Summer Getaways: Utica, Rome and Verona

The Mohawk Valley is rich in tradition—and contemporary fun, too

If the Capital Region and Hudson Valley saw some of the earliest European settlements in North America, the Mohawk Valley saw the next wave of development as immigrants began that inexorable push west.

Why this particular direction? Because it’s relatively flat, geographically speaking. It’s the reason why Gov. Clinton’s Erie Canal, Commodore Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railroad (“the water level route”), and Gov. Dewey’s New York State Thruway—the three most important transportation corridors in New York state history—all traversed the Mohawk Valley.

You can get to Utica easily by car or train. If you take the latter, be prepared for the kind of grand arrival that was once common in 20th-century train travel: Utica Union Station. Built in the 1910s, it’s the only “palace”-style station still used by Amtrak in New York. And it is a Beaux Arts palace, with an ornate interior more delirious than Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

Amtrak isn’t the only rail service in town, either. The Adirondack Scenic Railroad, with its handsome passenger cars trimmed in New York Central gray, offers scenic and theme rides on a line that leads north in the direction of Lake Placid. (Maybe someday there will be enough money to finally restore service all the way to Lake Placid.)

Other prime Utica attractions are the Children’s Museum of History, Natural History, Science & Technology, which is right next to Union Station and has hundreds of hands-on exhibits on its four floors; the magnificent Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, a museum and arts center spread over ten acres downtown; and the Stanley Center for the Arts, a glamorous 1920s movie house that hosts live performances all year round.

I think it’s alright to call Rome, N.Y., “plucky.” If the scars from 1950s-’60s highway building and urban renewal are evident (as well as the post-World War II upstate deindustrialization), it’s also impossible to miss the gems that have survived and thrived. Rome has a number of buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places (including the Jervis Public Library and the impressive Zion Church), plus the Gansevoort-Bellamy Historic District and the Fort Stanwix National Monument.

Fort Stanwix (pictured) is an on-site reconstruction of a crucial 18th-century fort that was built at the crossroads of an “ancient trail . . . [that] served as a vital link for people traveling between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Ontario,” according to the National Park Service. And you can’t miss it: The fort is in the heart of downtown Rome, a colonial-era shock surrounded by highway, roads and a hodgepodge of modern offices and motels. It’s where, in 1768, an important treaty was negotiated between the British and the Iroquois; and where, in 1777, revolutionary troops withstood a siege of British troops (and their Native American allies). Walking on the site, you can’t help but marvel that such a small outpost would have such historic significance.

Rome is also the home of the Capitol Theatre, a 1928 movie house with a working, restored Möeller theater organ. It hosts concerts and screens movies year-round; the annual Capitolfest film festival, held every August, draws film buffs from around the world. (No, really.) And, like Utica—and unlike most cities in upstate New York—Rome has a classic train station still in use on Amtrak’s Empire Corridor. It’s a medium-sized Beaux Arts beauty.

Finally, there’s nothing more ultra-modern in the area than the Turning Stone Resort-Casino, just down the road from Rome, in Verona. Its nifty performance venues (a Vegas-style showroom and the arena-style Event Center), golf courses and—ahem—gaming rooms seem like they were built yesterday. Which, in the grand Mohawk Valley scheme of things, they were.

—Shawn Stone

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