Watertown, NY

 

~27,000 population

-Jefferson County seat

 

-Mostly centered around Public Square, which is a streched out rectangle with a park in the middle. Courthouse is off a block or so away.

-Paddock Arcade(1850) is the country's oldest continuously operating enclosed mall

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-Fun fact for the people that don't like grids: Watertown is the smallest city to have a park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted

 

-Also home to the company that makes tree shaped air fresheners, and is possibly where the five-and-dime shop was invented (while Frank Woolworth lived in Watertown).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Baptist Church (1891)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

F. W. Woolworth Building (1916 or 1921)…now vacant

 

 

YMCA Building (1914)

 

 

 

 

The Brighton (1903)

 

 

New Courthouse:

 

 

Old Courthouse:

 

 

Built in 1850, there were two more floor above this, but they were removed in 1940.

 

 

Inside of there is the

 

Paddock Arcade-

 

 

 

 

 

Agricultural Insurance Building (1923)

 

 

Library (1903)

 

Masonic Temple (1914)

 

 

City Hall, built in the 1960s to replace one of many awesome buildings lost in urban renewal of that decade

 

Dulles State Office Building (1971), tallest in the city ~198 ft

 

 

Solar Building (1910)

 

 

 

 

St. Paul's Episcopal Church (1889)

 

 

 

 

 

Emma Flower Taylor Mansion(1886), daughter of a former state governor

 

 

St Patrick's Church (1855)

 

 

Trinity Episcopal Church (1890) with parish house (1912)

 

 

 

 

They have some outstandingly nice and outstandingly horrendous architecture.

solid place. nice arcade and some pretty older stock, but 'urban renewal' did them no favors. i would hate to see what old city hall looked like, i dont think i could take it! as for the renewal bldgs --  that key bank! i wonder whats under there? and dulles is a perfect name for the tallest.

 

request -- could you do jamestown when you get a chance?

I was in Watertown back in the mid-90's. At the time they had a great tourist industry based on white water rafting. The Black River runs through Watertown and they have some great guides that will take you through some fun and moderately challenging Class 3 and 4 rapids.

 

They also get a ton of snow (around 200 inches a year), and it doesn't melt. Lots of snowmobiling!

A handsome town. That's an arcade I was not aware of. Is it a translucent skylight?

The skylight is translucent.