution. I learned that he had spent most of his working life there as a teacher, then as the dean of the Seminary. He was of average height, thin, a body somewhat bent, a smoothly shaven, friendly face. He said the Trustees had asked him to meet me, provide a tour of the property and help me in any way to get my work started.
There was one large central building, formerly known as the Seminary Building. It contained the previous school offices, a dining room and attached kitchen, recreation room, living quarters for the headmaster, which I and my family would take over, and two floors of dormitory rooms. One building stood out from the others, the attractive College Hall. Two-storied, white ionic columns in its front rose from a wide, graceful stairway. It housed a large chapel cum auditorium and classrooms on the second floor. On the first floor were a number of other classrooms. This building, I later learned, marked the birthplace of Syracuse University. In the middle of the last century it housed Genesee College. In 1849 the College was given permission by the trustees of the parent organization, Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, to move to Syracuse where it founded Syracuse University.
There were eleven buildings in all. Three additional buildings were acquired shortly after the NYA took over the property. These were two cottages for dormitories and a house for staff. It was my first responsibility to see that this abandoned and run down facility would be turned into a work-study-living center that would train depression youth for jobs in industry and make them good citizens. As I think now of the obstacles facing me during the early days in Lima, I wonder at my temerity in tackling them. There was the dirty and difficult labor of cleaning, moving furniture, tearing down and rebuilding walls, painting and many other details of renovating these old, neglected buildings. With the assistance of an area Federal Employment Office I secured some unemployed young men to work on the renovation.
Previous | Contents | Resources | Next
|
