Sweeney Street
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Historical marker in present day Gateway Park on Sweeney Street. Photo: Courtesy of Museum member and volunteer Betty A. Brandon |
One of North Tonawanda's oldest streets, Sweeney Street was named for Colonel John Sweeney, a veteran of the War of 1812. He was an early developer in the original Village of Tonawanda, which included two wards on the south side of the Canal and one ward on the north side . Originally only a little pathway known as Colonel Sweeney's Lane, it started at the Sweeney homestead which was built in a clearing along Tonawanda Creek and ran through the woods and timbered land north to the southern line of Lot 80 at Goundry Street . It was only fenced a part of the way, and more a cow path than anything else.
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One of the new signs directing visitors to the Historic DowNTown Shopping District. This one is at the corner of Sweeney Street and Main Street. Photo: Courtesy of Museum member and volunteer Betty A. Brandon |
The first mention of it in written form as a public thoroughfare was in notes of a May 8, 1866, regular meeting of the trustees of the Village of North Tonawanda , after its withdrawal from the Village of Tonawanda . North Tonawanda was incorporated as a village on May 8, 1865. At that meeting, a motion was made and carried that Colonel Sweeney's Lane be widened to four rods from Goundry Street to Vandervoort's south line of Lot 80 by adding two rods to the west side. This was the first board act to actually lay out and open up Sweeney's Lane as a public road. The meeting at which this was done was on the first anniversary of the incorporation as a village.
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Printing office of the Tonawanda Herald newspaper, located along the Erie Canal bank on Sweeney Street in North Tonawanda. The Herald was a weekly paper published during the 1870's, 1880's, and 1890's. Photo: Courtesy of George Trautman Collection |