Union Street during the Floods

This third and final part of the tour will take you into the village of Allegany. This part will show how streets like Union st. were impacted by the floods of 1942 and 1972. Like on campus, the waters rose and often caused more damage to the houses in the neighborhood than what was seen on campus. This is how Union street was impacted along with the areas around it.

When the flood of 1942 occurred, Union Street was one of the first places directly impacted and damaged by the rising waters. As you can see in the picture accompanied with this part of the tour, you can see just how far the water came up to the houses on this street and the streets around it.

In 1942, when the waters began to spill out of the river, a quote from the Allegany Citizen Newspaper from that week stated, "Hundreds of persons were forced to leave their homes. Most families on Union Street left Sunday morning for high ground although a few houses on East Union Street between Fifth and Seventh were completely surrounded by water in depths up to six feet. About twenty houses on North First Street between Main and Pine were underwater Saturday noon and by Sunday night some of them had water up to the top of the windows on the first story." This excerpt illustrated how Union Street was right in the middle of everything that occurred when the flood was happening. This was also the case during the 1972 floods even more so.

It is interesting to see the picture from 1942 because it puts into perspective the significance of the flood. It is also intriguing because as people may know, this area is where a lot of off-campus student housing is. If something like this happened today it would be a problem for the town and also for students who live in these areas and not on campus.

SBU Archives - Allegany section

Allegany Historical Association Newsletter

Allegany Citizen Newspaper