New Woodstock Heritage Park

New Woodstock Heritage Park. . In 1807, the Skaneateles Turnpike Corporation was authorized to construct the Skaneateles Turnpike which was an East-West road beginning just east of the Village of Skaneateles and ran across southern Onondaga and Madison counties to Richfield Springs in Northern Otsego County. The road began and ended at the Cherry Valley Turnpike, which was part of The Great Western Turnpike System and is the present-day New York State Route 20. The turnpike not only provided a transportation route for goods and services, as the train was many years away from coming to New Woodstock, it also brought tourists, salesmen and travelers along the turnpike. This led entrepreneurs to begin building hotels in many of the communities along this route to accommodate the influx of travelers and businessmen., In 1818, David Smith built the New Woodstock Hotel on this site, facing the Skaneateles Turnpike. The hotel ran continuously until 1919. By this time, the train was running through New Woodstock and cars were becoming a faster means of transportation, causing the hotel business to decline., Mr. Leon Buckingham then purchased the hotel and turned the upstairs into an entertainment hall and the downstairs into an office, with gas pumps installed out front. For the next 20 years, shows, plays, concerts and town basketball games were held there. However, this ended when the new school and auditorium was finished in 1939. The hotel, once the center of activity for the community, fell on hard times. It served as apartments, an auto dealership, and finally a residence. In 1973, the building was condemned by the Town of Cazenovia and demolished., In 1975 a group of local citizens approached the Town of Cazenovia with the idea of turning the site into a town park. Local Citizens provided the labor for the project and on July 24, 1976, during the Bi-Annual old home days Celebration, this site was dedicated as the New Woodstock Heritage Park, to be forever held for the public to enjoy. In 2015, the Town Board provided funding for further upgrades to the park. As in the past, volunteers of the community provided the labor for the work, which included the installation of a gazebo and other upgrades to the site., Today, the New Woodstock Heritage Park continues to be a gathering place for community events, and a reminder of our past that honors the citizens of the community for their dedication to preserving this site for the enjoyment of all who live, work and play here.