AUBURN - A photo, dated July 23, 1964, hangs among hundreds of others in a corner room of Cayuga Community College's library. The caption reads: “Father of Baseball Gen. Abner Doubleday Lived in Auburn.”
Jennifer Meyers / The Citizen
Ormie King, of Auburn, started collecting local photos, newspapers and other memorabilia from Auburn's past in 1991 after his restaurant was destroyed in a fire. King's collection is on display in the Local History Room at Cayuga Community College.
Ormie King, of Auburn, started collecting local photos, newspapers and other memorabilia from Auburn's past in 1991 after his restaurant was destroyed in a fire. King's collection is on display in the Local History Room at Cayuga Community College.
“I'm kind of a sports nut,” said Ormie King, the man behind an estimated 20,000 photographs depicting Auburn's history, titled “Ormie King's Legends.”
The room is full of photographs, newspaper clippings and memorabilia about the city. King, 68, was born, raised, married and has served the community as a city councilman for seven years and legislator for 10.
“I love Auburn,” he said “love everything about it and this is a total reflection of the city.”
The collection started at Legends, the restaurant King opened in 1988 in the Five Points area, which housed 37 downtown businesses at the point where five roads met. He lined the restaurant's walls with pictures and soon everyone that came in brought something new to hang up. The collection got to the point that they ran out of wall space and started storing pictures in an old metal locker.
In 1991, a fire on St. Patrick's Day left Five Points and Legends gutted, which would not be rebuilt. King said after the fire, a firefighter told him they had found a locker. Inside were nearly 200 photos that had survived the flames and were salvageable.
Later, while working at the YMCA, he would take a different photo, put it on the desk and began a “goofy” contest of guess who is in the picture. And, just as they had at Legends restaurant, people started bringing King photos.
The collection again began to grow.
He started organizing the photographs into categorized albums with titles like “Lake,” “Y-Field” and “World War I” among almost 220 topics, which now line the shelves of the room at CCC, which became interested in King's collection and offered him a room for display.
Almost everything in each album directly pertains to Auburn.
“They are all photos no one wants anymore,” he said.
He accepts anything he can get his hands on - an old scrapbook someone had in their attic, political memorabilia from past elections or items from local establishments. At home, King has at least four large bins filled with everything he can't fit in the room.
“People just say, ‘No one ever sees these anymore, you want them Ormie?'” he said. “There is as much visual history in this room as any place in Auburn.”
The history ranges from a photo of a 1930s parade coming down the East Genesee Street hill with horses pulling the floats; to an original newspaper clipping dated Oct. 8, 1948 with the headline “President Truman Addresses Big Auburn Gathering;” to a 1960 photo of Kathy Walters in a big purple dress and “Spuds Murphy” in a plaid cummerbund at the Mt. Carmel prom; to the pair of skates worn by T.J. Sennett in 1997 at the Skaneateles Christmas Tournament, when he scored the tying and winning goals against undefeated Ithaca.
“This place is really endless,” King said. “I learn something new about Auburn every day.”
There are close to 100- year-old books, a picture of the lit-up downtown Auburn night scene from the '50s, archives of bound newspapers from East High School and a 1959 basketball with the caption, “used by Charles ‘Zinc' Ladouce when he tossed in 48 points to set an A.H.S. Record.”
And then there is tribute to some of Auburn's greats: Jim McGuire, the only Auburnian track star to beat a world record holder; Johnston Dunlop, the first soldier from Auburn to be killed in Vietnam; John Walsh from “America's Most Wanted” pictured at Mt. Carmel High School; Washington Redskins player Buddy Hardeman; and a black-and-white photo of a young boy with curly hair and freckles licking an ice cream cone, which reads “Paul Martin - professional ice cream taster and now one of our finest policemen.”
“There are a lot of success stories in this room, a lot of good people,” King said.
There are stories everywhere. On one wall hangs a photo of the Hunter's Dinerant being pulled into Auburn on the back of a truck, King chimes in pulling a book off the shelf, “and if you were interested in Hunters, come on over here to the album ‘Restaurants E through I' and you can see what I have on the topic.”
He says some of it is just nostalgia, but mostly it's a tribute to the people of the city. At the top of one wall hangs a banner, “Memories it's been said - are the most sincere form of honor,” which King holds as the truth.
Although the exhibit is titled “Ormie's Legends,” named after the restaurant that started it all, he said he's just the one who assembled them. “They really aren't my legends, they are the community's.”
Staff writer Laura Boyce can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 236 or at laura.boyce@lee.net
The room is full of photographs, newspaper clippings and memorabilia about the city. King, 68, was born, raised, married and has served the community as a city councilman for seven years and legislator for 10.
“I love Auburn,” he said “love everything about it and this is a total reflection of the city.”
The collection started at Legends, the restaurant King opened in 1988 in the Five Points area, which housed 37 downtown businesses at the point where five roads met. He lined the restaurant's walls with pictures and soon everyone that came in brought something new to hang up. The collection got to the point that they ran out of wall space and started storing pictures in an old metal locker.
In 1991, a fire on St. Patrick's Day left Five Points and Legends gutted, which would not be rebuilt. King said after the fire, a firefighter told him they had found a locker. Inside were nearly 200 photos that had survived the flames and were salvageable.
Later, while working at the YMCA, he would take a different photo, put it on the desk and began a “goofy” contest of guess who is in the picture. And, just as they had at Legends restaurant, people started bringing King photos.
The collection again began to grow.
He started organizing the photographs into categorized albums with titles like “Lake,” “Y-Field” and “World War I” among almost 220 topics, which now line the shelves of the room at CCC, which became interested in King's collection and offered him a room for display.
Almost everything in each album directly pertains to Auburn.
“They are all photos no one wants anymore,” he said.
He accepts anything he can get his hands on - an old scrapbook someone had in their attic, political memorabilia from past elections or items from local establishments. At home, King has at least four large bins filled with everything he can't fit in the room.
“People just say, ‘No one ever sees these anymore, you want them Ormie?'” he said. “There is as much visual history in this room as any place in Auburn.”
The history ranges from a photo of a 1930s parade coming down the East Genesee Street hill with horses pulling the floats; to an original newspaper clipping dated Oct. 8, 1948 with the headline “President Truman Addresses Big Auburn Gathering;” to a 1960 photo of Kathy Walters in a big purple dress and “Spuds Murphy” in a plaid cummerbund at the Mt. Carmel prom; to the pair of skates worn by T.J. Sennett in 1997 at the Skaneateles Christmas Tournament, when he scored the tying and winning goals against undefeated Ithaca.
“This place is really endless,” King said. “I learn something new about Auburn every day.”
There are close to 100- year-old books, a picture of the lit-up downtown Auburn night scene from the '50s, archives of bound newspapers from East High School and a 1959 basketball with the caption, “used by Charles ‘Zinc' Ladouce when he tossed in 48 points to set an A.H.S. Record.”
And then there is tribute to some of Auburn's greats: Jim McGuire, the only Auburnian track star to beat a world record holder; Johnston Dunlop, the first soldier from Auburn to be killed in Vietnam; John Walsh from “America's Most Wanted” pictured at Mt. Carmel High School; Washington Redskins player Buddy Hardeman; and a black-and-white photo of a young boy with curly hair and freckles licking an ice cream cone, which reads “Paul Martin - professional ice cream taster and now one of our finest policemen.”
“There are a lot of success stories in this room, a lot of good people,” King said.
There are stories everywhere. On one wall hangs a photo of the Hunter's Dinerant being pulled into Auburn on the back of a truck, King chimes in pulling a book off the shelf, “and if you were interested in Hunters, come on over here to the album ‘Restaurants E through I' and you can see what I have on the topic.”
He says some of it is just nostalgia, but mostly it's a tribute to the people of the city. At the top of one wall hangs a banner, “Memories it's been said - are the most sincere form of honor,” which King holds as the truth.
Although the exhibit is titled “Ormie's Legends,” named after the restaurant that started it all, he said he's just the one who assembled them. “They really aren't my legends, they are the community's.”
Staff writer Laura Boyce can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 236 or at laura.boyce@lee.net
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