Institutions & Infrastructure

Following the Great Land Lottery, the new community grew quickly. Elmira Heights was incorporated on May 1, 1896 and the first post office was opened in the Hazlett & Monroe Grocery Store. Just a year later, there were nearly 300 new buildings and the village had a population of around 1,500. The first public school opened in 1895 to serve the growing number of families. By 1910, there was a high school as well. New churches were organized including the Elmwood Baptist Church in 1894, the Oakwood Methodist Episcopal Church in 1895, and the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church in 1908.

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Elmira Heights

Elmira Heights School No. 1 The first school in Elmira Heights, a four room building between Elmwood and Birchwood Avenues, opened in 1895. It was expanded several times in the early 1900s into a two-story building with classrooms for grades 1-6 on the ground floor and grades 7-8 upstairs. It was torn down in 1978 to make way for the new village complex. (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Thomas A. Edison School, 1940s In 1916, the Thomas A. Edison High School was built next to School No. 1. In 1956, when the new high school was built on College Avenue, the building became an elementary school and was renamed the Mary H. Thurston School. It was demolished in the 1960s.
Elmira Heights pennant (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Thomas Edison School button (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Edison High School cheerleaders (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Varsity letter (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Sportsmanship trophy awarded to Thomas A. Edison High School, 1932 (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Souvenir T.A. Edison High School football program from Al Northrop Day, October 7, 1950 J. Albert Northrop (1900-1993) started the football program at Edison High School after coaching soccer for two seasons in 1929 and 1930. He coached there for 37 years until retiring in 1965. He only had one losing season in 1933. (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Oakwood United Methodist Church, 1975 Methodists first began meeting in Elmira Heights School No. 1 in 1895. A year later, the Oakwood Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church opened. The church was enlarged in 1916 and again in 1923.
Elmira Heights Independent Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, early 1900s The Elmira Heights volunteer fire department was formed in 1896 as two companies: the Independent Hook and Ladder Company and the Chemical Hose Company.
Constitution and By-Laws of Independent Hook & Ladder Co., No. 1, Elmira Heights, N.Y., September 1, (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Elmira Height fire station, 1897 The original fire station, located at the northeast corner of Scottswood Avenue and E. 14th Street, was simply a shed where equipment was stored. In 1897, a new firehouse and town hall, designed by architects J.H. Pierce and H.H. Bickford, open just across Scottswood Avenue from the first station. In 1980, the Village deeded the 1897 firehouse at 266 E. 14th Street to the Elmira Heights Historical Society.
Elmira Heights firefighter’s helmet, 1960s (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Engraved firehose nozzle marked: Oak Ridge Hotel Fire 6-19-1896 By C.H. Pierce (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Elmira Heights police officer’s hat (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Elmira Heights Police Commissioner badge (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)
Elmira Heights village tax collector receipt book, 1900 Taxes paid on each lot in the village were recorded in yearly account books. Many of the early books are held by the Elmira Heights Historical Society. (courtesy of the Elmira Heights Historical Society)