Spelling error on Caledonia street uncovered

   Earlier this summer, the website reported on a large reconstruction project on Hambro Park completed by the Village of Caledonia DPW using CHIPS funding from New York State.

   From that story, we learned from a local history enthusiast who grew up on that street, that it was originally named Hanbro Park, a combination of the two names, Hanna and Brodie, the family that owned a farm house on what is now State Street. Apparently, the street that is now known as Hambro Park, was originally a driveway that led to the barns of the Hanna Brodie farm.

   So, how did Hanbro Park become Hambro Park? According to many local historians, including the former and current Town of Caledonia Historians, Judy Adams and Eileen LaFave, a spelling error was overlooked on the street sign erected as much as 60 years ago and the street name then became Hambro, rather than Hanbro.

   While no one knows exactly when the spelling error on the street sign took place, LaFave says it may have happened in the early 1930’s when workers arrived in the area to pave dirt roads in the Village of Caledonia through the PWA (Public Works Administration), part of President Roosevelt’s National Industrial Recovery Act. This theory is in line with information provided by DPW Supervisor Chris Buckley’s who estimated that Hambro Park was wearing its original coat, dating back to possibly 1930-40.

   Patricia Garrett, curator of Big Springs Museum, provided a 1902 map of the Village of Caledonia that shows the street as Hanbro Park. A village map, circa 1960’s, shows the street as Hambro Park.

   Caledonia was incorporated as a village in 1891; it’s believed the Hanna-Brodie house was built possibly as early as 1845. According to Big Springs Museum records, Hanna and Brodie were relatives of Mrs. John Harmon (Agnes Remington Harmon). The current owners of the home, located at 3240 State Street, are Douglas and Aileen MacKay, who said that they were once visited by Mrs. Harmon, who informed them that she had been born in one of the bedrooms in the home. An old photograph of the home revealed that it originally had additions on either side. LaFave says Caledonia history teaches that the additions were removed from the Hanna-Brodie home and used to construct two other homes on the current Hambro Park.

   Stephen Clary of Mumford contacted the website in the GuestBook about this spelling error on Hambro Park. Clary grew up on the street and said he gathered a lot of local history from his neighbor at the time, the late Johnson Doley who owned the very first house built on Hambro Park, circa 1895. Clary, a confessed history enthusiast, also learned much of Caledonia’s history from the late Mary Boyd, former Caledonia Librarian.

   Clary is a carpenter at the Genesee Country Village in Mumford. He disassembled and reassembled at GCM the Nichols family farm house on Spring Street, originally the First Presbyterian Church. Clary believes the street name error should be corrected and Hambro Park should be returned to its original name, Hanbro Park.

   Village Mayor Joe Caluorie said the history of Caledonia, including the early families that settled here, should be recalled and respected. However, the mayor said, "changing the street name back would be an enormous amount of red tape, more than most residents there would probably want to undertake".

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