FDR Dedicated Education Building at Scotia, Baptist

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FDR Dedicated Education Building at Scotia, Baptist

Postby Ed Pettibone » Mon Aug 30, 2010 5:09 pm

Ed: I discovered this on the Scotia Baptist Church Web Site


FDR Dedicates Education Building

By happenstance, our brand new education building was dedicated by none other than New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, destined in a few years to become the only United States president elected to four terms of office. It wasn't part of the agenda when Roosevelt consented to come to Scotia to review a parade and speak over radio station WGY at the conclusion of an upstate civic event on September 9, 1929. The parade took place in the village of Scotia and the reviewing stand happened to be directly across from the First Baptist Church of Scotia. The occasion was a gigantic floral parade, starting in Rome, NY and ending in Scotia, to formally celebrate the building of the Great Western Gateway Bridge. It was sponsored by the Mohawk Valley Towns Association, of which Scotia Mayor Alvin C. Spitzer was president. It mattered not that the bridge was open in December 1925 and formally dedicated by then Gov. Alfred E. Smith the following June. It was merely the association's way of prolonging its gratitude for a modern span, which helped immeasurably the traffic along NY Route 5.

A succession of unforeseeable circumstances that day dictated that Franklin Delano Roosevelt would pay a special visit to Scotia Baptist. There was a steady downpour all along the route, and that changed prearranged plans. The governor, who arrived a bit late with his party from Albany, was supposed to review the parade from a stand already built in front of the new Masonic Temple across from the church, then be driven down to Collins Park where he was to give a radio address from a well-lighted, festooned platform. Four churches in Scotia were to serve meals to the parades and villagers. The persistent rain changed all that. It was decided by parade officials to forego the park function and to get right to the meals, because it was getting late, dark and everyone was hungry. Because Scotia Baptist was so near the reviewing stand, it was also decided to have the governor not only have his meal on the stage of the church's new gymnasium but also to give his radio message from there!

Roosevelt, stricken with polio the summer of 1921, the year after he had been an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for vice president, was barely able to walk with heavy leg braces and was given support by his aides as they entered the church through a side entrance next to the Colonial Ice Cream plant (now long demolished). He also was helped up two steps leading to the stage where a long table had been hurriedly set for the honored guest and other officials. After he had been seated, the stage curtains were drawn and just over 300 persons jammed in the hall, stood and applauded as FDR acknowledged their greeting. A large banner, which read "Welcome, Governor Roosevelt!" hung from a railing on the balcony to his right. Someone must have told the governor that the education building was only recently opened, as during his radio speech, he commented that the new facility had much to be admired and added that, "I give it my official blessing as you state's chief executive ... if you think that will give it added stature." The main subject of his talk was his administration's program to improve the lot of the agricultural sections of the state, but for many years afterward there were stalwart Scotia Baptists who maintained that the best part of his speech was the "dedication of our new building."
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Ed Pettibone
 
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