Oswego Ruins
A Subdivision of Yaz' Hudson Valley Ruins and Abandoned Buildings, Etc.

    Oswego is located in central New York state, about 45 minutes north of Syracuse. It is situated where the Oswego River, part of the New York State Canal system, empties into Lake Ontario. This prime location  would at times make Oswego an important industrial center. Photographs from the 19th century show the river bank crowded with factories, grain elevators and warehouses. A few of these structures survive, but they are rapidly disappearing. From 1995 to 1999, my time as an undergraduate at SUNY-Oswego, I have seen the Breneman Factory and adjacent mills disappear, along with another factory just north of Breneman. In the spring of 1999, the 1925 New York State Grain Elevator was demolished.

    I had never really gotten into local (Oswego) history during my time here. As a result, I don't have many photographs of these structures. I had been more concerned with Hudson Valley stuff than Oswego at the time. But my internship at the H. Lee White Marine Museum in the spring of 1999 renewed my interest that briefly appeared during my freshman year. My project there was to research the 1925 Grain Elevator. What an amazing and imposing building it was. My interests before then revolved around old estates and their ruins, but Oswego was rather lacking in that category. But it made up for it in industrial buildings.

    Peruse here a selection of ruins, non-ruins, and other cool things I found in my short time in Oswego. Click on the links to go to those pages.

Links to Oswego history sites:
SUNY Oswego - Penfield Library Archives and Special Collections
H. Lee White Marine Museum
Richardson-Bates House / Oswego County Historical Society