Published: April 22, 2008 02:01 pm         

Builder’s work survives in area structures

Backtracking: IN OUR TIMES

“We Are Not Satisfied Unless You Are.” Open an Oneonta city directory from the 1940s and ’50s, and you’ll spot this advertisement by Lothar Fieg, builder.

Fieg was certainly good at what he did, because, even though I’m not certain how many projects he was involved with, there are some examples of his work very visible in our

region. Fieg was also very active in life around Oneonta.

According to that advertisement, Fieg established his business in 1920, and his office was at 3 Lewis St.

Fieg was born in Germany in 1886, moved to the U.S. and lived in other places in New York state before coming to Oneonta in 1918. Lothar and his wife, Florence, raised a family, residing in the East End.

Fieg’s projects varied. He built homes that ranged from modest to very elegant.

Of the latter, Fieg built the Thornwood estate on Draper Street. He built it for the Elmore family in 1925. The Elmores were prominent in agricultural feed manufacturing in Oneonta. The house overlooks the upper level of Wilber Park, although it has been obscured by trees since the 1920s. The Elmores sold the house in 1963 to Hartwick College, where it now serves as the residence of the college president.

As you drive on state Route 7 in Emmons, across from the shopping plaza, you’ll notice a sign for “Woodchuck Knoll,” on the grounds of today’s Emmons Farms. This home was a Lothar Fieg creation. In 1929, Amanda Morgan had the home built for her daughter Mary in a woodchuck- infested field: thus the name. It is close to today’s tennis courts and swimming pool.

Another attractive home at the corner of West and Chestnut Streets is the one with the “G” on a chimney. It was built for Robert Gardner, owner of the former Gardner Music Store in downtown Oneonta.

Fieg wasn’t only a home builder. For a few years in the 1940s, he and his work crews helped get the present Crossroads Village at the Farmers’ Museum established in Cooperstown.

In 1944, Fieg dismantled Todd’s General Store in Toddsville. A stone structure, it had been a company store for the cotton, grist and paper mill workers of the town. In 1945, Fieg disassembled the Filer’s Corners Schoolhouse, built around 1812 in the town of Butternuts. Finally in 1946, the Peleg Field Blacksmith Shop, built in 1827 in New Berlin, was disassembled.

The buildings were brought to Cooperstown and rebuilt on their current locations at the Farmers’ Museum. This was a very detailed set of tasks, as each of the stones on the buildings were numbered, brought to Cooperstown by truck, and then reassembled, one by one.

When not at work, Fieg was active in community events. He was a charter member of the Oneonta Lions Club, as well as a member of the Masonic Lodge, and on the boards of directors

of the Oneonta Symphony Orchestra, Sportsmen’s Club and Oneonta YMCA.

Beginning in 1951, Fieg served on Oneonta’s Public Service Board, of which he eventually became chairman. It was during this time that the new water filtration plant was built, today’s Roger G. Hughes plant on East Street.

Fieg was well-respected in Oneonta. At the time of his passing in August 1958, former Mayor Roger Hughes ordered the flag at half-staff on the Municipal Building, today’s 242 Main St., on

the day of his funeral, Aug. 26.

This weekend: The move to Sidney for Timothy Beach got a bit rough.



City Historian Mark Simonson’s column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the epression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.