ATTICA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
I.
The Attica Historical Society is housed in a building that looks like it can’t be larger than a shed and is tucked off the road between a house and the library. We finally make it on a Saturday halfway through the semester and walk through the front door onto a ramp lined with historical pictures of Attica. Some are of the school building before the fire, some are of the railroad, and there are a few maps as well. They each have captions and blurbs next to them and one asks, "Have you ever heard of pineapple cheese?" which apparently is a cheesemaking method developed in Attica and later sold to Kraft.
An older man walks in just after us and one of our group members strikes up a conversation with him. As we reach the top of the ramp and walk inside, a younger guy asks if he can help us. We introduce ourselves, explain the project, and he suggests that we might be more interested in the Prison Museum. We tell him that we were planning to go there next, but that we were also interested in what we could learn about Attica from the Historical Society. He informs us that when the Prison Museum opened, the Historical Society gave them all the artifacts they had related to the prison or took them off display. He does say they still have stacks of newspaper clippings, though he also adds that we'd likely be able to find much of the same stack on Democrat and Chronicle microfilm or electronically. He agrees to pull out the files that they have so we can take a look at them.
The Attica Historical Society is made up of several rooms with displays of different kinds of artifacts. The one on the left of the entrance is mostly wartime memorabilia including World War I and II uniforms, medals of honor, and other military memorabilia. There is also information about the high school marching band and the Sam Bey Clown Band. Their drum is hanging on the wall and the older man shows us a picture of the group; they used to dress up as clowns and march around Attica playing music.
We wander past the middle area with its shelves of birth, death, and marriage records and collection of mantle clocks into the far rooms. The furthest room from the door is set up as a Victorian parlor and there are also displays of a drug store, a kitchen, a general store, a dress shop, a collection of Native American arrowheads, and cases with an eclectic assortment of artifacts that don't seem to fit anywhere else.
The older man offers to give us a tour and starts in the parlor, playing the old phonograph for us, which still works. He explains that they've been collecting objects since 1937 and that much of their collection has been donated. One piece he highlights is an ornate punch bowl on a pedestal. He tells us that local fire departments used to compete to see who'd get to the most fires first. Whoever won at the end of the year would get to keep the punch bowl as a trophy. We ask the older man if he’s lived in Attica his entire life. He says he has and that he graduated from Attica High School in 1948.
He shows us a dental hygienists' chair set up near the drug store display and says that he sat in that very chair many times as a kid when a hygienist would come to the schools and clean the students’ teeth. There is also a whole binder full of newspaper clippings and typewritten information about medical professionals from Attica and the history of old drug stores in town. One article is titled, "Teeth put Attica in Limelight" and highlights an important discovery by an Attica dentist. Dr. Leland Clark, the “father of biosensors” was also from Attica. Though, strangely, his Wikipedia article lists him as being born in Rochester and ignores his upbringing in Attica. I ask the older man if there is a hospital nearby because there seem to have been a great number of doctors from Attica. He says the closest ones are in Warsaw and Batavia and that doctors from Attica work there. He gets particularly excited to show us a picture of a doctor who had to take a snowmobile to do house calls.
Next he brings us to pictures of the old Opera House which used to be in town. There were many stage plays that brought in folks from all around, along with several well-known actors and actresses. He also mentions the old bowling alley upstairs in a building in town and that when he was seventeen or eighteen, his job used to be to set the pins back up. I ask what would happen if someone rolled the ball while he was in the middle of his job and he replies that you had to be real careful.
The rest of our group sits at the table near the files, beginning to look through the stack related to the prison that the younger Historical Society volunteer had found. I ask if he knows anything about the siting of Wyoming Correctional Facility. He says he isn’t sure because it isn’t "as flashy as the prison," but brings out the one file he happens to have. In it is only two newspaper clippings and one is simply pictures of inmates as they learn firefighting skills so they can work as firefighters while incarcerated.
I lament the lack of information and express that it seems to be consistent with what I've been finding so far, but add that since Wyoming was only just built in 1984, I assume there are plenty of people around who remember when it was being built. He agrees, saying that he is one of those people. I ask if folks were excited that a second prison was coming to town. He looks surprised and says, "not really. I mean, would you want a bunch of murderers and rapists in your backyard? I know they're behind a wall, but still." I opt not to mention that they kind of already had those folks around given that Attica Correctional Facility had been there for a while.
As we get ready to leave, I chat briefly with the older volunteer. I ask if there are a lot of folks who, like him, are born in Attica and stay there their entire lives or if many people come and go. He says folks mostly come and go. I ask what often makes them leave. He responds that things like the computer business make folks flock to cities. Another group member asks him why he chose to stay. He says he just really likes it here. I ask what about his favorite part of Attica and he tells me that it was when he was a boy and used to play in the creek with his friends. He says that kids don't do that much these days since they're all inside on their gadgets, but that was something he like to do growing up.
We go to the Prison Museum next and find it frustratingly closed again, despite it being well within the hours it claimed to be open on its website.
II.
The first time we attempted to visit the Attica Prison Museum, it didn’t go spectacularly.
As we approach the prison, there are small white signs posted on the side of the road stating "State Property No Trespassing." We pull into the parking lot and park in the visitor's section. The walls are far taller and more formidable-looking than they seemed from the road. Attica Correctional Facility also appears even more like a castle close up than it did from afar. We plan just to see the memorial and visit the museum and begin to cross the parking lot. I notice a few bumper stickers advertising a love of hunting.
Without any warning, a whole swarm of people in blue CO shirts and the rest of the accompanying uniform emerge from the entrance to Attica. We assume that a change in shift has occurred. The time is 3 pm. The outflux of employees appear to be almost exclusively white men, though we notice one woman among them. I mostly keep my head down, aware that we are a conspicuous bunch and trying to avoid drawing more attention to ourselves.
We get about twenty feet from the memorial when a CO on duty emerges from the entrance and asks if he can help us with something. One of our group members informs him that we’re just here to look at the memorial. He tells us we can’t do that. She asks, “we can’t even look at it?” He pauses before responding, “just really quick. And no photos. Keep that phone away. You can cross the street if you want, but you can’t be hanging around here.” We thank him and he returns to his post. I notice the wooden baton attached to his belt as he walks away. He's a younger person of color, the only non-white employee we've seen.
The rolling hills facing the front of Attica Correctional Facility provide a stark and deeply disconcerting contrast to the building they are nearby. We cross the street to the Attica Prison Preservation Foundation museum. It is closed and has no hours posted. Through the window, we can see a mannequin dressed in the same CO uniform that those who just left the prison were wearing, including a matching wooden baton. There appear to be shirts and hats for sale that say "Attica Prison". We hope to find hours and return another day.
