Johnny Come Lately Name Posted August 10, 2020 Share #1 Posted August 10, 2020 Lenox Basin doesn't even really exist today - it's just a 4-way intersection. On one corner is a bar. That's it. But come to find out, back in the canal days, it was a swingin' place. There was a small canal basin* a hotel, a livery stable and a number of farms. The hotel - The Little Mascotte- was the setting for an endless stream of newspaper articles. Unlicensed booze, Sunday sales, gambling, hookers ("inmates of a disorderly house"), two murders, two suicides and a number of accidental drownings that may be attributed to time spent at the Mascotte. The proprietor was one Clayton D Johnson. Time and again, he would get raided and shut down...and be back in business shortly. In this case, it appears he wasn't above a little jury tampering: *hence the name Lenox Basin. I felt pretty stupid when I realized a lot of place names weren't just pulled out of a hat. Stacey Basin actually had a basin, there was actually a foundry at Lenox Furnace, "Clay Hill Road" was where they drew clay from, for the pottery.... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airehead Posted August 10, 2020 Share #2 Posted August 10, 2020 Jollied the jury People don't use language in the way they used to-- it is a durn shame really 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted August 10, 2020 Share #3 Posted August 10, 2020 "jollied" Whatever could that mean. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Come Lately Name Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share #4 Posted August 10, 2020 Clayton had a long, interesting career. Lost his liquor license, so he took one out in the bartender's name. Got popped for Sunday sales and running a disorderly house. He pled guilty to the Raines Law charge, but the judge dropped the disorderly house charge after he agreed to sell the place, which he did: Three months later: (....if an actual sale ever took place). He had a couple of race horses, a "naphtha launch", was married four times.... (his third wife skipped town with the bartender after a couple of months). Even after he sold the place, he made the news. I have an article where he got busted for pirating fish from Oneida Lake. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted August 10, 2020 Share #5 Posted August 10, 2020 There was an inn several miles from where I grew up that had a similar reputation. When in high school the guys all talked about wanting to check it out when they got a little older. It never happened, before I graduated the place was sold, torn down and they built a Burger King there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airehead Posted August 10, 2020 Share #6 Posted August 10, 2020 Clayton Johnson was an interesting man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsnip Totin Jack ★ Posted August 10, 2020 Share #7 Posted August 10, 2020 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Come Lately Name Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share #8 Posted August 10, 2020 35 minutes ago, Airehead said: Clayton Johnson was an interesting man. Tip o' the iceberg. Lenox Basin itself was the real eye-opener. I didn't even know it existed, until fairly recently, let alone that it was such a den of iniquity. If I pull up fultonhistory and do a search for "Lenox Basin" I can almost guarantee the resulting articles will involve some sort of nefarious behavior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Come Lately Name Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share #9 Posted August 10, 2020 38 minutes ago, Longjohn said: the place was sold, torn down and they built a Burger King there. I believe the spot where the Mascotte was is now a parking area for the Erie Canal towpath. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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