High Water, History and Hiking at a Peru Landmark
I arrived in Peru at noon after a hefty breakfast, parking my dad’s old Ford Fiesta in the circular lot beside the lone survivor from the flood of 1998. It was the only structure to remain, a relic from the 1830s whose early history reflected that of a woolen and starch mill before being reborn as a 12-unit apartment building. All the windows were covered, blocked off by paintings depicting the town’s historic past, buildings such as the old lighthouse on Valcor Island and a group photo of the Mason family, early settlers here. Pedestrians strolled the paved trails — a couple in love, a woman walking her dog, friends out on a sunny day.
Peru town historian Helen Nerska suggested I speak to the folks at Peru Hardware for first-hand accounts of the flood. Walking a trail to the nearby Little Ausable Park, I climbed a hill to the main road before entering the store and being greeted by Bob Silverman, who owns the shop with his wife, Wendy.
Silverman remembered the morning of the flood, June 27, 1998. He had walked out of his store after hearing commotion on Route 22.
“There were an awful lot of people on the bridge looking over — watching the water, watching the buildings,” Silverman said.
Water was everywhere, surrounding all buildings in Heyworth Village, an apartment complex built from the former A. Mason & Son’s Mill in the late 1980s. It was named after Richard Heyworth, who operated the property back when it was a woolen mill. Heavy rainfall had caused the Little Ausable River to rise over the banks, ripping through the land, washing away the community reservoir — a small pond in Little Ausable Park. Flooding lasted for days.
“My wife did take a lot of pictures of it,” Silverman said.
He opened a file on an old computer and showed several photos taken from that day. Water rose to half the height of first-floor windows. Trees and debris scattered; deserted cars were half-way underwater. In one photo, a lone pedestrian watched the calamity from a park bench beside the rising river.
According to an informational sign at Heyworth Mason Park, few occupants resided in the apartments at the time due to the closure of Plattsburgh’s Air Force base in 1995. Clinton County bought the Heyworth property in 2002 and transitioned it to Peru’s township. All buildings were damaged beyond repair and torn down. All except one. It is now one of three structures in Peru listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Before the Heyworth Apartments, the property was the town’s biggest employer. A. Mason and Sons Mill specialized in architectural lumber and produced furniture, building material and interior molding. In addition, the mill created bobsleds used in the 1932 Olympics at Lake Placid, as well as ammunition boxes for the U.S. government used in WWII. The stone building was used as a storehouse for lumber during the 1940s. Rising demands for plastic as opposed to custom woodwork led to the mill’s closure in 1972.
Years after the flood, Peru turned the property into Heyworth Mason Park, which includes bike paths, picnic benches, a bandstand, rope climbing equipment and a dog park. A bell tower was positioned to play significance to the lunch call for workers during the starch mill days. Signposts are displayed along the riverside, detailing the land’s history. A path was later created from an old industrial road beneath Route 22 connecting Heyworth Mason to the Little Ausable Park.
The rotting plywood once covering the windows of the surviving mill building are gone, replaced by paintings, each based on Peru town photos from the 1950s and earlier. They were created by Greg Badger, an art teacher at Peru Middle School.
“Each one of these paintings is a location that at one point was an important part of the town,” Badger said. “Some of these buildings are still standing, others — we’ve had quite a few fires that took out some of these structures.”
The idea for the paintings was proposed by Mel Irwin, Peru’s town councilman, who was tired of seeing the deteriorating window boards. Badger worked on the project for two and a half years.
“It morphed into a reflection of the town’s history rather than just putting some art work up there,” Badger said.
This collection, titled “Windows to the Past,” is part of what Badger calls “The Visual Legacy Project,” where he turns old photographs into colorful paintings and murals for different towns.
The Little Ausable Trail, consisting of a paved 1.5 mile walkway along the river from Heyworth Mason to Sullivan Park on the other side of the village, was completed in 2014. Part of the path was built on an old railbed from the Ausable Branch of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, which used to connect Plattsburgh, Montreal and New York City. It used to be profitable, acting as a freight service for local goods and passenger resource for Adirondack tourists before the line closed in the late ’70s. The rails were removed beginning in 1981.
I walked the path with my camera, crossing wooden bridges and staring at the green leaves above. Obstacles were scattered at different points alongside the trail — hurdles, balance beams, a tire run and pull-up bars.
The trail has become a center for outdoor recreation in the town, bringing people together to enjoy nature and learn about the area’s historic significance.
Story and Photos by Mathew Wendler
