Village of Lacona

Sandy Creek History Center

Village of Lacona

Historian, Charlene Cole
The Village of Lacona will celebrate 125 years in 2005 and a Lacona History book is planned.We are looking for photos and oral history.

LACONA: A village: (pop. 593) Town of Sandy Creek, Oswego County. The village was named for the ancient country in Greece. About 1870 a local Baptist minister chose Lacona (which is thought to be a poetic reference for the word "lake" because of the pulchritudinous view from the village toward Lake Ontario. One noted toponymist states that the name is a "pseudo-Latin" word for the "lakes in the area." In any case Greek mythology tells us that Laconia derives from Lacedaemon (las a DEE mon), son of Zeus and king of this ancient land.

Lacona, also written Laconica, was a country on the Peloponnese, a peninsula in southern Greece. Lacedaemon inherited his kingdom from his father-in-law, King Eurotas and afterwards named his capital Sparta (Lacedaemon) to honor his wife. Cape Taenarum, one, one of the entrances to Hades, is located nearby. Sparta became the military power and dominated the region in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. Rome took control of this area in 146 B. C. Today Laconia is one of Greeces Departments or States.

"Classical Names in NYS-Origins, Histories and Meanings" by William R. Farrell

The Lacona Depot is being restored and will eventually house the offices of the Village of Sandy Creek and Village of Lacona.

...the Watertown and Rome Railroad...was opened through Sandy Creek and as far as Pierrepont Manor in May 1851. It ran about three-fourths of a mile east of Sandy Creek village; consequently the idea soon arose of building another village around the depot. After a few houses had been erected the question of a name came up, and the very convient and euphonious one of lacona was adopted.

In 1880, Lacona Village was incorporated and grew as a result of the railroad. The present depot was constructed in 1891 by New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. New York Central later became the Penn Central Railroad System. Thee village goals for the depot include saving an important site from decay, to display historical documents and artifacts concerning the railroad, and house the offices of both villages.