The village is named after Savona in Italy.
Wikipedia.org [Savona]

Villageof Savona History -- on Town of Savona Website.
[includes: DLW Train at Depot, Savona National Bank, Village Water System, and Savona Union School.] [has pictures]

Savona is next to the Cohocton River at the confluence of Mud Creek. Savona is located at exit 40 on route 17, I - 86 of the southern tier expressway. Sandford Lake is a small lake north of the village. The village of Savona is in the Easter part of the Township of Bath. Savona was selected as the name for the community by an employee of the Erie Railroad, working to complete the Corning to Attica line. He was a native of Savona, Italy. Sources of this paragraph: Savona on en.wikipedia.org and westny.

Savona was first settled in 1793 when Thomas Corbitt near the mouth of Mud Creek. The early settlement was referred to as "Tommy Corbitt's at the mough of Mud Creek" and quickly shortened to Mud Creek. As the tiny community grew, it needed a more savory name, and Dr. Marsena Terry suggested the name an Italian city. In 1850 the, Mud Creek became Savona officially in 1883. Source of this paragraph: villageofsavona.com

Savona later became separated from Bath [which it was a part of originally] so far at least as local government was concerned. Savona which was annexed to Bath in 1862. Source of this paragraph: history.rays-place.com

This building was one of the 3 hotels built on the same lot on Savona's Four Corners. It stood from 1848 to 1896, when it was replaced by the brick building we remember. Generally called the Railroad House, it had many owners over the years and a few gave it their own name, such as Drake's Hotel and Joel Rice Tavern. Marvin W. Clapp did not give it his name. James C. VanGelder owned it from 1881 to 1882, calling it Savona House.


Savona 4 Corners in 1909, looking north. The child is by the Frisbie Block of two stores, one vacant and one housing Whiting Meat Market & Grocery.


SAVONA ENGINE & HOSE COMPANY HAND ENGINE, APRIL 30, 1906. Firemen roll out their first pumper after delivery from the Howe Engine Co. of Indianapolis, Ind. On the right is the porch of the Damoth House, Joseph Dimmick, Prop. On the left, Conkling & Platt General Store, Joint Bros. Hardware warehouse, new Joint building under construction, Stinson Meat Market, Allen Shutts Grocery (also under construction), Dr. Gillette's house and office, Elizabeth Allerton's house and T.


The W.H. Ward Drug Store (1883-1914) was a 3-story building on the Savona four corners, across from Joint Hardware, where Dollar General is today. Mr. Ward died in 1911 and his wife Ella got a phramacist's license to continue the business. The "Parker's Hair Balsam" trade cards were handed out to customers, back when advertisers had fewer venues to promote their products.


The Borden Milk Station (1917 to 1936) was located where the Savona Diner is now. The postcard photo was taken from what is now Little Acorn Lane, looking east. The Erie RR ran next to the small loading dock building, where the cooled and pasteurized milk was loaded into refrigerated cars and shipped to Brooklyn to be bottled and sold. Seamans Cemetery can be seen in the background on the far right; on the left is one of the houses demolished in the 1930s.


Savona businesses 150 years ago 1867


Savona businesses 100 years ago


Savona businesses 50 years ago 1967


The snowplow is out just below the four corners, about 1900. The house on the right is 16 Main Street and the one on the left is 9 Main Street, now an apartment house. The barn next to it was the Austin blacksmith shop, which had a public meeting room on the second floor. It is now the site of the Verizon telephone building. Photo courtesy Winnie Fenton Scott.


Florence Gillette opened Three Gables Inn at her house on Railroad Street (now E. Lamoka Ave.) after her husband, Dr. Herbert Gillette, died in 1925. It offered a tea room, served dinners and took in boarders as well as tourists. Miss Eloise Wellman boarded there when she was first hired to teach in Savona. For a time, the State Police boarded there as well, and their horses were kept in the Gillette barn. In 1932 Mrs. Gillette and her children moved to Ithaca.


In 1896 Arabelle, Mary and Grace Davis (and friend) posed in front of the DL&W depot in Savona, where there father Charles was station agent. The "safety bike" with chain and sprocket drive and rubber tires was only a few years old then and bicycles were suddenly very popular among all ages and both sexes. Frank Kleckler and then Arthur Reynolds ran a bicycle repair shop here. The Savona Bicycle Club helped other clubs build a cinder "side path".

All the streets in Savona were dirt roads until 1912, when the State road (now 415) was rebuilt.


The first Atlantic gas station was built on the four corners on the site of the former Ward Hotel by Mahaffey Bros. Oil Co. of Corning in 1929 as a Sinclair Station, but Mahaffey was bought out by the Atlantic Refining Co. the same year. The building had a small apartment where the early managers lived. The managers (later, leasers) were: Matthew Burke, Harry Abel, Glenn Stinson, Harry Nebe, Gordon Jessup, Milton Snyder, Ray Faucett and Jim Jordan.


Clinton Barkley ran the Atlantic Station on the four corners from 1954 to 1959. In 1958 the old two-story station was replaced with the shiny new one shown above. Clint was followed by James Jordan, Gerald Wing, ? Stampp and Walt Keefer, the proprietor when the name was changed to Arco about 1971.


Mrs. Grace Noles and daughter Miss Gladys Noles have opened a maternity hospital at their home on south Main St. Miss Noles is a graduate nurse and Mrs. Noles has practiced practical nursing for a number of years with fine results.--The Steuben Farmers' Advocate, 10/13/1932.

Bill Simmonds built a private airport for small planes in 1946 on land off of West Lamoka Avenue (where the Dalrymple gravel pit is now). The hanger for his Piper Cub, and an office, were in a cinder block building completed that year. According to Robert Ingraham, the Savona correspondent for the Steuben Courier, "It is the owner's plan to interest local young men and women in taking flying courses that will enable them to obtain private licenses.

Savona History on Facebook [has lots of information and lots of pictures as well]