Irving, New York

Irving
Hamlet
Irving Location in New York
Coordinates: 42°34′03″N79°06′46″W / 42.56750°N 79.11278°W / 42.56750; -79.11278
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Chautauqua
Elevation	584 ft (178 m)
ZIP code	14081

Irving (Seneca : Jogé’odza:e’) is an unincorporated community in western New York, along Cattaraugus Creek near Lake Erie. The hamlet lies in the town of Hanover, Chautauqua County. The broader Irving mailing area includes the inland hamlet, the lakeshore community of Sunset Bay and locations in Erie and Cattaraugus counties served by ZIP Code 14081. The Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau promotes the area as “Irving–Sunset Bay.” The area includes and adjoins portions of the Cattaraugus Reservation of the Seneca Nation, which extends across parts of Chautauqua, Erie and Cattaraugus counties. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

The name Irving was originally associated with a settlement near the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek, in the area now known as Sunset Bay, before becoming primarily linked to the present-day hamlet farther upstream. Both settlements developed in the early 1800s and were later distinguished as Lower Irving and Upper Irving. ^[5]

The area was an early regional crossroads, serving westbound settlers, migrants arriving from Pennsylvania and travelers moving in all directions along the Lake Erie shore. ^{[5] [6]} Cattaraugus Creek connected inland farms, mills and trading posts with Great Lakes shipping. ^[7] The settlement near the creek mouth, later called Cattaraugus Village and Lower Irving, then simply Irving, had a ferry, a tavern and shipbuilding, but declined after unsuccessful efforts to establish a major harbor and railroad terminus, and proposals to make Irving the seat of a new county. ^{[8] [9]}

U.S. Route 20 and New York State Route 5 run together through the area and cross Cattaraugus Creek near New York State Route 438. ^[10] Interstate 90 (the New York State Thruway) has an interchange nearby. ^{[10] [11]} Irving is home to grape farms, Seneca Nation businesses, commerce clustered around the New York State Thruway interchange and lakeshore tourism. ^{[12] [13] [4]} Cattaraugus Creek is also a popular fishing destination. ^[14]

Geography

The mouth of Cattaraugus Creek at Lake Erie, near Sunset Bay

The hamlet of Irving lies in the town of Hanover, Chautauqua County, at a bend in Cattaraugus Creek upstream from its mouth at Lake Erie. Sunset Bay, also in Hanover, centers around the creek mouth. The Irving ZIP Code area includes both communities and reaches into Erie and Cattaraugus counties, including portions of the Cattaraugus Reservation. ^{[2] [3] [15]}

Ice jams can cause flooding along the lower creek. Sediment at the creek mouth has also prompted harbor dredging and long-term planning for channel-maintenance. Sunset Bay remains vulnerable to serious flooding, particularly when ice jams obstruct Cattaraugus Creek or storms drive Lake Erie water inland. Major flooding in February 2011 prompted evacuations, and flood threats and evacuations have continued into the 2020s. ^{[16] [17] [18] [19]}

Cattaraugus Creek and Lake Erie support recreational fishing, including of steelhead; hunting is popular in nearby woodland and wetlands, especially for white-tailed deer. ^{[16] [20] [21]}

Map of Irving and Sunset Bay, New York, showing historical settlements and present-day geography.

History

Early settlement and the two Irvings

Before the Seneca became dominant in the region, the Erie people, an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous nation for whom Lake Erie is named, inhabited portions of its shores, including parts of present-day western New York. Following warfare with the Haudenosaunee in the mid-1600s, surviving Erie people were dispersed or absorbed into other Indigenous communities, including the Seneca. ^[22]

The Cattaraugus Creek area is part of the homeland of the Seneca people, one of the Haudenosaunee nations. According to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century county histories, a group of Seneca people established a settlement near the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek in the spring of 1780, during the American Revolutionary War. Indigenous trails connected the creek mouth with communities along Lake Erie and south toward the Allegheny River valley. ^{[23] [24]} A marker near the creek mouth recalls British officer John Docksteder and Seneca activity during the American Revolutionary War. Joseph Hodge, an African American trader and interpreter known as "Black Joe," reportedly traded with Seneca residents along the creek by 1792 and later guided Moses Cleaveland on his 1796 surveying expedition, during which Cleaveland founded the settlement that became Cleveland, Ohio. A marker near the Hanover boat launch commemorates him. Amos Sottle established a homestead farther upstream along Cattaraugus Creek, near present-day Irving, in 1796 or 1797. Local accounts identify him as the first European-American settler of what became Chautauqua County. ^{[25] [5] [26] [27] [28]}

Historical marker on Spears Road East near the site of Amos Sottle’s cabin.

In 1805, Holland Land Company agent Joseph Ellicott reported that land near the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek had been surveyed into a proposed village and adjoining lots. Only two settlers occupied the surveyed land, he wrote. Ellicott’s settler count excluded nearby Seneca communities. Over the following decades, two settlements developed. Cattaraugus Village, later called Lower Irving and Old Irving, stood near Lake Erie in the area now known as Sunset Bay. William Sidney operated an early ferry and tavern serving travelers and lake commerce; John Mack later acquired it. Farther upstream, La Grange, or Upper Irving, grew at a bend in the creek, on the site of today's Irving hamlet. Its mills served surrounding farms and lumber merchants. ^{[29] [6] [30] [31]}

War of 1812

The mouth of Cattaraugus Creek saw action during the War of 1812. According to a 1921 history of Chautauqua County, Oliver Hazard Perry stopped at Mack's tavern near the creek mouth in the winter of 1813 while traveling to Erie, Pennsylvania, to prepare an American naval force on Lake Erie. Mack reportedly took Perry onward to Erie by sleigh. ^[24]

In the summer of 1813, the British vessels Queen Charlotte and Hunter pursued a transport commanded by American Captain Harmon into Cattaraugus Creek. The British sent a boat armed with a howitzer upstream and fired on the transport, but people from the nearby Cattaraugus Reservation came to Harmon's assistance, after which the British withdrew, according to local history. ^[24]

Perry reportedly sent a vessel to Cattaraugus to collect about 90 soldiers under Lieutenant Elliott before the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. After the American victory, officers escorting British prisoners from Erie to Buffalo stopped for a meal at Mack's tavern, following an overnight stop at Richard Williams's tavern in Fredonia. ^[24]

Roads, ferry and the Irving name

Lower Irving developed as a crossroads where the lakeshore road between Buffalo and Erie, Pennsylvania, crossed Cattaraugus Creek. ^{[5] [6]} The route carried emigrants west from eastern New York and New England, while settlers also arrived from Pennsylvania to the south and southwest. ^[6] According to local history, the early road originated in ox-cart tracks made by Pennsylvania settlers traveling east from Erie. ^[5] Boats on Lake Erie and traffic along Cattaraugus Creek linked the crossing with upstream mills, farms and trading establishments. ^[7] The route through Four Mile Woods north and east of the creek was often difficult; travelers hired ox teams for muddy stretches and stopped at Mack's creekside tavern. ^[5] A later account recalls ninety emigrants arriving in nine wagons in 1811 and spending two days at Mack's inn after a lakeshore storm. ^[32]

Newspapers reported proposals for a toll road in 1823 and a creek bridge in 1824. An 1825 sketch depicts a stage wagon approaching a toll bridge over Cattaraugus Creek. Stage service was offered at least twice weekly by 1823 and daily by the middle of the decade. ^{[33] [6] [32] [34]}

A post office named Cattaraugus operated near the lower settlement from 1812 to 1817; John Mack, who operated the creekside tavern, became postmaster in 1814. Another post office, named Acasto, opened in 1826, closed in 1830 and reopened in 1834; it was renamed Irving in 1836. That year, promoters of the proposed harbor town organized as The Irving Company. They considered several names other than Irving, including Acasto, Iroquois and Corning. The post office later moved upstream to Upper Irving, also called La Grange, which increasingly became known simply as Irving. Lower Irving later became known as Old Irving and then Sunset Bay. ^{[6] [35] [8] [5]}

Harbor development and the Irving Company

Lumber from upstream mills was shipped through the harbor to Lake Erie markets. An 1839 federal report also described canal boats stopping at Cattaraugus when ice prevented them from reaching Buffalo. Federal engineers considered Cattaraugus Creek a potentially important Lake Erie harbor of refuge for vessels caught in severe westerly gales, but its shallow entrance was obstructed by shifting sandbars. Engineers surveyed the harbor in 1835–1836, and Congress appropriated substantial funds for improvements over the following three years. The improvements made the entrance deep enough to accommodate large steamers, but the project was never completed. ^{[7] [36] [7] [37]}

The Irving Company attracted prominent investors from across New York State, including industrialist and politician Erastus Corning, newspaper editor and political boss Thurlow Weed, and Oliver Lee, a leading merchant and developer in nearby Silver Creek. Organized in 1836, the company sought to establish a commercial town and harbor at the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek. A proposed townsite, laid out as Acasto, comprised 88 blocks, but remained largely speculative. The company also hoped to attract the western terminus of the New York and Erie Railroad. Local proprietors reportedly demanded land prices that railroad officials considered excessive, contributing to the decision to establish the terminus at Dunkirk instead. Dunkirk also had a larger, more sheltered harbor. ^[6] As the project failed, property values declined, and the company’s holdings were divided among investors in 1845. The failed development scheme did not immediately end settlement, commerce or shipbuilding at the creek mouth. By 1848, federal engineers warned that the protective piers were deteriorating and the entrance could again become difficult or dangerous to navigate without more investment. ^{[38] [39] [8]}

Shipbuilding was also part of Lower Irving's waterfront economy. Historian Irene D. Neu described a shipyard and boardinghouses for workers near the creek mouth during the Irving Company's development campaign. ^[8] In a 1936 historical account, William Doty wrote that schooners and canal boats were built at Old Irving, where two large hotels accommodated ship carpenters. He reported that pine and oak timber for the vessels was rafted down Cattaraugus Creek from Four Mile Level on the Cattaraugus Reservation. ^[40] The exact location of the Lower Irving shipyard and its relationship to shipbuilding documented farther upstream at La Grange have not been established.

The area's ambitions also included county government. In 1843, supporters proposed forming Schuyler County from portions of Chautauqua, Erie and Cattaraugus counties. In 1846, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft described competing efforts to establish a new county seat at Irving or Lodi (now Gowanda). No new county resulted. ^{[9] [41]}

Mills and shipbuilding

Settlement at Upper Irving (La Grange) was recorded as early as 1810. ^[5] It developed into a milling and trading center during the 1830s. Niram Sackett and John I. Thorn were among its early developers, and Sackett owned two sawmills. The settlement eventually supported five or six lumber mills. Its economy also included small-scale manufacturing, such as machinery for cleaning grain. A federal harbor report in 1839 noted that vessels exceeding 100 tons were being built at La Grange. By 1873, a county gazetteer described Irving as a community of about 600 residents, with stores, a hotel, a school, a church, grist and sawmills, workshops and two broom factories. ^{[5] [42] [43] [7]}

Shipbuilding was a thriving industry along Cattaraugus Creek during the mid-1800s. Charles Stevens operated a shipyard from 1847 to 1856, producing at least nine vessels for Great Lakes commerce. Among them were the schooner Abiah, which transported early railroad locomotives to Milwaukee in 1850, and the Hanover, launched in 1853 and named for the town, whose supervisor was among its investors. The Abiah sank in Lake Michigan in 1854; its wreck was discovered in 2019 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. ^{[44] [45] [46] [47]}

Detail of an 1867 map of Hanover, showing Irving (Upper Irving), Silver Creek, Cattaraugus Creek, Lake Erie, roads and railroads.

Goodell's store and post office, 1912

The lighthouse

A small lighthouse was established at the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek in 1847 to guide vessels entering the harbor. It was destroyed in a storm in 1856 and replaced the following year. In 1859, it was shut down as part of a federal review of navigational lights that had become unnecessary because of changes in commerce or harbor conditions. ^{[48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53]}

Railroads and schools

Irving railroad station, with a steam locomotive and people on the platform, in an undated photograph from around 1910.

Although the projected railroad terminus at the creek mouth was never built, rail reached Irving when a separate line, the Buffalo and State Line Railroad, completed its route between Buffalo and Dunkirk in 1852 (the line later became part of the New York Central system). Rail traffic reduced the importance of the old lakeshore road. An 1867 atlas of Hanover marks a railroad depot along the Buffalo and Erie Railroad southwest of Upper Irving’s village center. ^[54] Abraham Lincoln's funeral train passed through Irving on April 27, 1865. Irving Union School was organized in 1901; local students later attended the Silver Creek Central School District. From 1909 until 1933, an electric interurban trolley line connected Irving with Buffalo and Erie, Pennsylvania. ^{[55] [5] [56] [38] [57] [58] [59] [60]}

Railroad workers on a Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway bridge at Irving in 1909.

Construction of the Buffalo and Erie electric railway bridge across Cattaraugus Creek, around 1908.

Decline of Lower Irving

With much of the creekside commerce moving elsewhere and the harbor piers deteriorating after federal appropriations ended, Lower Irving declined. Shoreline erosion washed away parts of the former lakeshore road and nearby land. An early cemetery was reportedly on a sandbank near Lake Erie; many burials were reportedly moved to Hanover Center Cemetery before the sandbank was removed. By 1894, the former settlement was largely abandoned apart from a few fishing shanties. Commerce increasingly centered on Upper Irving. ^[5] The distinction between the two settlements was reflected in an 1892 railway report, which listed "Old Irving" separately from Irving in its inventory of railroad bridges. ^[61]

Fishing and Sunset Bay

After electric interurban trolley service began through Irving in 1909, the former Lower Irving area developed into a lakeshore resort community known as Sunset Bay by the 1920s, with seasonal cottages and bathing beaches. By the 1940s, Sunset Bay Park included an amusement ride, a penny arcade and other attractions. ^{[60] [62] [63] [64] [65]}

Commercial fishing continued near the mouth, but shallow water and sandbars often made the creek entrance too shallow for fishing boats by late summer, forcing them to operate from Dunkirk. Their catches were trucked back to Cattaraugus Creek for processing and packing. The industry declined after 1940 and ceased around 1955. Recreational boating became increasingly important as commercial fishing declined. By 1960, three marinas operated along Cattaraugus Creek, serving nearly 500 recreational boats; a separate survey in August 1961 counted about 400 recreational boats moored below the railroad bridge near the creek mouth. ^[66]

The Cattaraugus Reservation and the Thomas Indian School

Historical map of the Cattaraugus Reservation (Library of Congress)

The Cattaraugus Reservation, part of the Seneca people's longstanding homeland, extends along Cattaraugus Creek from Gowanda to Lake Erie, with land on both sides of the creek in Erie, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties. Its landholdings were shaped by an 1802 land exchange, while an 1842 treaty confirmed the Seneca Nation's continued occupation of the Cattaraugus and Allegany reservations. In 2017, Seneca Nation leaders expressed concern that erosion at the former West Valley Demonstration Project nuclear processing site could threaten the Cattaraugus Creek watershed, and called for faster removal of buried radioactive waste. ^{[13] [67] [68] [69]}

The Thomas Indian School administration building, 1981

The Thomas Indian School was established on the Cattaraugus Reservation near Irving in 1855 and operated under New York State control from 1875 until its closure in 1957. The boarding school separated Indigenous children from their families and sought to suppress their languages and cultures through forced assimilation. Its surviving historic buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. ^{[70] [71] [72] [73] [74]}

In May 2025, New York Governor Kathy Hochul formally apologized to the Seneca Nation and boarding school survivors for the state's role in the institution. The Seneca Nation then called for state support for language revitalization and a survey of the former campus for unmarked graves. ^{[72] [75] [76]}

Twentieth century and modern Irving

Vintage postcard of Sunset Bay Park, near the former Lower Irving settlement.

The Irving Diner at the intersection of Routes 5 and 20 and Buffalo Road

During the twentieth century, Routes 5 and 20 developed into a corridor of roadside restaurants, diners, service stations and shops, while Sunset Bay's beach drew visitors from the Buffalo area. The Irving Diner, at the intersection of Routes 5 and 20 and Buffalo Road, became a local gathering place. During severe winter storms, police and volunteer firefighters brought stranded motorists to the diner for shelter. The diner later closed. ^[77]

The former U.S. Route 20 and New York State Route 5 bridge over Cattaraugus Creek. Built in 1931, the steel truss bridge was replaced as part of a project completed in 2015.

The New York State Thruway crossing the Cattaraugus Reservation near Irving.

A steel truss bridge carrying Routes 5 and 20 across Cattaraugus Creek was built in 1931. Its replacement was completed in 2015. ^{[10] [78]}

The New York State Thruway opened through Irving in 1957, diverting through traffic from Routes 5 and 20 while providing access to the Cattaraugus Reservation and nearby lakeshore communities through the Irving interchange. Construction of the Thruway bisected Spears Road, leaving the separated sections known today as Spears Road East and Spears Road West. The Thruway's passage across Seneca territory has been the center of a long-running land dispute. In October 2025, a federal magistrate judge recommended finding that New York State never obtained the federal approval required to build the highway across reservation land. ^{[11] [79] [80]}

Since the 1980s, Seneca-owned retail businesses have expanded on the Cattaraugus Reservation, including gasoline stations, tobacco shops and convenience stores along Routes 5, 20 and 438, drawing customers from across western New York. The Seneca Nation later began regulating cannabis businesses on its territory, including stores, growers and producers. ^{[81] [82] [83]}

Other landmarks along Routes 5 and 20 included Valvo's Candies, known for its Dolly Dimples statue, which closed in 2022 after more than a century in business, and Stagecoach West, an equestrian supply business established in 1980. ^{[84] [85]}

Lake Shore Hospital opened in Irving in 1965. It closed in 2020, and later reopened in September 2026 as the New York Medical Center, providing inpatient addiction treatment, with plans to expand into additional behavioral health services. ^{[86] [87] [88]}

Although Irving's role as a shipping and industrial center faded long ago and it never became the hub early developers envisioned, its location along Cattaraugus Creek and Lake Erie, including on the Seneca Nation's Cattaraugus Reservation, has helped it remain a center of commerce, a destination for fishing and lakeshore recreation, and a crossroads along Routes 5 and 20 and the New York State Thruway. ^{[5] [4] [11]}

Notable people

George Carter, who starred in basketball at Silver Creek Central High School and St. Bonaventure.

G. Peter Jemison, Seneca artist, curator, and activist.

• Lewis "Deerfoot" Bennett : A Seneca runner from the Cattaraugus Reservation who set world records during an 1860s racing tour of Britain. ^[89]

• Bemus Pierce : Born on the Cattaraugus Reservation, he became an All-American football guard at the Carlisle Indian School and coached the University at Buffalo football team in 1899. ^[90]

• Porter Cornelius Bliss : A 19th-century journalist and diplomat born in Erie County in 1838, during his father's years as a missionary on the Cattaraugus Reservation. ^[91]

• Traynor Ora Halftown : Born on the Cattaraugus Reservation, he became known as "Chief Halftown" and hosted a long-running children's television show in Philadelphia. ^[92]

• Isaac Johnny John : A Seneca film actor known as Chief John Big Tree, who claimed to be a model for the Buffalo nickel. ^[93]

• Alice Lee Jemison : A journalist and Seneca political activist born in nearby Silver Creek who grew up within the Cattaraugus Reservation community and advocated for abolishing the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the New Deal. ^[94]

• Amos Sottle: An early settler of the Irving area who built a cabin near Cattaraugus Creek in the 1790s and worked on surveys for the Holland Land Company. Local historical markers identify him as the first non-Indigenous settler of Hanover and Chautauqua County, although that distinction has been disputed by historians. ^{[27] [6]}

• Everett Burmaster: An Irving resident who became New York's assistant state archaeologist; he found a Devonian fossil fish in Silver Creek in 1928 and preserved Amos Sottle's horse-skull fiddle. ^{[95] [96]}

• George Carter : A star basketball player at St. Bonaventure and an A.B.A. all-star who is one of only three people known to have been drafted by four major North American professional leagues. His death in poverty in 2020 drew national attention to former ABA players left without pensions and helped lead to the NBA's 2022 payments to them. ^[97]

• Zed Williams : A Seneca lacrosse player who grew up on the Cattaraugus Reservation, set national high school career records for goals and points at Silver Creek, and won championships in the National Lacrosse League and Premier Lacrosse League. ^[98]

• Winifred "Wini" Kettle (1925–1990): A pioneering Seneca political leader who became the Nation's first female clerk, surrogate judge and councilor. ^[99]

• Agnes Williams: A Seneca activist raised on the Cattaraugus Reservation who co-founded the Indigenous Women's Network and advocated internationally for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. ^{[100] [101]}

• G. Peter Jemison : A Seneca artist, curator and cultural advocate who was born in Silver Creek and grew up in Irving. He later managed the Ganondagan State Historic Site and worked to preserve Haudenosaunee culture. ^{[102] [103]}

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76. Zunner, Ryan (May 20, 2026). "Seneca Nation calls on Hochul to make good on Thomas Indian School reconciliation". Buffalo Toronto Public Media.
77. Holthouse, Sara (September 30, 2022). "Historians recall some harsh winters of past". The Observer .
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79. Ingraham, Joseph C. (December 15, 1957). "The Thruway Becomes the Longest Toll Road". The New York Times . p. 159.
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99. "Women's History Month". Seneca Nation Official Newsletter. March 31, 2023.
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Bibliography

• Edson, Obed (1894). History of Chautauqua County, New York.
• Young, Andrew W. (1875). History of Chautauqua County, New York. Buffalo: Matthews & Warren.
• Neu, Irene D. (1960). Erastus Corning: Merchant and Financier, 1794–1872. Cornell University Press.
• Thomsen, Tamara L.; Zant, Caitlin N. (2015). To Feed, Fuel, and Build the Heartland: Underwater Archaeological Investigations from the 2014 Field Season (PDF) (Report). Wisconsin Historical Society.[Includes research on Charles Stevens’s Irving shipyard and the schooners Abiah and Hanover.]