Cobblestone Buildings in Oneida County

                                         

                                                                                     

                          

                           

This house at 9399 Main St., (Route 365) Holland Patent, was built in 1841 by mason William J. Babcock for Gardner Townsend. It appears to be the only example of a Greek Revival house in America with columns made of cobblestone. It has long been known locally as "Cobblestone Villa."  To construct these columns that support the triangular pediment cobblestones were applied to logs.   The sides and rear of the house are authentic Greek Revival except for the more modern flat stones that may cover the original quoins.

                          

A rare cobblestone hop drying house with a European look is located at 927 Route 8 North, west side, north of Bridgewater, was built in 1850 by Gershom Shaul, a prosperous local farmer. It is on a farm now owned by James Wrobel and was one of the largest  hop houses ever built in this region. It is 33 feet across and about 40 feet in diameter, and was used during the prosperous years of hop farming, until it ceased just after World War I. It closely resembles similar structures that existed in  west Germany and northern France designed for dry rodent-free agricultural storage in wet, cold climates, only in this case it was used to dry hops. This design of of agricultural structure was common in northwestern Europe in the 14th to 18th centuries. 

                 

     
           The Gershom Shaul house itself reflects the wealth and
          prosperity of a 19th century farmer.

                                                                    ________

                   Mayhew Cobblestone House, Old River Road, Marcy

       

                       

                  

                                   

                                       

                                     

            

      This cobblestone house was originally part of the Merchant Mayhew Farm along Old River Road in the town of Marcy at what was once called Carey's Corners. This and adjacent properties were developed as Marcy State Hospital in the 1920s. Eventually this became a large complex of buildings and grounds covering about 1,000 acres. 

    When a young man, Mayhew settled in the town of Marcy and married Hanna Haskell. It is believed the house was built in the 1840s or 1850s. The Mayhews had two children. Mr. Mayhew died in 1864. His son, Mortimer, continued to live in the cobblestone house the rest of his life. Like his father he was a farmer, and was involved in local politics. He was a champion skeet shooter. In the 1920s the farm was purchased by the state.

    The house was renovated and became the residence of the farm superintendent as well as for offices. Other buildings were added over the years. The area where the cobblestone house is located came under the jurisdiction of Marcy Correctional Facility in 1989.  The house is no longer used but has been preserved. It is only one of two cobblestone houses in Oneida county.  The quoins are of brick instead of limestone. 

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                                          8150 Cider St., Oriskany

This is a very early cobblestone house at 7780 Humphrey Road, Town of Whitesboro. Center window is a former doorway. Dormers were a later addition. 

                     

                                                                                                                          ___________    

                                                       Cobblestone House in Rome, N.Y.

(No photograph has been found of this house)

Rome Daily Sentinel

April 16, 1921

(From the column "Man About Town")

  Said a lifelong resident of this city: "Very often people who at one time lived here and went away to make their homes elsewhere return after perhaps 25 years' absence and then we hear expressions as to the great changes they note in the city, some remarking that but for certain old landmarks they would not know Home now. It is very true, too, for with the numerous large manufacturing plants, the new location of the New York Central tracks and passenger station, the Barge Canal and the expansion of the residential section with its many fine homes, it must appear bewildering to those who have watched the growth from day to day.

   I have been looking up a little history of Rome in its infancy out of curiosity brought on through memories of things I had heard people talk about when I was a very small boy. Now I would ask who remembers seeing or even hearing about the old cobblestone house and where it was located. Describing a location and referring to the 'cobblestone house' was a common expression in the early days of Rome.

   I was obliged to make many inquires myself to learn about it, but finally located a man who knew all about it, although he could not remember having seen it. It was built, owned and occupied by a stone mason named Peter Carroll and was located on the site of what was afterward the Conger House, which stood on Floyd avenue a short distance south of Cottage street. The cobblestone house was destroyed by fire about 60 years ago.

   Then James Russell purchased the site and built a hotel, which he sold to Aaron Conger, who conducted the Conger House there for many years, the hostelry being widely known as an excellent hotel, the members of the grand jury of Oneida county, when sitting in Rome, making it their headquarters. After selling the hotel to Mr. Conger, James Russell built a brick building on the corner of Floyd avenue and Cottage street on the site where the late Charles Higham afterward erected a fine home, now owned and occupied by F.S. Wilson.

   Mr. Russell conducted a grocery store in the building up to the time it was destroyed by fire about 45 years ago. Peter Carroll, James Russell and Aaron Conger have been dead many years. The old hotel was cut into sections and made into dwellings.

   If it were possible for these men to return now and stand on the ground where they once lived, how difficult it would be to convince them that it really is the same place, just as it seems hard for us to realize that a cobblestone house and a brick store stood there at one time. 

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         Town of Marshall District 3 Cobblestone School

       District 3 cobblestone school house was located on Route 12, or Paris Hill Road in the town of Marshall, north of Waterville and was used until 1915.  In a letter published in the Waterville Times, on Feb. 9, 1915 G.S. Mack of Silver Creek, N.Y., who spent his boyhood in the town of Marshall recalled:

    “When a boy about seven years of age, I earned my first money picking up stones to help built that great edifice, as it seemed to us then. Many who have made good and written their names in various high positions, commenced by carving them on the desks at the old cobblestone school."

    In a later letter published in the Waterville Times on March 12, 1915, he said: “I was born at Madison in 1839 and at the tender age of three imported into the Cobblestone district, where my father bought and located on the farm just north of the school. The school building then being a small dilapidated wooden structure standing on the west side of the road diagonally across from where the Cobblestone was built.

   “I commenced my school days in this old building, but the good people of the district seeing that their children deserved a comfortable and appropriate school decided to erect a ore substantial one.

    “Halsey Barnes, then owner of the land, gave a lot on the east side of the road in exchange for the old school site on the west, and the work was commenced in the spring of 1846 or 7. I would  to positively say which.

    “My father gave the stone and, as I stated in a former letter, I earned my first money picking them up in the fields for sixpence a pile (a pile being about a wagon load).  The work was completed that year in time for the winter term, and a proud lot of about 35 pupils, large and small, assembled for school with Shepard Daily at the helm.

    “Many happy hours have been spent within it walls, as have also may regretful ones. Bright ideas have originated there, as have also many boyish pranks, but the old Cobblestone must give place to something more modern. Still it will ever live in the. Memory of the boys and girls of 70 years ago.”

Rome Sentinel, Wednesday, March 8, 1933.

Sale of School Building Approved

As Economic Move

    Waterville - Closing and sale of the Cobblestone School, near Hubbard’s Corners, on the New Hatford-Waterville highway, was approved Tuesday night at a meeting of the school district isn the school house.

    The vote on closing the building was 12 for and four against, and that on selling the property, 12 for and five against. Pupils of the first six grades which the school accommodated will be sent by bus to Waterville Central School.

        The Utica Sunday Tribune on May 10, 1914 reported:

    What is known as the cobblestone school house in District No. 3, Town of Marshall, on the Paris Hill road has been condemned as unfit for further occupation. The trustees have purchased a new site on the line between the Roberts and Hubbard farms and will begin erection of the building at once. Evans & Welch have the contract for the work. The plans call for a one story building.

 

                       Recalling Cobblestone House in Rome

Rome Daily Sentinel

April 16, 1921

(From the column "Man About Town")

  Said a lifelong resident of this city: "Very often people who at one time lived here and went away to make their homes elsewhere return after perhaps 25 years' absence and then we hear expressions as to the great changes they note in the city, some remarking that but for certain old landmarks they would not know Home now. It is very true, too, for with the numerous large manufacturing plants, the new location of the New York Central tracks and passenger station, the Barge Canal and the expansion of the residential section with its many fine homes, it must appear bewildering to those who have watched the growth from day to day.

   I have been looking up a little history of Rome in its infancy out of curiosity brought on through memories of things I had heard people talk about when I was a very small boy. Now I would ask who remembers seeing or even hearing about the old cobblestone house and where it was located. Describing a location and referring to the 'cobblestone house' was a common expression in the early days of Rome.

   I was obliged to make many inquires myself to learn about it, but finally located a man who knew all about it, although he could not remember having seen it. It was built, owned and occupied by a stone mason named Peter Carroll and was located on the site of what was afterward the Conger House, which stood on Floyd avenue a short distance south of Cottage street. The cobblestone house was destroyed by fire about 60 years ago.

   Then James Russell purchased the site and built a hotel, which he sold to Aaron Conger, who conducted the Conger House there for many years, the hostelry being widely known as an excellent hotel, the members of the grand jury of Oneida county, when sitting in Rome, making it their headquarters. After selling the hotel to Mr. Conger, James Russell built a brick building on the corner of Floyd avenue and Cottage street on the site where the late Charles Higham afterward erected a fine home, now owned and occupied by F.S. Wilson.

   Mr. Russell conducted a grocery store in the building up to the time it was destroyed by fire about 45 years ago. Peter Carroll, James Russell and Aaron Conger have been dead many years. The old hotel was cut into sections and made into dwellings. 

   If it were possible for these men to return now and stand on the ground where they once lived, how difficult it would be to convince them that it really is the same place, just as it seems hard for us to realize that a cobblestone house and a brick store stood there at one time.