Binghamton, NY, as I’ve noted once or twice here, is my hometown. Almost every year, I go to Broome County to attend the Olin family reunion – that’s my mother-in-law’s people who can be traced in what is now the United States back to the 1680s.
Those trips, however, were to a park in Endicott, part of the Triple Cities, to be sure. (Endicott and Johnson City, though, are villages; only Binghamton is incorporated as a city.)
When I did venture to downtown Binghamton in the 1980s and 1990s and even the early part of this century, it was depressing. The anchor department stores of McLean’s, where my late mother worked as a bookkeeper, and Fowler’s, were magic to visit on Christmas Eve in 1970 and 1971. When they left, and smaller stores followed, the downtown was overrun by vacant spaces. If it weren’t for Boscov’s, in the old Fowler’s, there would have been no downtown retail to speak of.
The building of a new Route 17, which will become Interstate 86, made it easier to get through Binghamton, but the city wasn’t a place to go TO. The State University of New York isn’t even in Binghamton proper, but out on the Vestal Parkway on old Route 17/Route 434.
But an interesting thing happened:
“Downtown Binghamton, by most accounts, is in the midst of a revitalization. After years of decline, a boom spurred largely by masses of Binghamton University students leaving the dorms of the Vestal campus for the city has filled once-vacant storefronts downtown and chipped away at blight there.’
And that has spurred numerous coffee shops, tattoo parlors and the like catering to that population. I stayed in a hotel that was once the old city hall, not far from the current city hall, where I was a janitor for a few months in 1975, and there are blocks around there that have been totally transformed.
“But further away from the city’s core, other neighborhoods are waiting to see whether the ripple effect of the downtown boom will reach them.” I noticed that too, particularly in the part of town I grew up in.
Still, I felt hope that there is a chance of economic revival in my old hometown. That made me quite happy indeed.
I know what you mean about Rt17/I86…when I was a kid we drove through Binghamton quite often, either on our way to Philly to visit my grandmother or to the Poconos where my aunt owned a cottage. It was never a stop in itself, and 17 doesn’t even run close to the downtown.
Me too!
unfortunately our old neighborhood has completely gone down hill but suny binghamton is definitely revitalizing downtown we just came back after spending halloween up there
If the downtown can stabilize, perhaps there will be money for the Ward and the other neighborhoods. If there’s no downtown, I fear the city’s doomed.
Did grow up outside of town but was in BInghamton until 5 years old on Conklin Ave. Grandparents lived on Vestal Ave. Don’t remember much about it in the 50’s but downtown in the 60’s is still a happy memory. Almost nowhere else to go shopping and everything you needed was there. So many great stores and markets. To bad later generations never knew or never will know how great a city can be. Been out of state for over 40 years and still can picture Binghamton as it once was.
I was born in Binghamton, NY in 1947 and lived there until I married in 1970. Actually, I lived in the rural area of Binghamton, but went downtown back when there were SO many stores and three wonderful 5 and 10 cent stores, Fowlers, McClaine’s, J.C. Penney and so many others. I just LOVED Binghamton and lived near one of the many carousels at Ross Park. I’m nearing 80 now and my hubby and I have not made a trip back from our home in Kentucky for many, many years. But I can still picture ALL of Binghamton in my mind. It was a MAGICAL place!