The Trolley to Renwick Park is a historical novel set in Upstate New York in the early 1900s that follows a young woman, Lucy, as she attempts to break from traditional gender roles and exhibit her daring and athleticism in the silent movie industry. Among her many adventures, Lucy learns to shoot a gun, takes up with a bootlegger, and struggles to break into the burgeoning motion picture industry.
And, yes, there was a successful, independent motion picture studio in Ithaca, New York established by the Wharton Brothers that produced acclaimed, popular serials of the silent film era.
Photos of people and places that helped inspire The Trolley to Renwick Park.
James Hallam: My grandfather worked for 50 years at the Ithaca Gun Company. He was foreman of the Checkering and Engraving Department. Here he is carving the detailed checkering pattern into the stock which will become a prized Ithaca gun.
Photo courtesy The Ithaca Gun Company by Walter Snyder
Annie Oakley with her Ithaca 4E Single Barrel Trap Gun. Annie thrilled audiences all over the United States and Europe with her shooting skills. She purchased Ithaca guns for her ladies' shooting school in North Carolina.
Photos courtesy of The Ithaca Gun Company by Walter Snyder
James Hallam: My grandfather was a volunteer fireman for the Ithaca Fire Department's Steamer and Rescue Engine - Company 2. Here he is sitting in the front seat of the fire fighting apparatus on the left. He's the one not holding the reins.
Photo courtesy of Ithaca Fire Department
Renwick Park Pavilion and Water Tower at the foot of Cayuga Lake in the early 1900’s. Renwick Park was a popular amusement park before it went into foreclosure. The Wharton Brothers took over the site and set up their silent film studio.
Photo courtesy of Wharton Brothers Studio Museum
The Wharton Studio company sign in front of the water tower which they converted to offices on the first floor and wardrobe rooms on the second floor.
Photo courtesy of Wharton Brothers Studio Museum
The Ithaca trolley carried passengers to and from Renwick Park. This is the trolley Lucy rode for her adventures.
Photo courtesy of Thompkins Center for History and Culture
Pearl White and Leo Wharton, brother of Ted Wharton, on set at the Wharton Brothers Studio going over a script.
Photo courtesy of Wharton Brothers Studio Museum
Filming on an inside set at the Wharton Studio.
Photo courtesy of Wharton Brothers Studio Museum
Ithaca Today
I drew ideas and inspiration for Lucy’s silent film exploits from this scholarly work. Thank you Barbara Tepa Lupack.
Stewart Avenue Bridge where the Whartons staged one of their most dynamic stunts by sending streetcar 305 plunging into the gorge.
View from Stewart Avenue Bridge at the back of Ithaca Falls. Cayuga Lake is in the background.
As the saying goes, “Ithaca is GORGES"! Fall Creek makes a final, dramatic plunge over Ithaca Falls to Cayuga Lake.
Keith and I enjoying Taughannock Falls. Site of another Wharton Bros. dramatic scene.
The Wharton Brother Studio Museum
Wharton Studio Museum (WSM) is preserving and celebrating the role Ithaca and the region played in early American movie making. WSM produces screenings with live music, multimedia exhibits, a high school film festival, and other events such as Silent Movie Month in collaboration with local arts, culture, and history-related organizations, including Cornell University and Ithaca College.
At the heart of Wharton Studio's mission is developing, in partnership with the Friends of Stewart Park and the City of Ithaca, the lake-facing side of the historic Wharton Studio Building in Stewart Park into the Wharton Studio & Cafe featuring exhibits on Ithaca's movie history and park history.
For more information about Wharton Studio Museum please visit whartonstudiomuseum.org
Wharton Studio and Cafe Outside Terrace Rendering 2023
Bibliography
Bauer, Ingrid. Practicing Neighborhood and Community: An Ethnographic History of African Americans and the Southside Neighborhood in Ithaca, New York. College Scholar Thesis, December 2001.
Chevan, David. Musical Literacy and Jazz Musicians in the 1910s and 1920s. Current Musicology, nos. 71-73 (Spring 2001-Spring 2002) © 2002 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.
Cooper, Courtney Ryley. Annie Oakley: Woman at Arms, A Biography. Borodino Books, 2017.
Dieckmann, Jane Marsh. A Short History of Thompkins County. DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, 1986.
Dieckmann, Jane Marsh, ed. The Towns of Tompkins County: From Podunk to the Magnetic Springs. DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, 1998.
Everson, William K. American Silent Film. Da Capo Press, 1998.
Farmer, Fannie Merritt. Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book. Skyhorse Publishing, 2011.
Fendrick, Louis R. A Boy’s Will…A Man’s Way. Vantage Press, 1978.
Gallwey, Sydney H. Early Slaves and Freemen of Tompkins County. Presented Before Ithaca Council for Equality at St. John’s Church, Jan. 30, 1962.
Kammen, Carol. Ithaca: A Brief History. The History Press, 2008.
Kennedy, Monty. Checkering & Carving of Gunstocks. The Stackpole Co. Second Edition, 1962.
Lupack, Barbara Tepa. Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and the Magic of Early Cinema. Cornell University Press, 2020.
Mrs. Bement’s Fourth Grade 1984-85, The Rock Salt Mine: 1916 – 1985. Lansing Elementary School student writing project, 1985.
Robinson, Bob. Ithaca Fire Department. Cayuga Press Inc., 1977
Sanger, Margaret. Family Limitations. Publisher not identified, 1914.
Sanger, Margaret. What Every Girl Should Know. Publisher not identified, 1914.
Snyder, Walter Claude. The Ithaca Gun Company: From the Beginning. Walsworth Publishing Co., Second Edition 1999.
Links to research sites and articles
Constance Markievicz – Ireland’s Revolutionary Countess. Women in History, May 2022. www.womeninhistory.education.
How Harlem Hellfighter James Reese Europe Became a Ragtime Legend. Stephen L. Harris, Historynet, September 28, 2021. www.historynet.com.
One Hundred Years Ago, the Harlem Hellfighters Bravely Led the U.S. Into WW1. Erick Trickey, Smithsonian Magazine, May 14, 2018. www.smithsonianmag.com.
One Missing, $300,000 Loss in Big Blaze. The Ithaca Journal, November 20, 1920. www.newspapers.com
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York. Sanborn Map Co., (1910, 1919) Library of Congress. www.loc.gov.
The Ithaca Journal, 1910 1920. www.newspapers.com
“Y” Canteen Workers Make Our Boys/Happy: American “Y” Girls at the Foot of Mt. Blanc. The Ithaca Journal, April 12, 1919. www.newspapers.com