If you weren’t all that familiar with the commons before, AppleFest surely changed that for you this weekend. At least I hope. With dozens of vendors, rides, awesome food, and who can forget rain, AppleFest is the first big event of the year.
Leave it to Ithaca to cover up some strange structure that I’d assume contains machines, pumps and wires, with some industrial art and a sign to educate Ithacans on the history of our strange city.
the structure
the sign
The first thing the sign mentions is the Cayugas. Read any any abridged history of Ithaca and the Cayuga Indians are the first group you’ll read about. Unless that history skips to Simeon DeWitt, the State Surveyor General who planned the city. Then comes President Rochon.
Next is Ezra Cornell, who, after making a fortune in the telegraph business, endowed the Cornell Library to the city of Ithaca. It wasn’t until later that the land on the East Hill was developed into Cornell University. But it does appear as though higher education in Ithaca has its roots in communication.
Underground Railroad. I never learned too much about this in social studies during grade school, so I turn to the Internet. Apparently African Americans escaping from the South sought aid in Ithaca at the St. James Zion church.The church still stands, on Clinton Street, which is essentially between the Commons and Wegmans. They should have just stopped there for supplies.
I don’t believe this next plug about the ice cream sundae. Ithaca and Two Rivers, Wisconsin both claim to have invented the Sundae many many years ago. First of all, who cares, and second of all, what defines a sundae? If you have ice cream (or any food for that matter) it’s just a matter of time until someone puts something on it to taste better. Basic rule of human nature. I’ll give it to Ithaca, though. The midwest is boring and I go to school here.
Weak plaque, overall, Ithaca. I can list several other people to help to shape Ithaca’s identity.