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Endicott, New York
Endicott is a village within the town of Union in Broome County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, Endicott had a population of 13,667. It is part of the Binghamton metropolitan area. The village is named after Henry B. Endicott, a founding member of the Endicott Johnson Corporation shoe manufacturing company, who founded the community as the "Home of the Square Deal".
The village of Endicott is in the town of Union and is west of the city of Binghamton. The community is served by the Greater Binghamton Airport/Edwin A. Link Field. It is part of the "Triple Cities", along with Binghamton and Johnson City.
The village of Endicott was originally made up of two distinct villages: Union village (now the historic business district at the intersection of NYS Route 26 and NYS Route 17C), incorporated in 1892, and Endicott (whose center was along Washington Avenue and North Street), which was incorporated in 1906. Union was a market town along the Susquehanna River settled in the 1790s, serving the farming area between Binghamton and Owego. Endicott, on the other hand, was originally a company town constructed for and by the Endicott Johnson Corporation, which grew to become the largest shoe company in the world by World War I. Growing out of a large tract of farmland, Endicott was known as a boomtown, and as a result acquired the nickname The Magic City. As the two villages had grown so much that there was no longer any physical distinction between them, Union village was merged into Endicott in 1921.
The Endicott Johnson Corporation grew out of the Lester Brothers Boot and Shoe Company which began in Binghamton in 1854. In 1890, Lester Brothers along with Lucas Kacynski Co moved their business west to a nearby rural area, which in 1892, was incorporated as the village of Lestershire and in 1916, became Johnson City. Financial problems in 1890 forced the sale of the company to a creditor and fellow shoemaker, Henry Bradford Endicott of Massachusetts, who founded the Endicott Shoe Company and in 1899, made factory foreman George F. Johnson his partner. The village of Endicott is named after Henry B. Endicott.
George F. Johnson was a brilliant businessman and under his direction the Endicott Shoe Company became very prosperous very quickly. His early adoption of a new machine that could stitch "uppers" to "lowers" was the key to his success, meaning that for the first time in history unskilled labor could manufacture shoes. (Prior to this, shoes were made to individual order by skilled cobblers. People who couldn't afford this bought used shoes, and had cobblers regularly replace the soles and heels as they wore out, until the uppers disintegrated.)
The orders pouring in made expansion of the shoe company necessary. The next parcel of inexpensive, level land along the railroad and safely above the flood plain was a forested area around what is now the intersection of North Street and Washington Avenue in what is now Endicott. What was by then the Endicott-Johnson Corporation purchased this land and several large tracts around it and built a number of state-of-the-art factories along the railroad line. Anticipating population growth, the company also surveyed and laid out the current street pattern of most of Endicott north of Main Street, so in this sense, Endicott was a "planned community". However, because of an initial lack of housing, from 1900 to 1910 most workers commuted on a horse-drawn streetcar line connecting Johnson City to Endicott along the current route of New York State Route 17C.
Endicott grew and flourished due to massive numbers of immigrants who came to the area to work for "EJ", predominantly from southern and eastern Europe. "Which way EJ?" was said to be what they asked immigration officials at Ellis Island in New York City, but it is far more likely that they had already memorized the addresses of relatives or friends living in Endicott. The company also maintained recruiting sites in Italy and the Balkans in the early part of the 20th century. Endicott-Johnson's employment in the region reached a peak of about 20,000 in the early 1920s.
In an innovative and far-sighted policy, George F. Johnson made sections of the company's land holdings outside the factory district available to workers to build homes on, with financing provided by the company, and title reverting to the worker when the loan was paid off. Along with extensive company-provided recreational facilities and medical clinics (unheard of at the time and decades before government took over these responsibilities), this "Square Deal" of the early 20th century is commemorated by stone arches erected by the workers in 1920 across Route 17C (Main Street) at the entrances to Endicott and Johnson City.
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Endicott, New York
Endicott is a village within the town of Union in Broome County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, Endicott had a population of 13,667. It is part of the Binghamton metropolitan area. The village is named after Henry B. Endicott, a founding member of the Endicott Johnson Corporation shoe manufacturing company, who founded the community as the "Home of the Square Deal".
The village of Endicott is in the town of Union and is west of the city of Binghamton. The community is served by the Greater Binghamton Airport/Edwin A. Link Field. It is part of the "Triple Cities", along with Binghamton and Johnson City.
The village of Endicott was originally made up of two distinct villages: Union village (now the historic business district at the intersection of NYS Route 26 and NYS Route 17C), incorporated in 1892, and Endicott (whose center was along Washington Avenue and North Street), which was incorporated in 1906. Union was a market town along the Susquehanna River settled in the 1790s, serving the farming area between Binghamton and Owego. Endicott, on the other hand, was originally a company town constructed for and by the Endicott Johnson Corporation, which grew to become the largest shoe company in the world by World War I. Growing out of a large tract of farmland, Endicott was known as a boomtown, and as a result acquired the nickname The Magic City. As the two villages had grown so much that there was no longer any physical distinction between them, Union village was merged into Endicott in 1921.
The Endicott Johnson Corporation grew out of the Lester Brothers Boot and Shoe Company which began in Binghamton in 1854. In 1890, Lester Brothers along with Lucas Kacynski Co moved their business west to a nearby rural area, which in 1892, was incorporated as the village of Lestershire and in 1916, became Johnson City. Financial problems in 1890 forced the sale of the company to a creditor and fellow shoemaker, Henry Bradford Endicott of Massachusetts, who founded the Endicott Shoe Company and in 1899, made factory foreman George F. Johnson his partner. The village of Endicott is named after Henry B. Endicott.
George F. Johnson was a brilliant businessman and under his direction the Endicott Shoe Company became very prosperous very quickly. His early adoption of a new machine that could stitch "uppers" to "lowers" was the key to his success, meaning that for the first time in history unskilled labor could manufacture shoes. (Prior to this, shoes were made to individual order by skilled cobblers. People who couldn't afford this bought used shoes, and had cobblers regularly replace the soles and heels as they wore out, until the uppers disintegrated.)
The orders pouring in made expansion of the shoe company necessary. The next parcel of inexpensive, level land along the railroad and safely above the flood plain was a forested area around what is now the intersection of North Street and Washington Avenue in what is now Endicott. What was by then the Endicott-Johnson Corporation purchased this land and several large tracts around it and built a number of state-of-the-art factories along the railroad line. Anticipating population growth, the company also surveyed and laid out the current street pattern of most of Endicott north of Main Street, so in this sense, Endicott was a "planned community". However, because of an initial lack of housing, from 1900 to 1910 most workers commuted on a horse-drawn streetcar line connecting Johnson City to Endicott along the current route of New York State Route 17C.
Endicott grew and flourished due to massive numbers of immigrants who came to the area to work for "EJ", predominantly from southern and eastern Europe. "Which way EJ?" was said to be what they asked immigration officials at Ellis Island in New York City, but it is far more likely that they had already memorized the addresses of relatives or friends living in Endicott. The company also maintained recruiting sites in Italy and the Balkans in the early part of the 20th century. Endicott-Johnson's employment in the region reached a peak of about 20,000 in the early 1920s.
In an innovative and far-sighted policy, George F. Johnson made sections of the company's land holdings outside the factory district available to workers to build homes on, with financing provided by the company, and title reverting to the worker when the loan was paid off. Along with extensive company-provided recreational facilities and medical clinics (unheard of at the time and decades before government took over these responsibilities), this "Square Deal" of the early 20th century is commemorated by stone arches erected by the workers in 1920 across Route 17C (Main Street) at the entrances to Endicott and Johnson City.