Holiday Ornament - Portville Pioneer Park and its Bandstand

 In 1936, a small but prominent group of village residents formed a committee to purchase a parcel of land at the corner of N. Main and Maple Streets.  The committee was headed by Miss Lilla Wheeler and the goal of the committee was to create a park for the residents of the village.  Later that same year, local businessman Charles Vergason and his wife Beatrice, donated the rear half of their property at 9 Maple to the park committee.  Mr. Vergason was the president of the Utility Ice Cream plant on Temple Street and a community leader. Portville had a bad spring flood in March of 1936 and this is a picture of the flooding of the land that would one day become the park. It was shortly after this picture was taken that Miss Wheeler & committee bought the land. Throughout 1936 and 1937, thousands of hours were spent by volunteers and village workers to create the park.  Tons of dirt was hauled to the property for fill.  Much of the dirt came from the cutout specifically created to al