VETERANS SQUARE: Sally Costik, curator of the Bradford Landmark Society, shared these words that appeared in The Bradford Era on May 9, 1879.
It seems someone took them to heart, as the head of Main Street now is home to the memorials and gazebo that make up Veterans Square.
The building, formerly used as the Burgess’ office in the public square, has been moved back and the other buildings are being dismantled, preparatory to being taken away. The new hotel (this will be the St. James hotel, later the Emery Towers) will be commenced immediately. In this connection, we would like to speak of the public square, or park, at the head of Main Street. As it is now, it is but a barren waste of dirt, hay scales, liberty pole, and mud holes — a tract of land in the midst of business blocks — which contains nothing to please the eye, and is of no possible use.
“We think it belongs to the city. In that case, why not make an appropriation for its improvement. Put an iron fence around, sod the ground, and lay it out in gravel walks and greensward. Plant trees and construct a fountain in the center. It would be of wonderful benefit to the city as a pleasure resort; it would have a tendency to attract our citizens to that end of the city and would be very beneficial in a financial point of view, to the business places which are around it. Bradford has within a few months grown to be a city of importance, and thus far there has been no place of that kind provided where our citizens can go for recreation, rest and pleasure. The walks about the city are not in excellent condition and we consider that this park would not be only an ornament to the metropolis of the oil regions but a genuine source of pleasure to our citizens generally.”
TRADITIONS:A reader called recently to pass along this Christmas tale from her childhood: “When I was a child, my mom used to tell me that the birds watched me through the window to see if I was behaving before Christmas.”
She was reminded of the story recently when her grown daughter told her about an “Elf on the Shelf” — a toy elf that parents can put in a different place every day for children who still believe in Santa to find.
She thought it would be nice to hear some Christmas traditions from other readers.
We agree — we’d love to hear some of the family traditions are readers take part in during the holiday season.
