LOCKPORT —
The 19th Century House at the corner of Park Avenue at Prospect Street changes with the seasons and holidays. Today, the three-story brick house is wearing its spring colors and is all dressed up for Memorial Day.
Josie Porth, a Lockport native who has been happily married to “Harmonica Dave” Porth for 22 years, is responsible for the decorations on what was once called Decoration Day.
A limo driver for AES Limousine in Clarence, a school bus driver for Starpoint Central and St. Christopher’s, and a nutrition assistant for the Niagara County Office for the Aging, Josie somehow finds time to spruce up the house that was built in the 1850s.
In March, the Porth house was decorated for St. Patrick’s Day. On March 17, while between jobs, Josie changed the scene from an Irish to a spring motif.
“I’m a decorating person,” she said. “I’m a festive person. I love parties and activities. I’m ready to put summer stuff out now. It’s something I very much enjoy. I love doing it and it makes everybody happy that goes by, I guess.”
Storing the seasonal stuff is a nuisance, but Josie said she took over one of the five bedrooms to store the decorations. She has special holiday decorations for Christmas, Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day and Halloween.
She had extra decorations for Christmas and began dressing up the city gazebo at Ida Fritz Park for holidays. City Hall and Navy Marine Club have pitched in.
Warren Porth, Dave’s father, was first tax commissioner in Lockport and he bought the house in 1960. Warren worked for the city from 1960 to 1976 and Dave grew up in it. There are five bedrooms and a apartment with one bedroom. One room has a tin ceiling. Oil lamps had to be converted to electricity.
The Porths found letters in the attic addressed to members of Abraham Lincoln’s family and gave them to the Niagara County Historical Society.
“My parents found them,” Dave said. “They were personal letters about the assassination of Lincoln. My mom didn’t want to keep them because they are very personal.”
Josie began her decorating hobby with a simple patriotic gesture 20 years ago. Her nephew, Allen Sharpe, was in the Army on the front line in Iraq. She put a candle in the window for him.
Josie began putting candles in all the windows and invested in landscaping. She gets some decorations from Collections Etc., and feels she might be the catalogue’s favorite customer. “My husband is cool too. He puts it together for me.”
There are plenty of real flowers around the house and clematis is climbing up to the room, with the buttercup relatives ready to bloom.
Josie senses the neighbors look forward to the decorations, but there can be mischief on the west side street. Sometimes the flowers are stolen. She switched to artificial begonias to save money. She calls them “fake-gonias.”
“Mostly kids take things,” she said. “They were malicious last year. It’s very disappointing. It’s the price I have to pay.”
One night, vandals pulled down the arch that goes over the sidewalk.
Josie’s work day goes from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. She drives a school bus for Ridge Road Express and takes students to Starpoint Central and St. Christopher’s in Tonawanda.
For Thanksgiving, she straps a 4-foot stuffed turkey — Tom Turkey — in the school bus. “They love my decorations,” she said. “They don’t touch them.”
Josie puts out bird feed and the family got to witness the birth of cardinals on the second-floor window sill. “The babies had their mouths open. It was at eye level — educational and entertaining.”
Her sons, Adam, 19, and Derik, 21, laugh at mom’s enterprise. Derik works at the Olive Garden and goes to Buffalo State. Adam works at DeFlippos Restaurant. “They say, ‘She’s at it again.’ ”
Local News
Related Photos
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Patriotism gushes into the front yard of The Porth residence on Park Avenue. Josie prepares to display Old Glory on the front porch. Joe Eberle/US&J
Decked out for Decoration Day
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