Ken Gottry - Cambridge NY History

1954 House Renumbering

In In Oct-1954, all of the houses in Cambridge were renumbered to comply with new Post Ofice regulations. This is a good source to see what stores were where and who lived where in 1954.

One thing to note is that, as part of the ongoing feud between the West End and the East End, the houses on East Main even switched even-odd sides of the street. The railroad tracks have always divided West Main Street and East Main Street. House numbers on the north side of Main Street were always even and on the south side of Main Street were always odd.

Until 1954. When the East End saw that the West End was putting the even numbers on the north side of Main Street, the East End countered by flip-flopping putting the odd numbers on the north side.

As of 1-Oct-1954, my house was changed from 26 East Main Street to 39 East Main Street. Kinda makes researching history even more of a challenge.

Good ole Cambridge

This PDF lists all the houses and stores with owners and addresses in 1954

Mark Twain Visits Cambridge, 1870

Lecture series were a major form of entertainment in the late 1800s. The photo shows Ackley Hall on the south side of West Main Street where Samuel L. Clemens (better known by his pen name, Mark Twain) lectured on 13-Jan-1870 at the age of 34.

Below is a recount of his visit based on the letters he wrote to his fiancé, Olivia (Livy) Langdon. The letters were published by the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. All letters to Livy are signed “Sam’ while letters to others are signed “Mark”.

The following letter was written on 14-Jan1870 from Troy, the next stop on his lecture tour. I have interjected comments from footnotes and from our local history files using the markings “[ed:]”