Cobblestone Buildings in Ontario County

                                       

       Symbol of the  Cobblestone Era

                                                                   ______

                                 The Thomas Barron House, Routes 5 

and 20 west of Geneva

_____

Bristol

The five-bay Munson Hitchcock House at 4001 Bristol Valley Road (Route 20A)      was  built about 1840. The first floor was stuccoed over many years ago.

  

                         Cobblestone House in City of Canandaigua

There has never been more than one cobblestone house in the city of Canandaigua, other than this one at 495 North Main Street. It is believed it was built by William Kibbe, an early Canandaigua banker, who acquired the  property in 1839. Although the sides and rear were long ago stuccoed over, it is clear that it is of entirely cobblestone construction. It is known as Cobblestone Manor. Early 20th Century additions include a Colonial  Revival style front porch with fluted Doric columns and decorated cornice. It was listed on the National                        Register in 1984.  It is a medical office.

                                   Cobblestone Houses in Town of Canandaigua

Ontario Messenger, Canandaigua, N.Y.

April 3, 1850

                                Cobblestone

    A few cords of cobblestone suitable for cellar walls for sale at a fair price and delivered in Canandaigua to suit.  By P.H. Rose

The Zachary Tiffany house, 1900 Macedon Road, was built ca. 1845. It has a distinctive central projection and porch and consists of nine rooms, including five bedrooms. It is built of field stones. It also includes a welcoming foyer and four fire places. Its size is 3,127 square feet. 

                      

                           Old photo of the Tiffany house. Note decorative railing

                           around top of porch.          

The Ira Cribb house at 5037 Butler Road was built by A. Spencer about 1825. It was occupied by Mr. Cribb and his wife for many years. He was known as the “Father of Modern Highways,” having developed the oil and stone paving process. He also purchased the first stone crusher used to build local roads. He later served as supervisor of the Town of Canandaigua as well as highway commissioner.

This attractive home at 3402 West Lake Road, now known as the 1837 Cobblestone Cottage Bed and Breakfast, was built about 1837 in the Italianate style by Isaac Parrish, the son of famed Indian interpreter Jasper Parrish who was the original pilot of the "Lady of the Lake,"  first steamboat on Canandaigua Lake.  The home was purchased in 1858 by Robert and Maggie Gorham Benedict. Tradition has it as a stop on the Underground Railroad, evidenced by a secret room on the second floor. The driveway to the house is circular with cobblestone columns at each end. Cobblestones in wall construction were sorted by size and but not by color, four rows per quoin on the front, three rows per quoin on the south wing. The mortar is “vee’d” in continuous horizontal bands. It is apparent that a tool was used. The front doorway has leaded and beveled windows. The stone front porch was added at a later period.

The house has six original Rumford style fireplaces. The front entrance opens into a large greeting area, living room and dining room. An addition at the back of the house was built as a “honeymoon cottage” in the early 1900s. The “Attic Quilt Suite” is the entire second floor and has a constricted access to the hidden room which is tucked behind a chimney and is constructed of horsehair plaster. Kathleen LoVerde is proprietor. For further information go to :
http://www.1837cobblestonecottage.com

                                                                      _____

• 
  
  

                          

  
  

  The two-story home at 411 West Lake Road has been extensively altered and remodeled over the years. The original house was built in the 1840s for Jonathan and Oliver Hawley. The facing facade has four courses of stone per quoin while the south south has three courses per quoin. 

                          

  

  
  

         

    One can readily detect the original roof line of this house.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is how the house looked originally before being heavily altered.                                         

                           Garage/guest house appears to be of new construction

                           which incorporates the character of early cobblestone style.

This typical rural cobblestone farm house at 3929 Woolhouse Road was built about 1840 by Lewis Johnson. It is known as Pine Tree Farm for the sole pine tree that was in the front yard. Of the original 162 acres, 75 acres were devoted to meadow and pasture and 50 acres to raising corn. Records indicate was also a 10-acre stand of oak, ash and elm trees. The house faces west, and has a picturesque view of the broad landscape.  The cobblestone is of mixed colors, shapes and sizes, some at window height laid on a slant. Stone quoins are irregular, and therefore courses per quoin are somewhat irregular — about four quoins per course on the facade and three quoins on the south. The front doorway has sidelights with two long vertical windows mostly 6 over 6; the windows have diagonal pattern grills that may not be original. The farm was owned later by Joel M. Howey and was long known as the Howey farm. In 1885 it was owned by W. S. Davis. It is three and one-half miles southwest of the City of Canandaigua. 

                                                            ______

One cobblestone house in the town of Canandaigua no longer exists. It was located on what is now Route 5 and 20 at the corner of Cooley Road. The date that this home was built is unknown. The 1860 U.S. census shows Abijah Simons; his wife, Polly; and son, Warren. The Simonses lived here until well into the 1900s, the home being owned by Warren on the 1916-1920 maps. The home burned to the ground around Christmas of 1945. It appears to have been a very striking residence with its second-level main entrance.     

      

                                                   East Bloomfield

                             




Dibble Cobblestone School No. 15, 2169 Co. Rd. 39, Northeast corner of Bennett Road and County Road 39

---------              

First Congregational Church at 10 South Ave., East Bloomfield, was built with a cobblestone foundation in 1837. The church is part of the East Bloomfield Historic District. The organization the church dates back to 1796. The original church building was erected in 1801. 

 North side

South side

Facing east

                                                  Farmington

This five-bay farm house at 880 County Road 8, town of Farmington, Ontario county (west side of road) was built in 1832 (date stone)  for James Herendeen, grandson of local pioneer Nathan Herendeen. It has always been in the same family. It is constructed of large field cobbles and roughly squared limestone quoins. Plugged holes still appear where scaffolding was attached during construction.  A “cobblestone arcade”was added in 1932 on the south side where the basement (containing the original kitchen) is exposed. An entrance porch was also added as well as stone piers on the front landing. Cobblestone historian Carl F. Schmidt wrote that this area was "the cradle which gave birth to this type of masonry and started it on its development.” In 1932 Josephine Herendeen had a cobblestone arcade added to the south  side where the basement (containing the original kitchen) is exposed. A cobblestone wall along the south drive and cobblestone front stoop were also added.

               

  

                    

   

                   The year "1832" is clearly chiseled on the date stone.

                   

             

                                                                  ____

Elegant farmhouse at  395 Ellsworth Road

                            1089 Route 28,  built 1852 for Mrs. Harriet Bradbury. 
                            Water washed stone cobbles are on the facade.    

                                     

                                 Otis Hathaway House, 5662 Allen-Padgem Road,

                              hamlet of Farmington was built in 1852.

   

                                 Dettman Estate, 148 Church St., hamlet of Farmington 

This was the old cobblestone barn once located in the Pumpkin Hook area.  It sat to the left of the current St. John Lutheran church on Church Avenue.  It was a two- story building  and was divided into four sections or "apartments.”  It is believed it was the only cobblestone building in Ontario County used for business purposes.  Over the years it housed many different types of businesses for: a wagon making, blacksmithing, a restaurant and oyster bar, dry house for apples, a stable for horses and a paint shop. When the walls collapsed due to decay and lack of maintaining the cobblestone  structure, the stones were crushed and used for highways.  The town has a roadside marker to identify the area but we are unsuccessfully in receiving the permission from the current land owner to place the sign.   - Donna Herendeen, Farmington Town Historian.   

   

Welcome Herendeen house at 4998 Shortsville Road. He was a son of Nathan Herendeen, an early settler. It is built of fieldstone cobbles and limestone quoins. It is a typical five-bay cobblestone farmhouse of the 1830s and 1840s.  

                       Brewster-Fish House at 4435 Kyte Road is of Greek Revival 

                    architecture.

             Barn at 4556 Kyte Road had three cobblestone walls, the other having 

             been wood frame. It has since been demolished.

                                         Crowley House, 751 Crowley Road  

                        

 595 Yellow Mills Road. Built 1842                                 

                           

  

                                   The Cobblestone Restaurant in Geneva

                   

                                                                                                           Photo by Neil Sjoblom

   The Tuttle House at 3610 Pre-Emption Road at the intersection with Routes 5 and 20 west of Geneva, was built by Lt. Col. Joseph Hammond Tuttle, whose father operated a log tavern at the crossroads from 1790 to 1833. He inherited the land and meticulously planned his new cobblestone home. The papers on which he outlined his construction plans are still in the house.

    "The walls," he wrote, "are to be built of cobblestone or fieldstone, the comers of cut stone..." The house was built in eight months, between March and November, 1838 by Clark Morrison, Amos Siglee and Samuel O. Coddington for $1,550 excluding materials which were supplied by the owner.

   The south wing was removed in 1907. In 1915 the stucco second story was added and the Grecian columns were moved to  the east side by its owner at the time, William Fordon. Today the Cobblestone Restaurant is noted for fine dining.     

Same place as it appeared in 1912. Children in photo from left are William Frederick Fordon II, Helen Dorothy, John Cameron and Christine Honor Fordon. Their parents were William Frederick and Jessie Baxter Fordon.

                                                                                               Photo courtesy of Mike Fordon, Geneva

Clark Morrison

Amos Siglee & 

Sam’l O. Coddington

             with

Joseph H. Tuttle.

_____________________

           

                                                                   Contract.

    Articles of Agreement made this third day of March on the year of our Lord One thousand, eight hundred and thirty eight between Clark Morrison, Amos Siglee and Samuel O. Codington of the village of Geneva and the County of Ontario and State of New York of the first part and Joseph H. Tuttle of the Town of Seneca in said County of the second part - Witness that the said parties of the first part have for the consideration of Fifteen hundred and fifty dollars hereafter mentioned and agreed to be paid to them by the said party of the second part, covenanted and agreed and do hereby covenant and agree with the said part of the second part, his executors, administrators and assigns to build for the said party of the second part in a good substantial and workmanlike manner, and upon the premises of the party of the second part  upon the prevention line west of Geneva aforesaid a dwelling house of the the kind, dimensions and crowding to the description hereafter contained, and upon the terms and conditions hereinafter specified - that is to say - The said dwelling house is to be 52 feet long by 29 feet wide one story high above the basement, the basement walls to be high enough to make the cellars 7 feet in the clear and the walls to be 11 feet high above the basement beside the gable ends. The said building to be built of cobble or field stone the basement walls to be 1 1/2 feet thick, and walls above the basement 16 inches thick and the outside above the basement laid in course of cobblestone and pointed, the corners to be of cut stone and window cases and sills, door caps and sills of the same - also a cut stone water table across the front and north end, the course of the front and north end to be of three inch cobblestone.

    The basement inside not to be finished but to have 4 brick pieces for the support of the timbers of the first floor, the basement to have 3 windows and one outside door. The building to have a projecting collonade in front 24 feet long and seven feet projection with 4 Grecian columns and a pediment with a raking cornice, and ornamental windows in the pediment the building to have 13 windows in the principal story each 12 lights of 11 by 15 inch glass  - the six from and three north end windows to have Boston Crown glass of first quality and the best Clyde glass.        Roof to be well shingled. The portico to rest on stone wall laid below the front similar to the foundation wall of the building and all the basement and portico wall except the rear of the building to be plastered on the outside above the ground and smoothed off in imitation  of stone work according to the plan hereinafter mentions. The number and arrangement of the rooms, closets, fireplaces, doors, windows to be according to the drafts and plans hereinafter mentioned. To be two chimney with fireplaces and in addition three chimney tops one with a flue - to be an ornamental window in each gable end in the garrett. The joists of the first or main floor to be three by ten inches and two feet from centre to centre and of pine, join of second floor to be 2 1/2 by 8 inches and 16 inches from centre to centre - the floor of the first story to be white pine 1 1/4 inches thick from 6 to 9 inches wide matched and planed - floor on the upper story to be of 1 inch pine boards the whole matched and one third planed. The outside and folding doors to be  1 3/4 inches thick paneled and moulded, folding doors sunk on both sides, m from door on one side - The other doors of the main story to be 1 1/2 inches thick, six paneled  sunk one one side, raised on the other and moulded. To be a pair of enclosed stairs from the kitchen to the garrett and also a pair from buttery to the cellar, the buttery  to be shelved and have a sink in it. The north parlor to have a chimney piece similar to that of the front room second story of the house of Silas Wood  Geneva, also a suitable mantel piece for the kitchen and the kitchen to be finished in a plain and suitable manner and the other two front rooms finished with pilasters and blocks and the windows finished to the floor with a panel. The window jams to be all flared and those in the parlors or two front rooms to be paneled. The base of the two parlors and the pilasters to be of such pattern as the party of the second part shall select. The portico floor to be of the same kind and materials with the parlor floors - portico to be ceiled overhead with 2 inch stuff recessed up. The front of the pediment to be ceiled with pine inch stuff and matched and planed. To be a flight of steps to the port between the two centre columns of 1 1/2 stuff. The windows of the main story to all have outside Venetian blinds hung with strap inches and suitable fastenings - blinds to be six paneled and one panel rolling in each blind.

    The building to have a Grecian cornice in front and rear and backing cornice of same kind on the gable ends. The folding doors to have carpenter locks and all the doors to be hung with bolts of suitable size. The bedrooms to be finished with single architrave and moulding. The partitions to be all slide partitions. To be 4 tiers of bond timbers around the whole building and proper lintels for doors and windows and necessary blocks for securing the woodwork. The partition studs to be 2 1/2 by 4 inches square and 12 inches from centre to centre. The door studs to be 4 by 6 inches square. The main story to be all lathed and plastered. The two parlors to be and finished and the rest good common smooth finished. All the hearths o be of brick - to be an oven in the kitchen. The ten conductors furnished by the part of the second part to be put up by the said parties of the first part.

    The said party of the second part is at his own cost and expense to dig the cellar and do all other digging necessary for commencement of the mason work and also at his own expense to furnish a mortar house, scaffold poles, all the lime sand stone including the cut stone ready cut, iron bars for fire please, ten conductors, crane eyes and brick and deliver them at the building as the same may be required by the builder, and he said parties of the first part and at their own cost and expense to furnish all other materials.

    The said party of the first part are to paint the woodwork of said building: the outside of the woodwork of the said house except the roof and portico floor and steps to be painted three coats of white lead paint. The inside woodwork of the second story except the floors to be also painted with three coats of white lead paint. The Venetian blinds to be painted three coats, two of them of Verdigris.  The said party of the first part to furnish the painting materials and do the glazing.

    The said building is to be finished on or before the first day of August (next) provided the said party of the second part complies with the agreement herein contained in his part.

    The materials to be furnished by the said parties of the first part are all to be of good quality and work to be done in a good and workmanlike manner. The ceiling of the portico, cornice columns, cornice doors, blinds, window frames of all the interior except garrett floor to be of clean stuff and all the wood work of the building except the studs, garrett joists and roof boards to be well seasoned. Two plans of the said building marked number on and number two bearing even date herewith and subscribed by the parties hereto to be taken as part of this agreement and in all particulars not herein specified the work is to be done according to said plans.

    The said party of the second part hereby covenants to pay them for the said work and materials to be done and found by them as aforesaid the sum of Fifteen hundred and fifty dollars as follows. Three hundred dollars upon execution of this agreement and the residue from time to time during the progress of the said work, in sums and at such times  as the same may be required by the said party of the first part -provided, that whenever any of such sums shall be so called for work  shall have been done equal in value to the sum so required, and any balance that may remain unpaid during the progress of the work, whenever the said building shall have been completed in the manner herein  agreed.

    In witness whereof the said parties of the first and second parts have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first above written

                                                                     Clark Morrison

In the presence of

W. E. Sill

    The parties to the within contract hereby acknowledge as follows - The within named Tuttle that the agreements contained on the part of the wind named Codington, Morrison & Sigler that they have received the full amount to be paid them therefore - 

Dated Nov. 16, 1838                                       Clark Morrison

                                                                          Amos Sigler Jr.

                                                                          S.O. Codington

                                                                          J. H. Tuttle 

Recd on the within contract March 3, 1838 Three hundred dollars

Amos Sigler Jr.

S. O.. Codington

Received on this contract March 13, 1838 Eighty dollars

Amos Sigler Jr.

$200 Rec’d on this contract two hundred dollars March 20th 1838

Clark Morrison

Rec’d this contract One hundred and sixty dollars August 20, 1838

Samuel O. Codington

Rec’d on this contract Aug. 28 One hundred Dollars  August 28, 1838

Received on contract one hundred and eighty dollars

October 27, 1838  S.O. Codington

Received on account fifty dollars

C. Morrison

            

                                                       ____

       

                                            'Bean's Hill'

                                

                           House at 876 Pre-emption Road has undergone major
                           alterations over the years.

    Normally one would associate this house at 876 Pre-emption Road would an example of the “Arts and Crafts” period of architecture popular in the 1920s and 1930s. It was originally built as the carriage house for the Phineas Prouty mansion known as  Maple Hill. The cobblestone carriage house was built next door.  Prouty moved to a new house on Main Street and in 1874 the property was sold to Charles  D. Bean, a New York merchant, who made the Prouty mansion his home. 

  In 1884 Charles D. Bean Jr. used the cobblestone building and adjoining structures to create his imaginary “Endymion Military Preparatory School.” Although it never successfully materialized, on paper it had a board of governors, a staff, classrooms, dormitories, an actual running track and a gymnasium. After Bean’s death in 1937 records were found claiming the school existed, classes were held and students graduated. It was discovered Bean published school catalogues and other information, complete with pictures of classes and marching bands. In reality the school only existed in Bean’s mind. Class lists were found painted on walls. Class mottos were carefully lettered over doorway, and precepts painstakingly inscribed on walls of passageways.

   Faulty electrical wiring was listed as the cause of a fire that destroyed the historic LaFayette Inn on January 28, 1975. A previous fire in 1968 heavily damaged the kitchen, forcing the inn to close for several months. At the time it was owned by Raymond Moore. The estimated loss was $400,000.  Plans to re-develop the site for a new restaurant and motel never materialized. A Ponderosa Restaurant was built on the site of the LaFayette Inn in 1976.

      

Inscription over front doorway.

                                   

                                          Bellwood Farm

   Bellwood Farm, an impressive country estate with a view of Seneca Lake, is on the east side of Pre-Emption Road, two miles south of Geneva. One drives through the gate of a cobblestone fence and along a winding drive to reach this stunning Greek Revival cobblestone house which bursts on the scene. It was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph H. Poole in 1942.

                                                        Facing east

Facing south

Facing north

Facing west

         Bellwood Farm as it appeared in 1876

   The land at Bellwood Farm was first cultivated by Silas Tucker, who purchased the property in 1826 from his prosperous father-in-law, Jeptha Earl. The original cobblestone house, which Silas built in the 1830s, was less than half the size of the present structure. The transformation from homestead to country estate took place in 1905. It was then that Perry Tucker, a descendant of Silas, sold the home to Mrs. Katherine Belle Lewis of Buffalo.

   Using wealth that came from Pennsylvania oil and gas investments, Mrs. Lewis added the northern half of the house with cobblestones and mortar work of the "new" matching perfectly that of the "old." The interior was changed at that time to the elaborate woodwork and spacious rooms of the present time.

     The landscaped grounds around the house included both formal and informal gardens.  The entire property was enlarged to 600 acres (from Silas Tucker's farm of 150 acres) giving the later owner and extensive area for beef cattle feeding and breeding.

                                                                _____                 

                                                                               

                                          
                                      Cobblestone entrance to Bellwood Farm

            
                        After passing through the cobblestone gate, first sight
                     of the Bellwood Farms mansion is impressive.

                                     South lawn with new shrubbery in 1917.
                                                                 _____

Finger Lakes Times

Geneva, New York

Monday, June 6, 1988

Bellwood Farm: A Home With a History

                                     

    By Anne Schuhle

    GENEVA - To the hundreds of people who stroll through it this weekend, Bellwood Farm at 4911 Pre-Emption Road will probably seem like an estate of enviable beauty and seclusion. To and Rob and Carolyn Poole, it's home.

    Poole, 42, a cash crop farmer, grew up at Bellwood, which, with its six-bedroom cobblestone house, is part of the Geneva Historical Society's Tour of Homes Saturday and Sunday.

   The estate was the summer home of Katherine Bell Lewis, a wealth Buffalo businesswoman, who came to Geneva in 1898 and built White Springs Farm for her teenage son, Alfred. When her son married in 1903, historians say Mrs. Lewis "set out to establish another equally beautiful estate nearby" Some of the land that is now Bellwood was owned by the Tucker family fro 1826 to 1905. The Tuckers were farmers and fruit growers and reportedly raised skunks there at one time.

   The Greek Revival home at Bellwood was built in 1836 and was much smaller than it is today. Mrs. Lewis made extensive renovations and additions to the house and grounds, adding to the mansion on three sides, with columned verandas running along both stories.

    "We believe the house was originally square and about half the size it is now," said Mrs. Poole, on a recent evening, as she and her husband sat in their large kitchen. Lilac branches swayed in the breeze outside, nearly brushing the window above the table.

    Several feet away, a fire crackles in a wood-burning stove, and their sons - Ethan Devin and Carson - ran in and out as their parents batted around historical tidbits about the home and the Lewises. "Mrs. Lewis must have had an incredible sense of architecture and a feel for landscape," said Poole. Thumbing through dozens of old photographs of the grounds, he pointed to the rows of trees Mrs. Lewis planted and the ornate sunken garden she made from one of the two gravel pits on the property. It took seven gardeners to maintain it.

    Shortly after Mrs. Lewis bought the property, she purchased more nearby farmland for a total of 340 acres, The estate gradually became larger as she and subsequent owners bought adjacent land.  Her farming interests included importing and breeding Shropshire sheep until the late 1920s, when she turned to raising and fattening Herford steers. In the fields she grew wheat, corn and barley.

    In 1930, Mrs. Lewis died from injuries suffered in a carriage accident on Pre-Emption Road. According to The Country Cousin, a book published in 1976 chronicling Geneva's history, Mr. and Mrs. Grainger Wilson lived in the house after Mrs. Lewis's death. In 1933, the estate became the first home of Lochland School, now at 1065 Lochland Road.

    Poole's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Poole, bought the house and 274 acres of land in 1942 for $35,000. They added an in-ground pool and a tennis court in the 1960s. "My father raised sheep and had a beef cattle feedlot," Poole said, noting they gradually bought more of the Lewis property, including 250 acres of cherry orchards.

    "After three years, he took out the cherry trees, cleared the land and turned it back into field corn, oats, wheat and hay," Poole said. Growing cherries was not profitable because of high labor costs, he noted. Poole's father gave up farming in 1964 and rented the land to others, while continuing to live in the house.

    A decade later,  Poole returned to Geneva after serving in Vietnam and spending two years in Colorado. He said he never gave much thought to being anything but a farmer. "The early-to-mid-'70s were still quite successful farm years throughout the area," he said. "It hasn't been the best in the last few years. But I'd say it's improving."

    Today, Poole grows 200 acres of red kidney beans, 300 acres of field corn, 50 acres of wheat and 15 acres of hay.

    The only animals they've got, besides their dog, Gypsy, are a few pigs, sheep and beef cattle for their own use. Mrs. Poole works part-time in admissions at her alma mater, William Smith College. Two full-time and one part-time hired men help farm the land.

    Since 1978, a stone house and what's left of Mrs. Lewis's sheep barns in the southeast end of the property have been owned by Ed Leo of Snell Road.  Also at the east end are 80 acres of apple orchards Poole was not able to buy. They're owned by Iversen Construction Co. of Gorham, which is putting up a housing development.

    Poole said the most surprising change in the last 25 years is the number of trees on the property. "If you look at the old pictures, you see way less trees than there are now. I'd think it would be the other way around, that property would have been cleared as time passed. But instead, the early pictures show fewer trees. Maybe they just cut them to burn, or they just cleared the land to plant corn," he guessed, shrugging his shoulders.

    The Pooles said the only changes they've made have been subtle ones, in keeping with Mrs. Lewis's work and the tree-planting that Rob's mother did. "We're thankful to Mrs. Lewis for doing this," Poole said. "She had all this money and she didn't spend it in the way she did on this home and land. Everything she did was amazing. She didn't nickel and dime everything."

                            

Located along the driveway this cobblestone outbuilding may have been originally a horse stable. Note note the row of small, vertical windows on the first story.  Grouped in sets of three, they appear to be for box stalls. Each horse stall would have had three windows to provide light and ventilation.  Perhaps the second was used for used for either storage of horse-drawn vehicles not in season (sleighs in summer, carriages in winter or for  hay/feed/tack/harnesses, etc.  The second story might also have been used for lodging:  their carriage driver might have lived here, on site. As the main house was enlarged with additional cobblestone construction/wings during the early 20th century, it’s possible  this building was expanded, with that second story as a later addition. The design of the roof (hipped roof with exposed rafter tail ends) is more characteristic of the early 1900s.  It’s possible that there was additional renovation to create that large openings (picture windows with panels) to convert this to a guest house or rental apartment.

                            _______

This house at 5169 Pre-Emption Road, Geneva, was built for David Barnes  between 1835 and 1838 and is of Greek Revival architecture. It is built of field cobbles. It has Ionic columns and wide cornice moldings which simulate the entablature of a Greek temple. Other Greek Revival features include the recessed doorway and the large lentil over the doorway.

               Armstrong house, Billsboro Road, Geneva

                     

Geneva Daily Times

Wednesday, April 22, 1931

   Tenant House on W.A. White Farm

    Burned Today

                 ____

    Billsboro, April 22. - The old cobblestone house and its contents on the farm of Willis A. White was totally destroyed by fire during the noon hour today. The flames spread with such rapidity that nothing in the house was saved.

    An alarm was sent to Geneva and the chemical truck responded and assisted in saving nearby buildings.

    The house was occupied by the family of Abe Covert, who works on the White farm. Other accommodations will be provided for the tenant. The house was considered to be more than 100 years old.

    A second call for assistance was received at the Hydrant hose house at 3 p.m. and again the apparatus was sent out to the farm. It was reported that the fire had again broken out and owing to a change in the wind the barns were endangered.

Geneva Daily Times

Thursday, April 23, 1931

Beautiful Old Mansion Destroyed

                ____

Cobblestone House on W.A. White Farm 

Burned Yesterday Noon

                ____

    The fire which destroyed the old landmark on the hill overlooking Seneca Lake at Billsboro Wednesday noon removed one of the oldest structures in the lake country and one on which the utmost endeavors of the builders had been expended a century or more ago.

    Situated on the farm now owned by Willis A. White and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Covert, the building was a little off the accepted line of travel and not so well known by the traveling public as those similarly constructed houses that stand on the improved highways.

    The fire broke out while the occupants were eating dinner and was first seen sweeping over the shingled roof by Mr. Covert when he went into the yard after hearing unusual sounds. Fanned by a brisk southeast wind, the flames were carried away from the other buildings but embers set fire to trees standing in the orchard some distance away. There was no chance to save the structure and mr. Covert first devoted his attention to saving a quantity of seed beans that Mr. White had stored in the house before the planting season.    A small amount of furniture was also taken our but this was insignificant.

    The fire department from Geneva responded to a call but the roof had fallen in when they arrived and the intense heat made it impossible to approach the ruins. Later in the afternoon the wind changed slightly and sparks coming from the burning inferno confined within the massive walls threatened the barns so the pumper again went to the scene.

    By this time it was possible to approach a cistern near the house into which the suction hose was dropped and with the resulting stream, the outbuildings were protected.

    A view of the ruins today shows the outer walls of a once beautiful structure about 36 by 50 feet still gutted. The architecture was somewhat peculiar in that there were no windows on the sides of the second story, although there were three rooms on the second floor, the two end ones obtaining light from windows in the fable, while the central one was lighted by a round window in the center of the southern room.

    A cobblestone addition contained a side entrance and dining room was built with equal care, and a wide porch with Colonial pillars extended two-thirds across the front, its roof being a continuation of that which covered the building.

    The cost of the structure cannot be estimated but it is a safe guess that fifteen or twenty thousand dollars would be required to replace it, even with the stones on the scene. The interior finish was unusual, also the door and window casings being carved and railings being hand carved and an entrancing fireplace gracing the western end of the huge living room which faced the south.

    Mr. Covert is now quartered in a smaller tenant house on the property and will continue to operate the farm. Mr. White states there was a partial insurance on the building.

                              Carriage house in Geneva

This former carriage house at 4911 Stone Barn, off West North Street, Geneva, dates back to at least the 1840s. It was on the Nehemiah Denton farm that was purchased for use as the New York State Experiment Station in 1882. It was the first building on the campus and the most historically significant. The nearby Italianate villa known as the Nehamiah Denton house was built in 1854. It replaced an earlier structure. It became known as  Entomology Hall and in 1950 became Parrott Hall in honor Dr. Percival Parrott, the station's  first entomologist and later its director. Even though its been on the National  Register of Historic Places since 1970, it has been vacant since 1973. At that time the house was owned by the New York State Department of Parks and Historic Preservation that had plans to restore it as a museum. Some minor repairs were made. But it is now abandoned and is rapidly deteriorating. Thankfully the cobblestone structure is in excellent repair.  See study done on Parrott Hall:

https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/8292/PH%20Conservation%20Assessment.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

This illustration is from a large wall map, “Town of Seneca and Village of Geneva, Ontario County, N.Y., From Actual Surveys. Published by J.H. French, Philadelphia, 1856.”The former barns and a glimpse of the cobblestone carriage house can be seen to the left of the house. 

                                    

This is a former milk plant at 140  East North St., Geneva. It appears to have been an  attempt to imitate cobblestone construction. It was built in the 1930s by A.J. Tarr but has seem numerous modifications since then.  "A.J. Tarr" is on the lintel over  the main entrance.                                    

          

                                                       Gorham

                                          4982 West Swamp Road 

                    

         

This house at 4880 County Route 11 (East Lake Road) was built in the 1840s. Unfortunately it was demolished about 2014 to make way for a new and much larger house.

                             

                                    Clark House, 3621 Route 245, Gorham, built 1845

    

The Whitman Place

                                       

This house at 4450 Townline Road in Rushville was built in 1849 by Henry G.  Whitman, brother of Marcus Whitman, American physician and missionary to the Oregon country.Whitman hauled wheat to Sodus Point for shipment and returned with a load of stones he collected, which required a two-day trip. It is said it took 65,000 stones to build the house. A round cobblestone school house was once located a mile and a half west of Rushville at Pine Corners.

This house at 4450 Townline Road in Rushville was built in 1849 by Henry G. Whitman, brother of Marcus Whitman, American physician and missionary to the Oregon country.Whitman hauled wheat to Sodus Point for shipment and returned with a load of stones he collected, which required a two-day trip. It is said it took 6,000 stones to build the house.

             

Historic Whitman farm near Rushville

by Richard Palmer

Located on a hillside on Townline Road near Rushville overlooking a picturesque valley near the village of Rushville is a cobblestone house  built by the brother of Marcus Whitman, one of the foremost figures in the history of the West.

Beza and Alice Whitman were among the earliest pioneer families in Rushville. They came from Massachusetts and settled in an area known as Federal Hollow. He was a shoemaker, tanner and tavern-keeper.  They had three sons, Marcus, Henry, Augustus and Samuel, and a daughter, Alice. Henry Whitman eventually established a 300-acre farm overlapping the Yates and Ontario county line where he built a cobblestone house.

Henry Whitman was almost four years younger than his famed brother,  Marcus. He was born on April 26, on April 21, 1806, and Marcus on Sept. 8, 1802. Beza Whitman had come into the Rushville area in 1799, had cleared land for a home and was raising this large family when death came prematurely to him at the age of 37 on April 7, 1810. She was remarried to Calvin Loomis and they had two children. Sheied in September, 1857 at the age of 79.

Henry Whitman was remembered as a man of energy and ability. He was a prosperous farmer. In 1828, the same year that his brother, Marcus, completed his medical studies in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in preparation for his exciting career. Henry Whitman bought five acres of land at the Phelps & Gorham land office in Canandaigua. 

Gradually he added property to the farm. The land was cleared and the rich loamy soil yielded record crops of wheat and other grains.  For generations the farm has been known for its excellent grain yields.

The cobblestone home, one of the finest specimens in this section, is exactly a century old. It was finished in the large summer of 1849. The family believes there was an earlier frame house located slightly south and east and that Henry Whitman and his family resided there for at least 10 years. That memorable summer of 1849 was two years after the sad news of Marcus Whitman and his wife had perished in an Indian massacre in Oregon in October, 1847.

Henry’s brother, Augustus, aided him ion the construction of the new house. The fine cobblestones were picked up along the shoreline of Lake Ontario near Sodus Point and hauled by ox team to Rushville. The trip took two days. It was Henry’s routine to take a load of wheat to Sodus for shipment to Montreal and bring back cobblestones. It was estimated it took at least 6,000 stones to build the house. The heavy oak and maple timbers came from the sawmills which the Whitman brothers owned at Rushville and Potter. 

 Henry Whitman did not live long to enjoy his new home. For years he suffered from heart trouble. He died in February, 1854 at the age of He left his widow, Emeline Stearns Whitman, who was five years younger than he, and four children - daughters Emma, Mary and Anna, and son, Henry S.

The following years were difficult for the family. The mother kept the farm active but it was a trying assignment. The late 1850s were years of depression and the shadow of the Civil War was darkening over the land.

Then on Oct. 20, 1861 came another sad blow. Young Henry, then 17, was crushed to death when the ox team which he was driving overturned. His parents had hoped he would in his father’s footsteps. Emeline Stearns Whitman and her daughters were left alone in the cobblestone house on the hill.          

             

                                      

    

                                     Henry B. Whitman and his son, Henry S.,

                                     about 1848.

                                               4250 Goose Street

                                     

       
                                                3315 Route 245                                      

                                     

 Penn Yan Chronicle Express

August 13,  1936

House in Family over 100 Years

           ___

Notes Interesting Facts About

Cobblestone Dwellings Only

Found in This Vicinity and

Northern England 

           ___

    Mrs. William H. Rex, who lives a short distance east of Stanley on the Geneva state road in an interesting cobblestone house, has made a study of cobblestone dwellings in this vicinity and recently read a paper on this subject before a club. The paper follows:

    While looking into the mystery of cobblestone houses and all the courage that was built into them I felt these lines well fitted the aims of these builders of so long ago:

    To keep my health!

    To do my work!

    To live!

    To see to it I grow and gain and

    give!

    Never to look behind me for an

    hour!

    To wait in weakness and to walk in power, but always fronting onward to the light, always and always facing toward the right, robbed, starved and defeated, fallen, wide astray, on with what strength I have!

    Back to the way!

                             -- Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

    One finds while searching for mysteries of cobblestone houses, that there is no mystery, but just plain hard fact of labor and toil and no record of any of the makings have ever been saved. It is an art that existed for a few years, then dropped completely out of sight.

    The first ones were built about 1835 and no trace of one being built after 1856 can be found. Between 90 and 100 years ago these wonderful old houses were built by a few stone masons, some traveling short distances and making several, some building only two or three in their locality.

    The log houses were found to be poor barricades against attacks from Indians and this might have led to the thought of a more substantial stone house. It can also be considered it took very little paint or repairs on these houses when there was so little money to be had.

   These masons must have had a very artistic and creative imagination to take these cobblestones, which had been picked up in piles and laid aside, perhaps with no thought of ever being used, and making these beautiful houses.

                         Masons Worked in Designs

    One picture of a cobblestone house I saw up at Rochester, where the mason laid in a row of white stones all the way around the house after each fifth row, or five rows of red cobblestone, the one of white. It was quite effective, but the architect called my attention to the fact that the large corner stones did not always meet the white row at the corners as a mason would take care to have it more perfect today. Nevertheless, their work is surely substantial and enduring for all time and very beautifully executed. One is surprised to find that while some of the houses have the uniform reddish brown kidney shaped stones in the front and side of them, others have just the ordinary field cobblestones altogether. Our house is like the latter, having none of the reddish brown kidney shaped stones.

   The first year we lived here a man by the name of Mr. Wing stopped one day, saying he would like to see our house. He patted the corner and said when he was a little boy, about eight years old, he helped pick up the stones for it. He was about 70 then and that was about 20 years ago.  Mr. Thomas, Mrs. Wilbur's brother, said the way was to have a board across a basket with a hole in the board and any stone that would go through the hole was used. In the front gable of our house is a smooth stone with this inscription, "Built by Alanson and Mary Clark 1845."

    The cobblestone house near Gorham in which Mr. Renwich lives is a beautiful example of stone masonry. It has none of the kidney shaped stones, but is in perfect condition and is built with a wing of cobblestone, also the back part, which is quite unusual. Some of these houses have wood or different material in the wings, some have a wood upper floor.

    We find these houses built of a solid rock foundation and very deep. The inside is made of large stones, some very large and smoothed off as a mason would build any wall, then they chose the smaller and more uniform stones for the facing and these are set in a herringbone pattern pointed below, above, and on either side of each stone with this plaster which has proven to be so substantial.

    All the walls are widely thick and each doorway is wide and the window sills are deep. The side stones came from a quarry near Phelps Junction, also the thresholds and stones are under the windows. These side stones are called quoins. 

    Katherine B. Rowley, in her booklet the Historical Ridge, says John Wetherill of Gaines, Orleans county, is the originator of the herringbone pattern.

                       Typical of New York

     Taking Rochester as a base, one can go over 60 miles in all directions except north and find cobblestone houses This is actually the only place in America where they exist in large numbers. They are as typical of New York as the Cape Cod house is to Massachusetts. In northern England there are houses, built similarly of stone. Were the styles introduced here from England? We do not know, but it is most likely that it is of local architecture. Someone has said of stone houses: rent them the first year, let your friend live in it the second year, and you liv in it the third and forever after.

    It is of interest to find in Rushville vicinity there are  many houses which have been in the same family for lever or around 100 years -within a radius of three or four miles are 18 farms. The Elbert Blodgett farm has been in the same family 130 years. Some others are Taylor Lewis, Frank Arnold, John  Wilson, Linwood Bates, William Fisher, Herbert Foster and M.J. Wilson.

      In 1803 Amasa Gage came from Johnstown to the farm near Cottage city now owned by his great-great-grandson, Murray Gage. On the Town Line Road just  out of Rushville are the adjoining farms of Frank Harness and Charles Fox which belonged to their great-great-grandfather,  Henry J. Whitman, who divided his farm for his daughters, Emma Whitman Fox and Mary Whitman Harkness. These farms are in the 100-year class. The red stones were brought from Lake Ontario. Mrs. L.R. Bates was born in the cobblestone house which Charles Fox owns. Robert Moody, also lived on the farm bought by his great uncle, George Stearns, in 1840. Albert Bates lives in the cobblestone house built by his great-great-grandfather, Thomas Bates, in 1840.

                             Old House

He who lives in an old house never 

             loves in vain,

How can an old house, used to sun

            and rain,

To lilac and to larkspur, and arching

            trees above,

Ever fall to answer the heart that

            gives it love?

Its neglected garden only waits to

            start in answer

To the tending and understanding

            heart.

A new house maybe, for its first

            tenant longs, but

Not till it is an old house can it sing

           old songs.

                      -- Isabel Fiske Conant.

                     

                                        Hopewell

   Once a show place, “Landmark Farms" is located along Route 488 a mile west of the hamlet of Orleans. Time has taken its toll on this house built in 1840 by the Warner family. For many years it was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Roger Cunningham.

  It is one of three cobblestone houses in Ontario County that have a cut stone entrance flanked by two columns. It is surmounted with a stone-bordered semi-elliptical transom. Sidelights with curved jambs above curved stone panels finish off the entrance.  

                                     Facing east                                                                 

                                     Front entrance                         

                          

        

                                    Detail of stonework at front entrance

                      

Facing west. House was built of field stones.

                 Facing south. Wall is made of fieldstone cobbles.                    

                                 House at 3301 Algerine Road, Town of Hopewell, 
                             built in 1842 for Jacob and  Mary  Isenhour. 

                                      Date stone over front door

 This smoke house,  built in 1841 was rescued from

destruction   from a site on Lake -to-Lake Road in

the Town of Seneca by  Ross Marshall in 2001 and

                             reconstructed here.

                                      ____

                                  Manchester  
     According to an article in the Geneva Times of April 30, 1971 relating to the centennial celebration of Port Gibson United Methodist Church, the original church built in 1834-35 was cobblestone. Final services were held there on March 25, 1871, after which it was voted to tear down the old church and construct a new one. 

    The cobblestone church was built at a cost of $1,600. The new church built of brick, cost about $9,000. The dedicatory sermon was preached by the Rev. B.I. Ives on December 13, 1871.

    

              

                             
Armington schoolhouse, 4060 Armington Road at Route 21,  northeast corner, in the town of Manchester, was built in 1846 according to the date stone. It is about  four miles south of Palmyra. It was officially called Manchester Union School   District No. 10. It is constructed of field stone. It is now a private residence.

                       

Manchester School District 11 schoolhouse, 498 Stafford Road, was built in 1848. It is a now private residence.

                                          ______

  

This is the only cobblestone house in the village of  Shortsville, at 82 West Main St. It was originally one story with a second floor added later. The original structure was built by J. Fish in 1828.

Walker-Driscoll House at 3532 Outlet Road.Built of both water-washed and field    stones.

                                       

                             

     

Second Baptist Church at 1070 County Road 27, hamlet of Gypsum, was built in 1835 by church members under the supervision of a mason.  It is one of the oldest cobblestone buildings in Ontario County.  It became a private residence in 1954. 

                             

 Old photos of the church.

This house at 1061 County Road 27 in the hamlet of Gypsum was built in 1851  as a school and used until 1941. It is now a private residence. Recessed sidelights in doorway and triangular window in gable peak. Note the unusually large windows.   Below is the Class of 1912.

                                              844 Haas Road 

  

                                         835 County Road 27  

Old Reed cobblestone house on County Road 27. Child on fence is Albert Reed. Standing near fence are Margaret and Joseph Reed. William Reed is working in the garden.

Reed farm house on County Road 27 (gone). From left are Joseph and Margaret Reed, and William Reed in buggy. Reedland Farms on County Road 27 have been in the family for more than four generations. Joseph Reed, born in Switzerland on Oct. 28, 1828, came to this country about 1855. 

                                         605 Stafford Road  

                                        3608 Armington Road   

   

                                        228 County Road 27  

                                                             Naples   

                          

                          Smoke house at 7964 Gulick Road

      

                                      Smoke house prior to restoration.

Phelps

                

Baptist Church of Vienna, 30 Church St., Phelps, was built in 1845. It is Greek Revival with Gothic columns. Front was  built with small red sandstone, water-rounded cobbles set at an angle. The side walls are multi-colored cobbles while the rear consists of field cobbles.

   Detail of wall construction.    

 Date stone over front entrance          

“The Round Jug School,”  was located on McIvor Road in the town of Phelps, Ontario county, Another one, called  ‘Round  Cobblestone District 19 School,” was once located at the top and west side of Whiskey Hill Road, replaced by a brick structure, now gone. Collection of Phelps Historical Society      

             41 Main St., Phelps, south side, built for D.E. Peck in 1837.

                       

                                  

                                       Date stone on Peck House

                                      

       38 Main St., Phelps, north side. Built by C.  Bannister, 

                             a local physician, in 1840.

_______

Tiffany House, 47 Ontario St., Phelps

                                  House at 47 Ontario St., Phelps was built ca.
                             1830 by A. White. It was long owned and
                              occupied by the Tiffany family.

                                               252 Fisher Road, Phelps 

                                                             _________

Cobblestone Doll House

                          

                                One of Mrs. Bennett's cobblestone dollhouses

                                on display at the historical museum in Phelps.

                   Finger Lakes Times

                   Monday, November 30, 1981

                                             Small Houses are Big With Her

                                                        By Doris Wolf

   PHELPS - Gertrude Bennett views things a little differently - she sees lamp shades in ping-pong balls, drinking glasses in clear, plastic soda straws and spoons in aluminum foil. For the past eight years, Mrs.Bennett, of Bostwick Road, has focused her creativity on miniature dolls, dollhouses and accessories.

   Although she's made miniatures since she was a child it wasn't until 1974 that she built her first dollhouse. Like most dollhouses, it was wooden. Mrs. Bennett wallpapered, painted and decorated  the house. She knitted rugs for the floors, 

sewed curtains for the windows, hung pictures on the walls, snipped lace doilies, used self-hardening clay to mold figures to people her house and made lamps and chandeliers to light the interior.

   That was only the beginning. Mrs. Bennett decided to build a second house - of cobblestones, in the style of many old homes in the area. The house was on a small scale, but the effort in building it wasn't.

    Mrs. Bennett spent months researching styles and drawing patterns for the half-inch plywood shell. Then on sunny days in the spring and fall, she sat on a gravel bank on her farm and selected the 5,600 stones for the outside of the house. "It took months to pick up the stones," she said. "I worked the way the original cobblestone house builders did, sifting through the stones on my property to find just the right sizes."

    Mrs. Bennett sorted the stones with a screen, choosing only those one-half to three-eights of an inch long. She tried to use stones of similar shape and color, too.

    Every day, Mrs. Bennett cemented the stones to the outside of the house, mixing mortar of speckling compound and coloring. Working with tweezers, she put the best stones on the front, and the coarser ones on the sides, as did the original builders. She fashioned the quoins or cornerstones, and the lintels over the windows and doorways from blocks of wood, and painted them a soft gray.

     For her first cobblestone house, she made red bricks of wood to outline the arched upstairs window and top of the front door. Later, an authority on cobblestone buildings praised the accuracy of her construction. "He said he could tell where I stopped working each day, "just like he could on full-size houses, because of the subtle variations of color in the mortar," Mrs. Bennett said. "I have to admit that was accidental, as it probably was for the original builders."

     It takes about six months to complete the exterior of a miniature cobblestone house, she said. The shell weighs about eight pounds. When she's working on a house, Mrs. Bennett said she puts in 10-to-14 hour days. 

    The first house was followed by two more. One with 8,333 stones was featured in an exhibit last month at Geneva's Prouty-Chew Museum. The dollhouse even had its own furnished dollhouse in an upstairs bedroom.

Each house is different, and Mrs. Bennett said she tried to make each authentic. There are woven rag rugs on the floor, and cast iron stoves in the kitchen. The dining room chairs have rush seats, the beds  hand crocheted spreads. One house has an attic with a broken chair, piles of newspapers, a mouse, and even spiderwebs in it. The attic in another has cartons of Christmas decorations.

The figures are detailed, too. In one living room, a housewife is knitting with common-pin needles. At another home, a woman is holding a rolling pin, baking cookies. 

As one of 13 children, Mrs. Bennett grew up learning to make and create. Her father, a taxidermist and cabinet maker, encouraged his children to work with their hands, and she remembers spending many hours as a young girl making toys and dolls. Others began to recognize her talents early. A doll she made for a seventh grade project earned her an "A plus plus" she recalls proudly.

   Her home, which she and her husband designed, is furnished with examples of her handiwork. There are dried flower arrangements inside glass bell jars, and delicate beaded flowers in vases. The flowers' minute detail reflects the knowledge she gained while studying flower arrangement at Cornell University, and working for several years as a designer of wedding floral displays.

    She began creating dollhouses gradually, she said. She dressed dolls for he children for many years, then began to create one-room displays of miniature furnishes and too make furniture and accessories for sale at craft shows in the area. Some piece are assembled from kits, some are created entirely by hand.

    For Christmas 1974, her sone gave her a wooden dollhouse, and Mrs. Bennett was hooked on a new hobby. She made a dollhouse for there of her four granddaughters, she said. Some dollhouses are on display in her family room, where her grandchildren and other young visitors rush when the come over.

   In addition to the cobblestone and wooden homes of the early 1800s, Mrs. Bennett has two miniature log cabins in the style of 1769 on display. They are arranged in scenes with the barns and outdoor cooking fires of that time, and are on platforms which make it easier for Mrs. Bennett to bring them to the local schools for pioneer days.

   In one scene, a coonskin-capped pioneer is working with a froe, an authentic shingle-making tool; another holds an awl, or drill, the latchstring is out on the cabin door, and the cabin's logs are held together with mud daub. The ax, the notched stick which suspends the black kettle over the cook fire, the hollowed log buckets and carved wooden plates and cubs are authentic and made in the standard one-inch equals one-foot scale of miniatures.

Before she built the log cabins, Mrs. Bennett said, she read "Frontier Living" by Edwin Tunis, which described the tools and homes of the period.

    Now that she's conquered the challenge of cobblestone dollhouse building, what dies she have in mind for her next project?

    Well, Mrs. Bennett said she's always wanted to do "The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe," using one of her husband's size 12s for the house. And she's looking for a hollow tree trunk to use for a mouse house.  

                                                   ______

                             Smoke House at rear of 1117 Route 96

William Hoffman House

The Greek Revival William Huffman house at 1064 Townline Road was built in 1845.  Huffman purchased two parcels of land, one of 52 acres and the other of 60 acres in 1830 and 1831. In 1850 he and his wife, Harriet, had six children. He was a farmer.  The property was sold to William Closs in 1866, after which it was resold several times. It was placed on the National Register in 2002.

                      Barn at the real of the Hoffman House, partially cobblestone.

                             

989 County  Route 6

900 Bell Road

Finger Lakes Times, Geneva, N.Y.

February 9, 1979

An Old House Gets New Life

              By Ted Scala

    Phelps - Time had reduced the 150-year-old house to just a shell. The roof was gone, and the floors and walls had collapsed into the cellar. Teenagers used the lot for a lover’s lane, called the building “The Haunted ouse,” and carved their names into what remained of the window frames. All that was left standing were the cobblestone outer walls.

    Dave Miles first happened upon the house eight or nine years ago the it had been empty for at least 10 years. But it wasn’t until March 7, 1977, after a “for sale” sign was put up, that Miles finally bought the house from a farmer who lived farther down Bell Road.

    Now after less than two years of work, Miles and Dianne Lawson have rebuilt the classic cobblestone house down to the original style of woodwork.

    During an interview in their comfortable family room, which had once been attached to the house. Miles he and Ms. Lawson has lived in Newark for about seven years. Miles said he bought the house because during their stay in Newark they had been looking for a cobblestone house and because, he said, “I just like to build. Everybody thought I was crazy (to try to rebuild the house). Some people told me it was physically impossible,” Miles recalled.

   But, he said, “I just couldn’t leave it (the house) alone. There’s something about it.” 

    Miles, who works as a pharmacist, became interested in construction when he worked one some for a builder. “The most fun I ever had was working for him that summer,” Miles said. Later, while he was going to pharmacy school, he and Ms. Lawson built, lived in and sold two houses.

    Miles said when he bought the cobblestone house the remains of the walls and floors were still in the cellar. “The first day we got the house I went up to Brockport and got a little Bobcat loader,” Miles remembered.

    He said it took him a week just to clear out the debris. Miles said during reconstruction he tried to keep as much as possible of the original design. To determine where walls had been, Miles studied pictures of the interior he had taken before he bought the house when some of the walls and floors were still in place.

    He also judged where walls were by breaks in the plaster along the still-standing outer walls. 

    Miles said that when he bought the house the 18-inch outer walls were still sound. The walls, which are 22 inches thick blow the ground, had deteriorated very little considering the house’s age, Miles said. He explained that, in a sense, he built a new house within the old house’s walls. He noted that except for the windows his”new house” could stand alone without the outer cobblestone shell.

    Miles said that with the help of Ms. Lawson’s brothers he did almost all the reconstruction work including plumbing and wiring. After working nights and weekends, Miles and Ms. Lawson moved in during January 1978. Since then they have been finishing he work and Miles said now they are “getting pretty close to being done.”

    Miles said he is happy with the results although he adds, “It seems very much larger than what we need.” The house has three full baths, four bedrooms, a library, a living room, a dining room, a family room, a kitchen and a laundry.

   Miles said when all the work is finished he’d like to take some time to research the history of the house. Beyond that, Miles said, when the reconstruction is finished “I rest.” Asked if he will be building any more houses he replied “This is the last one. It was a hard job.”   

2269 Dewindt Road

1523 Route 23

1389 Route 23

909 Route 88
___

Gilbert Parrish house at 921 Maryland Street. Date stone say 1841. Note the interesting design in the peak of the roof. Below is a picture of a cobblestone wall near the south side the house. Home of D. Brooks McKinney, Professor at Hobart-
William Smith College in Geneva.

_____

                                                     1118 Maryland Street.           

                                       

                      

                              Toll House, named for the Toll family, is located 
                              at 782 West Townline Road.

                 

                                     Toll House facing south

                                          Same place in 1960
                       

                 This house is at 957 County Route 6, also called Pre-Emption

                 Road. It is build of polished stones all of the same exact size

                 and configuration from Lake Ontario. Note the decorative

                 white stones next to the roof line.              

                 

              

This distinctive house at 9888 Route 96, east of Phelps, is of Gothic Cottage design. It was built by Benjamin F. Hawks in 1848. It was constructed offered, water-washed cobblestones brought from Sodus Point. This was a design of A.J. Downing, a noted architect of the day. The cobblestones are laid diagonally. The louvered shutters are original.

                 

                                   Same place in 1960 
                 

Greek Revival style house at 928 Route 96 was built in 1845 for Jonathan Swift. It includes cobblestone barns. Structures are built of field stones.
                        

     
                             

                                           Same place in 1960.
                                              _________

                  2450 Outlet Road, County Route 25, Phelps. This is a small five-

                  bay house with salt box-style extension at the rear. It has wide 

                  spacing between the tops of the lintels and the eaves. Quoins are

                  irregular stones.

                                                           Facing west

                                                        Facing north

This Greek Revival-style house at 983 Smith Road was built by Charles Harmon of lake-washed red cobblestones in 1842. It is well preserved. It includes a charming cobblestone smoke house. It was placed on the National Register in 2002.

                               Other views of smoke house

                   This house at 1428 White Road was built in 1832 of field

                 cobbles. Porch, made to simulate cobblestone, was added

                much later.

This typical five-bay Greek Revival-style house at 1092 Pinewood Road was                        built in the 1830s of field stones.

                                                  Seneca  

Thomas Barron House, 1168 Routes 5 and 20,  west of Geneva        

                                             Rear of Thomas Barron House  

                                         Thomas Barron House, Geneva

                                   By Richard Palmer

Many of the best examples of cobblestone houses are found in the Finger Lakes region. One of the most striking  is this one at 1168 Route 5 and 20 just west of Geneva in the town of Seneca.  It was built in 1848  by Thomas Barron who came from England and cleared the land and built his first home on the site which was a log cabin. The original farm consisted of 184 acres. 

 Several trips were made to the shores of Lake Ontario. Wheat was carried by wagon to Sodus Point for transshipment. Cobblestones were then sorted and loaded and returned which went into the construction of the present house. Great care went into the sorting of the lake-washed sandstone cobblestones for their color, red; and uniform size, and the house took two years to build. The exterior walls are of lakewashed stone. 

The main two-story section of the house has an Ionic portico, and on either side are one-story wings with Ionic porches across the front. The west wing door is a false one, never used from the inside of the house, but added to the outside to give the two porches perfect symmetry. Two of the interior walls of the home are as thick as outer walls, 18 inches so made to support the weight of the construction. The portal is enflamed by egg and dart moulding; the door fittings are German silver.

Thomas was the youngest of three brothers, whose father emigrated to America from England in 1800. He was accompanied by his wife and two children. They found their way west to this comparative wilderness, coming by water route up the Mohawk and its tributaries through the Seneca Lock Navigation Co.'s canal.  They located on the very farm where, a year later, the subject of this notice was born.  Their first habitation was a log cabin with two small aperatures for a single pane of glass each. Thomas Barron had two sons, John and William. He resided on the farm where the cobblestone house stands all is life, where he died on died September 17, 1892. 

The Geneva Gazette reported on September 16, 1892,  the day before he died, that he “...has reached the advanced age of 90 years, and is probably the best-preserved man of his years in Ontario county.  As evidence we cite the fact that one day last week he walked across lots fully a mile and climbed a five-rail fence to call on his neighbor, Mrs. John Reed, and returned by the same route, all within two and one-half hours. He was not over-wearied by the journey either.  His brother, David, is two years older, but shows more perceptibly his great age.  It is hoped both will remain with us many years. Since the above was penned, we learn with regret that Mr. Barron has suffered a stroke of paralysis, which threatens a fatal result.”Subsequent owners included William F. Fordon  and Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence W. Gracey. 

                            ______

  

          2916 Johnson Road                          

                                      3688 Number Nine Road

                                      1821 Route 245 was built in 1846 and is of
                                      Greek Revival design.
                                                  

Rippey-Banfield House at 1227 Leet Road was built in 1854 for John and Mary Rippey. It is of the “Gothic Cottage” design.

                                                        ______

                                                                             

   The Rippey-Banfield House, built in 1854, is located on the western side of Route 245 at the corner of Leet Road, and is now the hope of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Banfield. The only house on the coming tour that is not Greek Revival in architectural style, it is cobblestone in the style of the Italian villa which was popular in the 1850s. It has another distinction of being one of the last homes to be built in the "cobblestone era."

    The builder, J. Rippey Jr., used heavy eaves brackets with large acorn-shaped pendants. They are a distinguishing feature of the exterior. Viewers will find the entrance hall graced by a stairway of rare beauty, with walnut and mahogany railings curving up and continuing around the second floor hallway. 

    The Banfields remodeled the house. In the dining room, which has just been given its third ceiling, the Banfields removed 13 layers of wallpaper, and in some other areas of the house removed as many as 23 layers of wallpaper. The home furnishings include manny of Mrs. Banfield's pieces brought from Massachusetts, included a Victorian style bedroom set made of hand-grained wood over pine.

   The kitchen combined the original wood work with modern conveniences and was decorated with a collection of antique utensils. The living room has the elaborate acorn molding that matches that of the exterior.

             Levi  (later Henry V.) Barden house, 5300 Wabash Road

            Architectural drawing of the house done in 1835.

     

                                                 View in 1917

Levi Barden House, 5300 Wabash Road, built in 1836. Note the unusual  large, three-section Palladian window facing south. The center is arched and has two sided sections. This house was placed on the National Register in 2003. Note stone smokehouse at rear. 

                                                                 

Close up of Palladian window

                                     The Barden farm in 1873.

   This fine house took several years to build. The round, smooth cobblestones were hauled from Lake Ontario. It was occupied in 1836, although not completely finished. Built in a classically reminiscent, Greek Revival style, it shows but slightly the ravages of a century of northern winters, having been always well kept up. Protected by the spacious white-pillared porch is the hospitable doorway, also with narrow windows at the top and sides, and ornamented with carved spool work and beading.

    The door opens into a wide hall, quaintly papered, from which a really graceful winding stairway ascends. Living rooms are on each side of the hall, the one at the south being unmistakably designed as the “parlor,” in its appointments. 

 Against a background of delightful sky-blue, the white woodwork is rather elegantly carved - fluted window and door frames, with a conventional lily design at the upper corners, and supporting the fireplace mantel, Doric columns. A fire screen, depicting a painted scene of long ago, and a number of oil paintings add interest.

    The back part of the house “rambles,” after the style of our fathers, but is staunch and neat as is the ornamental iron fence edging the lawn.

    Levi Barden with his wife, Maria Bush, had two sons, Luther and Henry Vincent, and one daughter, Ruby Ann (McConnell). Early in the Civil War, Luther, the older son, was sent to New Orleans, with the 26th N.Y. regiment. His letters tell of common things - inspection, mosquitoes, sickness among the boys. He sounds a little homesick, although a sergeant. 

    Then in May, 1863, comes another letter, this time from an old neighbor, First Lieut. Adam Beattie. There is sad news. Luther was then suddenly ill - a slight fever, the hospital, an relapse - he discusses certain difficulties about sending home the remains- he is sympathetic, regretful. War is war.

    At last, in July, the earthly part of Luther comes home. How plainly can imagination picture the flag-draped casket, borne out of the wide front door and down the walk, between rows of box now replaced by phlox and peonies), to start the winding way to a rest in Bellona Cemetery.

                      Becomes Owner in 1876

    Henry Vincent Barden, born in 1837, became owner of the farm at his father’s death in 1876. He continued to spend the more than 35 remaining years of his life in the management of his 200 acres, devoted to general farming and dairying. In 1883, he had the misfortune to lose an arm in a mowing machine accident.

[Excerpt from an article on the Barden family, Geneva Daily Times, November 14, 1936].

     

                     Similar house at 2464 Gorham Road        

                                                  Victor

The historic cobblestone pump house in the hamlet of Fishers near the village of Victor was erected in 1845 to furnish water to steam locomotives on the Auburn & Rochester Railroad. It is constructed of colored field stones and is believed to be the only such existing structure as well as the second oldest railroad building in the United States. The oldest is said to be the railroad station in Ellicott City, Maryland.          

Above is a view of cobblestone pump-house in Fishers. Depot, now gone, is across the tracks. A small brook, running beneath it, to a nearby elevated water tank, hidden from view behind the structure. The Fishers cobblestone pump house was constructed to pump water from a small brook, running beneath it, to a nearby elevated water tank which was removed when diesel locomotives replaced steam about 1952.   Foreshortening has caused the pump house to appear larger than it actually is in relation to other nearby buildings. The structure stood right across the Auburn & Rochester Railroad tracks from the 1870s Fishers depot. 

                     ___

   A pump apparently was installed on the first floor of the pump house.  After being tapped for a locomotive from successive water tanks along the line, water for locomotives would be converted to steam en route by heating the water from burning wood, and later by burning coal.

    Douglas A. Fisher, son of Sheldon Fisher, a historian in his own right, said: "My only recollection of the interior pump house apparatus was my father's bemoaning of the destruction of the Corliss pump by Romayne Webster, who lived nearby on Mill Street.  This might have been in the 1930s or 1940s, based on other comments my father made about him.  I have long wished that an authentic Corliss pump of the 1840s might be located that could be accurately installed back into the Fishers pump house.  Would be a great teaching tool about both history and hydraulics."

   Fisher said the Webster's had operated the mill on Mill Street that Charles Fisher had moved there in 1860 from Mile Square Road.  He died in 1872.  "This mill was powered by the same brook that powered the pump house.  Possibly there had been some conflict with the railroad about water usage and diversion," he said.

This photo, published in the Rochester Times Union on April 14, 1938 shows Sheldon Fisher, right, with noted railroad historian Edward Hungerford, then Vice President of Public Relations for the New York Central Railroad, who was instrumental in efforts to block the railroad from demolishing the pump house on four different occasions. The article stated that Fisher and the Rochester Historical Society were instrumental in preserving the structure. Fisher's great-grandfather, Charles Fisher, who granted the railroad the right of way through his property. The only stipulation was that all passenger trains should stop at Fisher's. Passenger service on the Auburn Road was discontinued in 1958 and the line from Victor to Pittsford was abandoned two years later. It is now a hiking and bike trail. Old photo courtesy of Douglas A. Fisher.

                           

                

                           Ellicott City, Maryland station on the former Baltimore

                           & Ohio Railroad is believed to be the oldest railroad

                           building in the United States. It was built in 1830.

                                        _______

 The Bonesteel heritage lives on

(Thanks to Starbucks Coffee)

Bonesteel House, 953 High St. Extension, Victor, built in 1835 by Philip P. Bonsteel. It is Greek Revival with Italianate porch.

                                                       _____

    This home has long been a part of the landscape in Victor. It was built by Phillip P. Bonesteel (whose German ancestors went by Bohenstielen), who settled with his  family in Victor in the early 1800s.  He purchased a 100-acre tract of land  where he established a farm. Taking advantage of the abundance of cobblestones on his property, in 1835, Bonesteel built a two-story Greek Revival style along what is now Route 96.

   (Bonesteel described his cost-efficient homestead in letter to the editor of  Buell's Cultivator and the Genesee Farmer,  Vol. IX No. 7, 1842.)

Messrs Editors:

    In 1835 I built me a house of cobblestone, of the following description: front 45 x 83 feet, 2 stories, forming an "L" in rear of 65 x 23 ft., single story for kitchen, washroom and wood shed. My plan for thickness of wall was: the cellar wall 20 inches thick to first floor, drop off two inches to second floor, then drop off two inches, and extend out to top.

   Sort your stones so as to have the outside course three or four inches, with straight lines for cement. Take the coarsest of sand for the stone, and a fine sand for brick. I used the common stone lime, one bushel of lime to seven of sand for stone, and the same kind of lime, one bushel to two of sand for brick.

  I furnished all materials on the ground, and paid my masons $3.75 per hundred feet. He furnished his own tenders and made his own mortar, built his own scaffolds and tended themselves. I boarded them.

     I think I have as good a house as can be made of the same materials. There is not a crack in the walls that you can stick a pin in as yet. The stone, I do not consider any expense as it frees the land of them. There is no painting to be done to it, as is required of brick or wood, it makes the strongest of walls, and I think the neatest and cheapest building that can be made.

    You may calculate the expense of the building at so much a perch, according to the size you wish to build. I did not keep an exact account of my building, as the stone, sand, and lime were bought at leisure spells.

P. P. Bonesteel

Victor-Ontario County

March 1842.

  Other area homebuilders and masons clearly shared Bonesteel's sentiment. Victor boasted 26 cobblestone structures by the mid 19th century. Upon Philip Bonesteel's death in 1848, the homestead was passed on to his son Peter. Described by the Victor Herald as "a strong temperance man, (with) liberal views and of a generous disposition," Peter Bonesteel ran the family farm that surrounded his house for several decades.

   While improving upon his farm and tending to crops, Peter Bonesteel modernized the house by adding the second floor on the house's rear wing and the Italianate front porch. The last generation of Bonesteels to live there included Peter's son Frank and his wife, Sarah Hall Bonesteel. She  was one of the first female students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an erstwhile tutor of Helen Keller.

Her husband having passed away 21 years into their marriage, Sarah lived in the house by herself until 1946, after which its use was sporadic. It was allegedly home to a commune in the 1960s, but it experienced a period of decline in the last third of the 20th century.

  Meanwhile, developers began setting their sights on the Bonesteel property surrounding the homestead. Several acres were purchased in 1968 for the construction of Interstate 490. Most of  the original Bonesteel property was purchased to make way for the Eastview Mall, which opened in 1971.

    The old house overlooking the new mall stood vacant for years until the Victor Association of Cultural and Performing Arts leased the building in 1983. Dubbed the Cobblestone Arts Center, the building became a creative hub, hosting classes in theater, dance, violin, piano, painting and sculpture.

   After the center relocated after about a decade, the cobblestone home once again entered an extended period of vacancy. It found new life in 2007 when it reopened as a Starbucks. Since then an extensive array of shops and eateries now mark the spot where the Bonesteels' crops once grew. But t the family's legacy endures after nearly two centuries.

                                                                                                                           

                                 Old photo  provided by Victor Town Historian

                                           

                                

                                                Bonsteel house in 1873

                               7732 Victor-Mendon Road. Historical marker states

                           it was built in 1832. This is a prime example of how

                           not to restore a house. It has been mutilated.

                               At least the adjacent smoke house was not touched, 

                           but it is in need of repairs.

                            

                                            7955 Victor-Mendon Road is abandoned.

                                   

      House built in 1847 by J. Cronkhite at 1049 Lynaugh Road.

                                          

                                                     Side of house facing south.

                           422  Victor-Egypt Road. Built for Andrew Rowley, ca. 1835.

                        Owned by Keefe family for many years.

   

Jenks Store, 2 E. Main St., Victor. It was built by Nathan Jenks in 1834. Later Simonds & Sons.

                         

                       Same location in the 1940s. (Victor Town Historian)

   

This structure at 6452 Victor-Manchester Road (Route 96) in East Victor was built in 1836 by Charles S. Felt as a general store. It was sold in 1841 to Samuel Rawson upon the death of Felt to settle debts. In 1905 it was purchased by Barney Goldfarb was operated by his family as a general store until the mid-1970s. A succession of businesses have occupied the building over the years. It was last operated as an antiques shop but is now closed. The second floor is living quarters.

                                                                                                     Victor Town Historian

1410 County Route 3 Victor-Holcomb Road, Victor, built for William and Deborah Paddock circa 1833.

1135 Willis Road, Victor, built by Seth and Charlotte Potter in 1834.

    District 10  Schoolhouse, 7728 Dryer Road, Victor. Built 1842.

                                    

                                  

                                                          7680 Dryer Road

      

               236 High St., Victor, District 7 schoolhouse and out building, built in 1845.

7834 North Road, Victor

7834 North Road. Note the unusual side entrance.

                                              

                                                  West Bloomfield

 Insurance office, 9018 Main St., Routes 5 and 20,  West Bloomfield.

 Oval set into the gable reads "Ont. & Liv. Mutual Insurance Office,  

AD 1841." Built of rounded washed stones brought from Lake Ontario. 

“Union Hall," 9030 Route 5 and 20, was built  about 1844. It was used for many different commercial purposes, including a blacksmith shop,  dance studio, feed store and automotive garage.  Living quarters were upstairs. It is currently vacant and for sale.

  9117 Dugway Road, built in 1841 for  Warren Pierrepont.

                             

         

                            

  Smoke house at 8953 Route 5 and 20.

                         

          

           Smoke house at 8447 Route 5 and 20 is gone.

                        

     

                         Smoke house at 8361 Route 5 and 20 was demolished and 
                         stones and date stone were incorporated into a new fireplace 
                         at the residence. Date stone says  “A.D. 1844.”
            

         House at 3106 Taft Road is half brick and half cobblestone.

                               

                                                 West wall of 3106 Taft Road

                                Smoke house at 3106 Taft Road. Date stone "1841"                               

    This house at 8574 County Route 14, near Ionia Corners, appears to have been built in the 1840s by the original owners, Isaac and Lucinda A. Ball. In 1846 they sold it to Selas and Almira Miller. It was subsequently sold numerous times. During the early 1930s it was operated as  a tea room by Helen Nugent Druschel and her sister, Katherine Nugent Reill. They served buffet meals on Sunday evenings. It was was very popular spot and was widely advertised. During the week private dinner parties were held, the specialty being porterhouse steak and all the trimmings, including homemade ice cream - all for one dollar. 

    The walls of the house were built of fieldstone of different sizes, shapes and colors, laid in four and five courses to the quoin height. Split gray imedstone blocks were used as quoins.

    The wide pine board floors were covered with homemade rag carpets. In 1956 it was purchased by Reta and Gerret Lansing. At one time it was used the cellar to store potatoes. After they died, their son, Chris Lansing, abandoned the house and made over the adjacent barn as his home, preferring it to the house which had become badly deteriorated. He was still living there in 2018.

                                         Same house in 2018 

                       
                            

                                                    Facing east

                                                  Facing south

                                      Facing west (north side inaccessible)

                                                Ionia Cobblestone School

                                

Cobblestone school District 3, in the hamlet of Ionia  was built  in 1845. Long gone, it was located along what is now Elton Road just south of the intersection with County Route 14. It was demolished about 1914.