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From The Buffalo News (www.buffalonews.com)
Sunday, August 28, 2005
By Joshua K. Hartshorne
Special to the News
One-Tank Trip / Hamilton, N.Y.
A rustic village of scholars makes for a
charming visit
HAMILTON - I don't know how many times I've been to Hamilton.
I've been going there since before childhood amnesia's offset.
Hamilton was my grandparent's ancient house on the village's namesake
street, with the staircase that no longer goes anywhere and doors
that have been painted over and the house ghost that once terrorized
my Uncle Willie.
Hamilton was the vacant lot by the bank where my cousins and I
played soccer. It was the old golf course, which hasn't had any
golf holes in my memory but where we had picnics.
All those times, I never really looked at Hamilton. So when I planned
a visit with my fiancee, Helen, I had no idea whether she would
like the town or even how to describe it.
"It's small," I said. Hamilton, one mile square, has
about 2,500 residents. The number more than doubles when Colgate
University is in session.
Helen, a city person, was not impressed.
As we drove in from Utica with Mike, a family friend, the prospects
did not look good. We passed one characterless small town after
another, all uninspiring collections of functional architecture
and big box stores and with no discernable center.
Hamilton was completely different. Tucked into a valley between
high, green hills, Hamilton's first sight is always the sun glinting
off the golden dome of Colgate Memorial Chapel. The village houses,
when they appeared, were both classic and unique, assortments of
porch swings and dormer windows, built of brick or stone or wood.
Helen asked Mike if most residents were faculty. "Not at all,"
he replied, and proceeded to name the owner of every house we passed.
That's the sort of place Hamilton is.
He dropped us off at the recently renovated Colgate Inn (One Payne
St., 315-824-2300) in the heart of downtown, which not many years
ago sported Hamilton's only stop light.
Downtown would have inspired Norman Rockwell. Besides the inn,
there is the old park, the wedge-shaped bookstore and a few short
rows of the specialty shops and restaurants that mark any good college
town. In how many tiny towns do locals recommend eating at Sushi
Blues or grabbing lunch at the whole foods store? Try also the Barge
Canal Coffee Co., named for the long-defunct Chenango Canal, for
breakfast or ice cream (37 Lebanon St., 315-824-4331).
The university inn felt exactly like that, full of shelves with
old books and creaking staircases, and equipped with the wood-heavy
Tap Room, which serves some of the best meals in town (jazz music
plays 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays; Open Mic is 9-11 p.m. Thursdays; and
an outdoor BBQ takes place Fridays starting at 5 p.m.).
It has a bed & breakfast character, perhaps because most of
its competition is B&Bs. Some are as inexpensive as $60 a night
(Early Dawn Farm B&B, 6572 Middleport Road, 315-824-3294), while
others are more sumptuous and with prices to match (the Guest House
and Weathervane Farm, 2088 Spring St., 315-824-8409; $149-$188).
A full list of accommodations is at www.colgate.edu; click "Hamilton
Area."
The best part about visiting college towns are the free weekday
tours. The schedule changes periodically. Sample times include 10:15
a.m., noon, 2 and 3:30 p.m. Aug. 29 through Dec. 9; 10:15 a.m. 2
and 3:30 p.m. Dec. 12 through Jan. 20; some Saturdays by reservation
only. Tours begin at the Admissions Office; 315-228-7401).
Though geared toward prospective students - people who care about
average SAT scores and dining options - you get to see the school
and learn interesting facts. For instance, West Hall, Colgate's
oldest building, was also Colgate's first physical education requirement:
students and faculty built it out of rock from the old quarry where
later, my uncles learned to climb and my little brothers hunted
fossils. Nobody minded when I tagged along.
Colgate is the village's major industry. Though US News & World
Report shuffles its rankings each year, Colgate is always high on
the list. The university is not, however, an elite institution in
an average town.
I always assumed the other members of my grandmother's Fortnightly
Papers club or seminar series were, like her, faculty spouses or
faculty members. "No," she told me. "Most are not
affiliated with Colgate."
It is this combination of just-folks small-town charm, along with
erudition and a lifelong love of learning that gives Hamilton its
unique atmosphere. The surest measure of Hamilton's draw is the
loyalty it inspires. Because of a scarcity of jobs, Colgate would
be expected to give lie to the truism that people settle near their
alma mater. Still, alumni return.
Greg and Christy Marotz moved back after two decades to buy a long-coveted
farm (now the Guest House at Weathervane Farm). They told me of
many others like themselves. Similarly, everyone from Mike to my
grandmother to Monica at Hamilton Whole Foods (28 Broad St., 315-824-2930),
remarked on how many people who grew up in Hamilton have moved back
upon retirement.
Helen isn't about to abandon the metropolis, but she loved Hamilton.
Me, too.
MAPPING IT OUT:
Getting around: My father says Hamilton
opened up to him when he got his first bike, because he could go
everywhere. An active adult can accomplish this on foot. Otherwise,
there is the Colgate Cruiser, free to all until late at night.
Recommended restaurants: The Tap
Room at Colgate Inn, Barge Canal Coffee, Sushi Blues (18 Broad St.,
315-825-0225), Hamilton Whole Foods (deli), and the restored and
lauded Seven Oaks Clubhouse (the owners' mother, a Colgate administrator,
makes the cheesecake; Payne Street and East Lake Road, 315-824-4420).
Entertainment: There's much to do
in Hamilton. Enjoy Colgate tours, lectures, concerts and performances
(many are free). Wander the old golf course or quarry. Go to the
1892 Earlville Opera House (Route 12B, 5 miles south of Hamilton;
(315) 691-3550). Visit the Farmer's market, Saturdays on the Village
Green, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. or Timbertown, a wooden village/playground.
On the Web:
DIRECTIONS
(from Buffalo)
• Take I-90 toward Syracuse;
• Take I-81 South, then I-481 South;
• Exit 3E for Route 92 East, and continue to Cazenovia;
• Take Route 20 East, then take a right on Route 46 South;
• Take Route 12B South to Hamilton.
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