Taken
on 02/26/09
A brick building on the other side of the railroad tracks, over near Martin and
Holly Street. The old Agway building is in the left part of this photo,
now partially used by Cota Flooring.
 LarryC
writes about the D G Corbett Boiler Works;
"Daniel G Corbett was my great-grandfather. He was born in Ireland in 1867 and
emigrated with his family in 1874. He attended school in Oswego, NY, and after
leaving school, learned boilermaking, possibly under the employ of the Kingsford
Starch Company of Oswego. By 1891, Daniel was in Watertown, where in 1892 he
married Josephine Lagoe, of Redfield. They built a home at 523 Mohawk Street,
Watertown, where they raised 6 children.
In May, 1911, Daniel was one of the
charter members of the North Side Improvement League and served on its first
board of directors.
On July 25, 1911, Bobby Leach, a pool hall operator from
Watertown became the second person, and the first male, to intentionally go over
Niagara Falls in a barrel. Bobby's barrel, as family lore will have it, was a
salvaged boiler which was made watertight by Bobby's friend and neighbor, Daniel
G. Corbett.
In November, 1911, Daniel was elected as Alderman on the
Watertown Common Council, where he served one two-year term.
On September 14,
1915, Daniel G. Corbett filed a certificate of assumed name, allowing him to
conduct business as the Watertown Boiler Works. Mr. Corbett constructed a plant
at 941-9 West Main Street (The building shown in the photo). Previous to
establishing this business, Daniel Corbett had been an employee of the former
Watertown Steam Engine Works, on Vanduzee Street, until they ceased to do
business in 1915. He had last been employed as a foreman in the boiler
department of the Steam Engine Company, and was known throughout the area as an
expert boilerman. With the formation of the Watertown Boiler Works, Daniel
Corbett assumed the repair and warranty work for the Steam Engine Company's
product, both portable and stationary.
He continued in business for 12 years
and sent crews throughout the North Country maintaining and repairing boilers in
manufacturing concerns and other businesses. The Watertown Boiler Works won the
contract for, and built, the standpipe (water tower) which stood in Thompson
Park until the 1970s.
Daniel was a great supporter of education, and
presented a petition in 1924 to the Board of Education for the replacement of
the outdated and antiquated Mead Street School. He never lived to see the new
school, which was not built until the summer of 1959, when a dozen or more of
his great-grandchildren had already been graduated from the old school.
In
the election of 6 November 1924, Daniel Corbett received one vote for State
Senator when his name was written in, reported as the only write-in in the
entire city that year.
In the summer of 1928, Great-grandpa became greatly
ill from the 'indigestion' which had bothered him for some time forced him to
retire. His business was foreclosed on and on December 1, 1928, the building was
sold at public auction to J. McCormack for $6100.
He died on March 9, 1929
and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery."
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Henry S. writes: "This building was once a fruit and vegetable business around
1984, It was then closed, shortly thereafter it was rented out to someone, and
remnants of the business were found on the floor, that being pot. It then became
a recycling office, as did the whole complex, for various recycling products.
PS, Early on this was a soft drink warehouse, as there is some of the brands ads
still on the walls, I believe they sold 'Squirt'".
Scannerman writes
"Also being worked on April 2011; various old parts removed, work being done.
I think it may have been a dairy at one point due to interesting milk-can-sized
doors on the east side."
Photo from Scannerman, showing doors
hi-lighted;
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