Things to Do in Elmira, NY

Vacation in Elmira, NY? Land of, well, what, exactly? What little I know about Elmira before I get there is that it is a small town somewhere in upstate New York, one that may have seen better days. What I get when I get to Elmira is a Finger Lakes destination rich in history, a bit of literary tourism, and charm from a small city.

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Where Is Elmira, NY?

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Located south of Watkins Glen and Seneca Lake, the City of Elmira has a population of about 30,000 people. As with so many places in New York, there is more than one place named Elmira: there is the City of Elmira, and then there happens to be a Town of Elmira, which surrounds, in some measure, the City of Elmira. Got it? Let’s just call it all Elmira.

Notable people from Elmira include fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, television commentator “Judge Jeanine” Pirro, Hal Roach, the creator of Our Gang films (later named the Little Rascals when they were aired on television), and Olivia Langdon Clemens, the spouse of author Samuel Clemens (who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain).

Elmira, located in the Southern Tier of New York, served as an important railroad hub in the 1800s. President Millard Fillmore, a native of New York state, and U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster traveled to Elmira in 1851 to commemorate the completion of the Erie railroad line. Elmira’s existence as a transportation hub very much would impact what would come next in its history.

What to Do in Elmira, NY

Elmira Civil War Prison Camp

My first stop is the Elmira Prison Camp. Visitors to upstate New York might not associate intense Civil War activity with the region. After all, it was the North vs. the South with most of the action taking place from Gettysburg, PA on down, right? Yet Elmira played a significant role in the Civil War, which visitors to the Elmira Civil War Prison Camp soon learn. With its central location and nexus of railroads and canals, Elmira initially served as a logical point to gather troops and then ship them to locations as needed. Ultimately, more than 20,000 Union troops underwent training in Elmira.

The logistics of such an operation needed a bit of tweaking, though. The New York Times wrote in 1861, “Previous to going into barracks desertions were quite frequent. This was owing to the troops being quartered any and everywhere, so that it was impossible to exercise any control over them.” Letter from the Elmira Camp: The Troops There and What They Are Doing, N.Y. Times, May 26, 1861, p. 2.

What began as a barracks for troops in the Civil War eventually morphed into a prison for Confederate troops.

The presence of a Southerner in upstate New York was such an oddity that viewing stands were set up so that locals could pay to see the soldiers of the Confederacy imprisoned at Elmira.

When prisoners of war arrived, they were not particularly docile. Additional troops had to be sent to Elmira to contain them. “The reason for sending these troops to Elmira is, that the large number of rebels who have been imprisoned at the Federal barracks at that place, have lately become very defiant, and it seemed probable that unless a stronger guard was placed over them they would make an attempt to escape,” the New York Times reported in 1864. Local Intelligence.; Military Affairs. The Rebel Prisoners at Elmira Becoming Defiant; Two Regiments Sent There, N.Y. Times, Aug. 3, 1864, p. 2.

I learn on my visit that some people were punished by being placed in a casket, or sweat box, and left in the hot sun.

Conditions generally were not exactly comfortable at Elmira Prison Camp. A maximum capacity of 5,000 people was far exceeded. Occupants slept on wooden bunk beds head to foot. Try sleeping with a stranger’s less-than-clean and likely malodorous feet next to your face. Coal stoves heated the barracks.

Cold, overcrowding, insufficient food, and outbreaks of smallpox, dysentery, and pneumonia resulted in the death of almost 3,000 of the 12,000 prisoners held here. The 25 percent casualty rate earned the place the nickname of “Hellmira.”

The prisoners of war who died during imprisonment were buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira.

By August 1865, with the Civil War over, Elmira was putting on “the garb of peace.” Elmira to Put on the Garb of Peace, N.Y. Times, Aug. 12, 1865, p. 1. The Elmira prison camp shut down. More than a century later, it was slated for demolition. Fortunately, some forward thinkers managed to turn a portion of the original camp into a museum. The Elmira Prison Camp reopened, this time for visitors, in 2017.

Elmira Civil War Prison Camp, 645 Winsor Ave., Elmira, NY 14905

Chemung Valley History Museum

The Chemung Valley History Museum, housed in a former bank, introduces visitors to the distant history of the region and to one of its most famous summertime visitors: Mark Twain, author of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn among other works. Some say that Samuel Clemens came to Elmira to escape being Mark Twain. Check out Clemens/Twain memorabilia at the museum and imagine running into the famous author at a local saloon. Clemens’s spouse grew up in Elmira, and his family summered at the home of his sister-in-law.

Make time for other exhibits and simply enjoy the Chemung Valley History Museum building itself. I liked peeking into the vault inside the museum, which is housed in the former Chemung Canal Bank owned by the Arnot family.

An added bonus: the Chemung Valley Historical Society, which runs the museum, hosts an annual ghost walk in October when residents of Woodlawn Cemetery are portrayed by actors.

Chemung Valley History Museum, 415 East Water Street, Elmira, NY 14901

A Bit of Literary Tourism at Elmira College

Visitors to Elmira College will encounter Mark Twain again as his octagonal study, the one he toiled away in at Quarry Farm, has been moved to campus grounds. Samuel Clemens supposedly smoked dozens of cigars a day, and so was invited to do so in his own private area of his sister-in-law’s farm that is part tool shed and part playhouse. It’s still a cool home office/walled gazebo replete with fireplace, windows, desk, chairs. Twain purportedly recalled the Mississippi River of his youth while sitting in this space when it still overlooked the Chemung River. It’s like J. K. Rowling scribbling early drafts of Harry Potter at cafes. No fancy surroundings or special equipment are really required.

After visiting Mark Twain’s octagonal study, stroll around the campus a bit. Elmira College, founded in 1855, became the first women’s college to offer degrees equivalent to those offered by other institutions to men. In other words, women attending the school were not just earning degrees in so-called domestic arts. Samuel Clemens’s wife, Olivia Langdon, attended (Class of 1864). His future father-in-law was a trustee of the college. Samuel Clemens and Olivia Langdon married in 1870.

Elmira College also is home to the Center for Mark Twain Studies.

Mark Twain Study at Elmira College, One Park Place, Elmira, NY 14901

Park Church

For a dose of spiritualism and history, stop by the Park Church, which was founded by a group of abolitionists in 1840s after the local First Presbyterian Church declined to come out against slavery. The new independent congregational church included in its initial bylaws the following: “That the using, holding, or trading in men as slaves is a sin in the sight of God, a great wrong to its subjects and a great moral and political evil inconsistent with the Christian profession. And that this church will admit no person into its pulpit or communion who is known to be guilty of the same.” Quoted in Park Church, History of the Park Church (1981 rev.), p. 4.

Jervis Langdon, father of Olivia Langdon (the future spouse of Samuel Clemens) was an active member of the new church. Thomas Beecher, the sibling of Harriet Beecher Stowe (who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin) became a reverend at the church. The Beecher family ultimately befriended the Clemens family.

The church seems to have been part house of worship, part community center, part school.

Park Church, 208 West Gray St., Elmira, NY 14901

Woodlawn Cemetery

If you happen to be in search of spiritualism of a slightly different sort, head to Woodlawn Cemetery where Samuel Clemens and other family members are buried. Take special note of the monument to Mark Twain and his son-in-law Ossip Gabrilowitsch, who was married to Clara Clemens, the only child of Twain that survived him. The monument’s height happens to be two fathoms, or 12 feet.

Samuel Clemens’s early career included working on steamboats on the Mississippi River when boat workers would call out the depth of water: “mark one” refers to a measurement of one fathom, “mark twain” to two.

Also buried in Woodlawn Cemetery are Rev. Thomas Beecher, a number of people active in the Underground Railroad, a network to help escaped slaves reach freedom, John W. Jones (more on him, below), and Hal Roach of Our Gang/Little Rascals fame.

Woodlawn Cemetery, 1200 Walnut Street, Elmira, NY 14905

Woodlawn National Cemetery

Woodlawn National Cemetery, a part of Woodlawn Cemetery, holds military graves. It is here that the Confederate dead from the Elmira prison camp are buried along with Union dead from the area. (Military personnel from other wars are buried here as well.) Supervising the burial of all of those dead rebel soldiers was John W. Jones, an escaped slave from Leesburg, VA who was active in the Underground Railroad. Despite his prior enslavement in the South, Jones still kept good records of the names of the Confederate dead, an act that allowed permanent markers to be placed on the gravesites after the Civil War ended.

Interestingly, in the Woodlawn National Cemetery, the graves of Confederate dead, marked with pointed tombstones, are surrounded by the graves of Union dead, marked with curved tombstones. Even in death, the North defeats the South.

Woodlawn National Cemetery, 1825 Davis St., Elmira, NY 14901

John W. Jones Museum

Just across the street from the Woodlawn National Cemetery visitors will find the former house of John W. Jones, an African American and escaped slave who fled a Leesburg, VA plantation because of fears that he would be sold after the death of his owner, who was advancing in age. Arriving in Elmira, Jones became sexton of a church and a stationmaster in the Underground Railroad. He also organized opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act, an 1850 law requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners.

Jones died in 1900 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. His house, which was moved a couple of times, now faces the cemetery at which he once worked.

The museum’s application for listing on the National Register of Historic Places notes that portions of Jones’s home were actually made from remnants of the Elmira Prison Camp.

The house itself, as explained in the application, “is a physical remnant directly associated with Jones’s life as a free man and today serves as the focal point for the community in its efforts to celebrate Jones’s legacy of commitment to freedom and compassion.” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for John W. Jones House, received by National Park Service on Aug. 26, 2003, p. 9. Ponder whether you would have been able to treat deceased Confederate soldiers as respectfully as Jones did.

Today, the house, which is on land that Jones owned, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

John W. Jones Museum, 1250 Davis Street, Elmira, NY 14901

Quarry Farm

A fortunate few get to get to visit the place where magic happened for Mark Twain. He summered at his sister-in-law’s place, Quarry Farm in Elmira. The farm was deeded some time ago to Elmira College to support Mark Twain scholars and researchers. Sadly, it is not open to the public. I am lucky to score an invitation to take a look at the grounds, and I do peek into the windows from the porch overlooking—at a distance—the Chemung River. To me, the interior resembles the style of Twain’s Hartford, CT home. I can very much imagine Samuel Clemens sitting in a rocker on that porch and telling stories on summer evenings.

While I am at Quarry Farm, I read Twain’s “A True Story, Word for Word as I Heard It,” a heartbreaking piece, based on the real-life account of a slave separated from her children who discovers her adult son years later.

An alternative to visiting the farm and a way to pick up on the general good writerly vibes of the area is by stopping in at the Hilltop Inn for drinks and a meal (reservations recommended).

Quarry Farm, 131 Crane Rd, Elmira, NY 14901

Hilltop Inn, 171 Jerusalem Hill Rd., Elmira, NY 14901

For Bashful Adventurers

Feel the need for some retail therapy? Head to the Christmas House for sparkly good fun any time of year. This is not a retail chain; rather, the Christmas House is a delightful store in an 1860s Victorian mansion. All things Christmas abound, but other items are also available in the store. I picked up a book on the history of Elmira on my visit. Making my visit extra special: I got to ice and decorate Christmas cookies.

For a digestible dose of Elmira history—a series of newspaper columns aggregated in book form—pick up a copy of True Stories of Elmira, New York by Diane Janowski and James Hare. I read Volume 2 and learn about events as varied as Babe Ruth’s visit, Frederick Douglass’s connection with the city, and the appearance of a cousin of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, at the Opera House.

Kick back, get some grub, enjoy a sugar high of a different sort—as well as right-on-the-banks views of the Chemung River—at the Finger Lakes House. Enjoy a glass of locally sourced wine, beer, or cider while sitting on the deck of this 1800s row house and watching the river glide by.

Christmas House, 361 Maple Avenue, Elmira, NY 14904. Open July through early January.

Finger Lakes House, 389 West Water St., Elmira, NY 14901

—Lori Tripoli

Full disclosure: A portion of the author’s visit to Elmira was hosted by Mark Twain Country.

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