The former Chapman farm house on Maple Avenue in Palmyra was acquired by the Mormon Church from Edward Jeffreys in 1937. It is a five-bay Greek Revival farm house of the 1840s. This farm was formerly owned by Martin Harris who financed publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830.
_______
(This very insightful letter tho the editor appeared in The Genesee Farmer, March 8, 1838, Vol. 8 No. 9)
BUILDING COBBLE STONE HOUSES
Mr. Tucker - I observed in the Monthly Genesee Farmer of February a request for some one who was qualified to answer the inquiry concerning the manner of building cobble stone walls, of their durability, the proportion of the mortar, the expense of building, &c.
Having had some experience in this business, I cheerfully transmit a few facts relative to the foregoing request.
Having erected two or three buildings each season, for several years past, I shall only mention one which I built last season. It is 40 feet by 60, four stories high. The foundation is three feet high, the first story 10 8-12 feet high, the second 11 2-12 feet high, the third 13 3-12 feet, the fourth story 10 3-12 high; making from the foundation to the plates 48 4-12 feet in height, with a wing 24 by 34, one story. The whole was built of cobble stone, (not of the first quality) the outside was laid in courses of cobble stone four inches in thickness, and larger stone on the inside.
It is a steam flouring mill and has been in operation three months. It stands perfectly well - it is situated in the village of Palmyra, on Canal-street. As regards their durability, if they are laid with good materials and in a workmanlike manner, I am perfectly convinced they will stand and their solidity will increase as their age increases.
The quality and quantity of sand with the lime is very essential. The coarser and purer the sand, the stronger will be tho cement and the firmer the wall. As for the proper quantity of sand with the lime, it depends on its coarseness and purity. The proportion which I generally use is from five to eight bushels of sand to one of lime in the stone. As for elegance and taste, every one who has seen a cobble stone building built as it should be, will acknowledge that it surpasses quarry stone or brick buildings.
As for the expense of building, it is cheaper than almost any other kind of building. If the above, after such corrections as you may deem expedient, will be of use to your readers, let it have a place in your paper; if not, throw it under the table; suit yourself and you will suit.
Your ob't servant,
Chester Clark
Marion, (N.Y.) Feb. 27, 1838.
Newark Courier-Gazette, December 15, 1955
C-G Publishes First in Series of Hoffman Contest
____
Verlyn Klahn, Contest Winner, Writes
On Cobblestone Homes Built in Wayne
_____
(First in a series of articles submitted by Wayne County high school students in the historical contest sponsored by the Hoffman Foundation Scholarship Committee is published in the Newark Courier-Gazette. Verlyn Edward Klahn, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Klahn of E. Miller St., who was graduated from Newark High School last June, won first prize in the contest and because of this, his entry has the honor of leading the historical series. His essay is being presented in two installments.
By Verlyn E. Klahn
With the advent of the building of the Erie Canal, great numbers of immigrants flocked to this territory.
One of the greatest and commonest needs of these people was a home, At first they built small log or frame houses. Later, as this region grew in prosperity and the natural desire for better homes resulted, cobblestone houses were built.
This region, as can be noted by our many drumlins, is a glacial area. These glaciers left many troublesome stones on many fertile farms. The pioneer farmers worked hard removing these stones, Sometimes they made fences of them, but more often, just put them in heaps or piles. As the farmer started to erect buildings, he could use these stones for foundations of his barns and house.
What could be more sensible then to build a place that had absolute sound-proof and fire-proof walls, a house that had resistance to the elements, that needed no paint, and that had , by its being built, provided a means for the removal of the many nuisance stones that had to be taken from the fields, Yet, here would be a house of awe-inspiring beauty.
This type house gave its would-be owners something to look forward to, to be proud of, and a useful hobby. The idea of stone houses wasn't new, but the laying of cobblestones in rows was.
As research seems to indicate, houses of cobblestone nature may be placed in three eras or periods.
These are started with the Early Period or First Period, which ranged from those built from the late 1820's till about 1835, when the Second or Middle Period is inclusive of the work between 1835 and 1845. The Third or Last Period dates between 1845 and 1868, These dates are approximate and are used for the sake of simplicity in the understanding of the art. By contrast, the Periods are not indicative of radical changes as a '55 car might differ from the same make of '54, but the masons gradually changed and improved upon their work. Since some didn't improve as fast or were not as skillful as others, as is the human trait, one can find cobblestone houses built in the 1840's that look as if they had been built in the 1830's, or vice versa.
The mason of the Early Period used stones of the fieldstone variety of no particular size or shape, his type ie exemplified in the Jackson Schoolhouse, where the stones range from 4 by 4 to 4 by 2, The horizontal and vertical Joints were almost flush and what outline there is, is a wavy "V", The joint is from 1 in. 1 1/2 in. wide, It was formed with a trowel.
As the work advanced, the masons selected stones that were nearly of the same rounded size and variety, laid the rows with more care, and made the "V" more distinct. As still more time passed, especially during the Middle Period when the greatest strides were made, smaller stones averaging from 2 inches to 4 inches long and 1 inch and 2 inches wide were used. Also during this period, the use of the beautiful red sandstones started and came into predominance, with the horizontal and the vertical joints were decreased in width, and greater sharpness and straightness were noted, ‘The use of a "V" in the vertical joint began during this period but this "V" was not allowed to cross, touch, or take away from the predominating horizontal “V”. Later, a pyramidal shaped vertical joint became dominant.
It was during this Middle Period that the bead, a half-circle projection produced by a tool especially designed for the purpose, was introduced. Although the bead is undoubtedly more interesting and attractive for the horizontal, only a small percentage of cobblestone houses have it. It was employed principally in the Late Period.
The stones used in the Late Period were smaller yet, and in this period, practically all cobblestone houses built were of stones of the "lake-washed" variety. Lake washed means those stones washed smooth by Lake Ontario. Here in Wayne County those “lake-washed" stones were taken from the shore at Pultneyville, the masons, according to my inspection, generally used long, oval-shaped stones instead of round ones. It is my belief that they were not sure of how their mortar would stand up under many years of weathering, so they selected long stones because they realized these would take a longer time falling out than shorter ones would.
Probably one of the most interesting tales that might be told would be about the masons themselves - those who built these structures. It has been said, and is the common local belief, that traveling groups of Scotch masons came through New York State from west to east about 1825, building here and there, wherever water-polished cobbles could be found. However, this report contradicts itself, because of the many building which are of fieldstone. Moreover, by the sampling of names of known masons, the percentage of Scotch names is only about average.
One fact is true, however: there would have to have been a great number of masons because of the time involved and the large number of cobblestone houses which were built in Wayne County alone. I have found 152 standing examples besides evidence of many other structures that have long since been torn down und hundreds of cobblestone foundations under brick or frame buildings. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to trace back a mason who built such a house, as you can its owner. The only way the few known masons have been made known is by diaries and accounts of the builder-owners which have been passed on to succeeding generations, and the name-plates usually attached to the front of the house, usually over the front door.
We in Wayne County can proudly claim the name of the first known builder and of the last known builder. Before this research, the first known man who built these houses was Alonzo Bradley, who built a house in Rochester in 1839. I have found a house near Zurich that was built in 1831 by Arthur Henry Van Der Bilt, The last known work is the addition to the Riker House in Ontario Township
by a Mr. Trimble in 1868.
Mr. George Chapman, since this winter deceased, to the last a possessor of an extremely recollective and nimble mind, stated that his grandfather never talked of how he built cobblestone houses or of their secret, even though he had built the Mormon house in Palmyra Township. Such are the cases where silence is certainly not golden.
Some say that the masons received anywhere from $.50 to $1.25 a day. It is known that Richard Stokes, who built Mr. Chapmen's house in Ontario Township, received $1.00 a day. It is, actually, indefinite as to how much a mason got, since there were several panics (depressions) between 1820 and 1860, The pay also depended on how good the mason himself was, One thing is known, however. The mason did put in long, hard, tedious hours for his money, since the eight-hour union day was still far away.
One cannot help but notice the many lime-kilns scattered through the county; no doubt some of these furnished the masons of the cobblestone era with burned lime needed in their mortar. Each mason had his own formula and way of making mortar. That is why one sees a vast difference in color, texture, and hardness of mortar on different places. In the mortar of many of these fine homes one can see
small lumps of white lime which wasn't thoroughly pulverized or dissolved when burned or mixed. Of course this detracts from the fineness but is an interesting feature nevertheless.
Such examples are the Southwell House and the Caldwell Place. One also will find that the mortar of many houses has been colored, in most cases by the gradually fading in of the surrounding lake stone. However, there are some cases where the mortar has been colored by the mason, such as in the Winters Place. The mortar on each cobblestone house seems to have its own individual characteristics.
Many are very sandy; in others, hardly a grain of sand can be noticed; few have large pebbles; while
some are very fine. and as I have mentioned before, the coloring and the fineness of mortar used vary greatly. Also, some mortar has had a tendency to crumble end weather away while other types of mortar have stood like the Rock of Gibraltar. As one might guess, the mortar had to have consistency.
From either the bead or the "V" one can tell that after the mason had laid a row, he went back along with a tool to shape the horizontal and vertical joints. Thus the mortar had to be such as to hold its shape yet manageable to mold easily, I have been told that road dust was collected to be used in the mortar. ‘his might explain how some mortars got their very fine and hard qualities.
An intriguing part of this art is the many patterns or designs used. One type exclusively used in the Late Period is the "herringbone”. The stones used in this were long slim red sandstone about 6" long and 33" high, These were laid diagonally at an approximate 50 degree angle. Every other row was laid the same way, but the alternate row was laid slanting toward the other sides On a good sunshiny day this creates a rich, impressive mingling of shadows on the stone that varies all day long.
Usually these different patterns are arranged in fours, such as in the Alton Church: two red, one white, one black. These color bands form definite patterns only on individual houses, not on these houses as a whole. Also, on several homes can be seen more red stones toward the bottom with more white toward the top, or vice versa. Many masons also seemed to favor stones of either brown, black, or yellow hue, or a mixture of these.
On the sides of a few places one will note that the stones slant toward one direction. These are the regular type stone used, but the mason for some reason desired to slant them. A mason had to have a vivid imagination in addition to his artistic ability.
These cobblestone houses erected in this period from 1820 to the late 1860's are found between Buffalo and Utica, from Lake Ontario to a distance of 50 miles south, The ingenious technique of building cobblestone houses has become a lost art since the Civil War. Yet it was only 130 years ago that the pioneers of the Lake Ontario Plains began using small, round, elliptical stones washed smooth by the waves as well as stones picked up from their fields for building homes, schools, churches, and various public buildings.
Stones were often hauled a distance of thirty miles. 3,500 to 7,800 stones were often required for the front facing of a single house, and it would often require three years’ work to complete a home, The cobbles were drawn in wagons to the site selected for the house, and then came the work of sizing them for the various courses. After the stones had been gathered, there might be a “grading bee" at which the whole community would gather to sort out the cobblestones of just the right size and shape by the simple expediency of passing each individual cobblestone through an iron ring of the approved size, or, in other cases, through holes in a board.
As may be observed by an inspection of some of the dwellings, every stone was set in a casing of mortar with as great care as if the wall were a work of art, as indeed it was when finished. Cobblestone houses were well-planned and were built to last. Time was of little consequence to the builders, so that there was no skimping of effort to produce a finished job. Materials were cheap, except for the labor of gathering and sorting them, it is said that boys of that day earned spending money by picking up cobblestones.
I have found the 152 examples of cobblestone architecture scattered throughout Wayne County. There are eleven in Arcadia, two in Butler, six in Galen, two in Huron, twelve in Ontario, fifteen in Palmyra, Four in Rose, one in Savannah, thirty-four in Sodus, five in Walworth, twenty in Williamson, and two in Wolcott. It is, of course, impossible to insure that this is all of them, but there are probably not more than a dozen others which I did not find.
There is a wealth of history connected with these houses and the people who built them and lived in them. One of these people was Bela Morgan from Connecticut, who, upon his arrival in Palmyra in 1818, purchased a tract of woodland, where he built a log cabin with a bark roof. Morgan was busy for a number of years clearing his land while his young wife assisted by lighting the fires and keeping them going to burn the timber, in the summers, he worked for his neighbor, Stephen Durfee, for fifty cents a day, or for a bushel of wheat.
Later, unable to make payments on the land or pay taxes, he returned to Connecticut, While there, he borrowed $500 from his mother and, on returning, built the cobblestone house with eight rooms, His trip to Connecticut, on foot, took six weeks and during this time his wife was alone except for a faithful dog, a cow, and the only horse in the area. The nearest neighbors were miles away.
Cobblestone architecture was primarily a rural movement, and the successful farmers and country squires who had these structures built were men of courage and character. Building such houses was not an undertaking suited to the fainthearted. This is amply demonstrated in an account from the memoirs of Henry Lee, grandfather of Mrs. Lois Welcher, who owns the beautiful cobblestone house on the Minsteed Road in Arcadia, I quote a part of his account of the building operations: "Father had accumulated a large quantity of stone and lumber including one very large Whitewood tree, about four feet in diameter, and thousands of feet of basswood and hemlock and had carefully piled up with sticks between each board and built a shed over it that it might be thoroughly seasoned, On the last sleighing that spring there was a "bee" and a large pile of sand was taken from back of the woods where Mr. Farnsworth’ s farm now stands, it being the first ever taken from there. It kept one or two men shoveling snow on the bare spots by thawing so fast.
“We got two or three loads of cobblestones from the lake for the facing of the wall. The capstones" (caps and sills) came from Phelps(then Vienna). The front door capstone and sill each made nearly a load.”
____
Newark Courier-Gazette, December 22, 1955
Newark High Graduate Pens Winning Essay on Cobblestone Homes
____
Diary Reveals Home Builder Traveled
To Lake Ontario for Many
Loads of Stone
(Verlyn E. Klahn, first prize winner in the Hoffman historical essay concludes his essay, “Cobblestone Structures of Wayne County,” in this issue of the Courier-Gazette. This is the first in the historical series by county high school students to be published. He was graduated from Newark High School last June. Funds for the contest are provided through. Donald Frey and the Lincoln Rochester Trust Co. as trustees of the Hoffman Foundation).
____
“The job was let to a Mr, Skinner, not incuding the inside work, have forgotten the price, but I think it
was less than $200, They came and laid the cellar wall; then went away and did other jobs to let this harden; then returned and laid the first story; then went away again for several weeks and so on until it was finished.
“Meanwhile, the carpenters prepared the window and door frames, the sleepers and joists. As the walls were ready for them they did the plaining (sic) and matching the flooring (every board in the house being plained by hand) and nearly all but the floors were sandpapered, while they were absent father would have to draw more stones from Phelps besides doing a little farming and all the other work and business accompanying such building. He also went with two teams to Italy Hallow, south of Geneva, and got about 2,000 feet of pine lumber for about $10 per thousand, being about all of the pine used in the house.
“The first stone he drew from the lake, he took a man with the team and went to the bar off the bluff across the bay on ice. I went with him and we reached home about one o'clock in the morning, Father went about 20 times but sometimes being rainy he got only part of a load and often reached home 10 or 12 o'clock at night, Parkings the carpenter only did the work until it was inclosed, which was late in the fall.
“One of my jobs was to flatten the nail heads as there were no finishing nails then; also had to putty the nailheads after being driven. In laying the walls after getting out of reach from the ground there were poles set about 6 or 8 feet from the wall and about as high as the walls were to be, then long poles were lashed to them with hickory withes an inch or an inch and a quarter in diameter and six to eight inches long and then scantling laid across them to the wall and planks laid on them making a scaffolding all around the house.
“Then a crane and tackles and rope were fastened to the northeast post (it being larger than the rest). Buckets a little larger than a molasses cask cut in two would be filled with either mortar or stones and hoisted up, using a horse, to the scaffold and their contents distributed with a wheelbarrow.
“When they were above reach from a scaffold the staging would be raised again. The inside work was done by Ruel Taylor and his men. They did their work evenings and were here all winter.
“The doors were made by hand. Father went out southwest of Newark and bought a butternut tree for stair railings and all connected with them - the house was not ready for occupancy until may the next year. The frame part was not moved until fall, the crane and tackles were used in digging the well in the fall, which was in 1845."
According to Mr. Lee, his and his father's hands got so sore picking up stones that they had to bandage them. Sometimes the stones were so heavy that they had to dump some from their load. Also, since the horses wearied easily under the heavy load, they frequently had to stop and unharness the animals to rest them before completing the trip.
The story of the Stuart House on the corner of west and West Maple Avenues in Newark was told in a letter by Franklin J. Keller, grandson of Jacob Keller, the builder, to Mr. Stuart, quoted here from Mrs. Herbert Jackson's article in the Newark Courier-Gazette of May 14, 1953:
"Jacob Keller came to Newark from Columbia County when a young man and bought the farm that lies around and west of the stone house, He first lived in a log cabin but built the stone house about 1845 and 1846. It took two years to build the house. The lumber and stones all cams from the farm except the cobblestones that are in rows around the outside wall, and the sand. The sand was taken from a sandpit on West Avenue. The logs for the lumber were cut on the farm and were sawed in through at a sawmill that stood south of the Budd house, and about where the Header barn now stands, there was a dam and a pond of about thirty acres there.
"The sawmill was run by a man named Carl, who owned the Budd farm at the time. The lumber, to be dressed, was taken to mill on the Outlet at Phelps. That mill was later owned and run by, and known as, the Bigal's Mill. The moldings were burnt by e man named Horn, about two miles west of Fairville. The small round stones on the outside of the wall were drawn from the lakeshore north of Fairville by Dellavan Keller, son of Jacob and father of the writer. It used to take three days for a trip for a load of stones from the lake shore, if he had good luck, but sometimes longer as there was no road three miles north of Fairville, only a rough crooked trail."
The Eggleston House is just out of Palmyra on the right-hand side of the Palmya-Marion Road. Newton Eggleston, a native of Vermont, bought land for six dollars an acre and built a log cabin. In 1840-41, he had a stone mason Stephen Trumbull, his father, and two other masons build the lakestone house across the road. They drew nine loads of lakestones from the Lake Ontario shore, fourteen
miles away. The cornerstones were drawn from the Naples quarry, all by ox teams. It was on a trip to Naples that Mr. Eggleston saw his first train and because of the fog and the strange country, he was frightened as it came toward him.
Mr. Eggleston's son-in-law Frank Beyoe, while still living, recalled the construction of these cobblestone houses. A group of masons would work on one house until a foot of wall had been laid; then they were forced to allow the mortar to dry for a week. In order to keep busy, they usually planned to build more than one house at a time, which accounted for the long time required to complete a
house, Of course, some were forced because of finances to delay the building.
A note that is of interest: the Congdon House on the Marion-East Williamson Road, now owned by Ida Schultz, tradition says, was a station of the Underground Railroad. It has a Dutch oven and a large fireplace in the center of the house. There is a concealed cupboard near the fireplace big enough to hold a person, where it is said slaves were hidden until they could be conveyed to the next station.
Of the many, many homes I covered, there was only one of the Victorian style - - the MacLeod on Ganz Road. The woodwork is done in beautiful black walnut. There are lovely sliding doors, and a semi-circular stairway which is said to have cost $1,500. The attic itself is larger than many modern homes.
John Mogray's house on Ridge Road was built in 1839 and was first a Methodist Church. It was built with a double entry, one entrance for the men and one for the women. In past years it was common in.some churches for the men to be seated on one side of the church and the women on the other side.
The Parker Place on Parker Road was built for the Reverend Parker in the 1820's, He held his meetings in the unfinished upstairs and this was the beginning of the Methodist Church of East Palmyra, It took only $50 of actual money plus helping neighbors and barter to build this fine house. This house has never been owned out of the Parker family. The John Bestard House in Wallington was built in 1834 for an inn. The inn was the half-way point for the stage between Oswego and Rochester. It was famous for its food, wines, rooms, and dancé hall, and was probably one of the largest inns in this territory.
The Martin Harris Farm is now used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for their headquarters in this area. This house was built by Robert Johnson for William Chapman in 1849, Martin Harris had mortgaged the farm land in 1829 for $3,000 to E. B. Grandin, owner of the Wayne Sentinel, who in turn agreed to print the first edition of the Book of Mormon. For this first edition, five thousand
copies were printed.
Each house had its own individuality. The photographs and accounts of others of the 152 houses in the accompanying five notebooks will reveal many other interesting features not mentioned in this essay. No two of these houses were alike. In many of these places one will still find the original hand-blown windows, mainly around the entrance. Since hand-blown glass is wavy and contains small bubbles of air pockets, which tend to distort objects, it doesn't make a good viewing glass and therefore has been replaced in some homes, Also, because hand-blown glass does not have the strength of manufactured glass, it is easily broken, hence its rarity.
At the Thomas Place on the Jeffry Road, the lower front windows are of the Southern Terrace type. They are made to open on the porch like Hrench doors. These were incorporated into the house when it was built. All windows at the Franz Place are said to be of the same size, which unusual for an older type dwelling, for the upstairs windows were more often made smaller.
The woodwork of many of these old homes is of chestnut, such as is in the Jordon Place on Alderman Road. This is interesting to note because of the blight which has swept the chestnut trees in recent years.
On one of my trips I was told that the masons used a few large stones placed at intervals along one course which passed straight through the wall, not only to tie in the veneer of small stones but also to be used as a scaffold holder, It seems reasonable that they could be used for scaffold riggings because of their parallel position and the force they could withstand. A good example of these tie-in stones may be seen in the front of the Hanagan Place.
Apparently, the old time owners were happily contented with and liked their cobblestone buildings. This is evident because of the many cobblestone additions found on the near their cobblestone brothers. The Harrison House in Marion Township (where there are a great many out stone houses) is a cut stone house with a cobblestone wing.
The preservation of our stone dwellings and their adaptation to modern needs are well worth while, for they are one of the native architectural features of the lake counties. There will never be any more of them built, for even if modern masons rediscovered the lost art, it would not be economically feasible to build one. With today's union hours and labor costs, it would take a good-sized fortune to build such a house.
Being characteristic of Western New York, these old structures should be saved to serve as a reminder of bygone days when our pioneer fathers put in an honest day's work for a small wage. These are solid, substantial buildings which do not have to be painted, are warm in winter and cool in summer. The stone surface gives forth a beautiful pattern of light and shadows in the sunlight.
Unfortunately, however, one finds that some of them are showing signs of wear. Deterioration as exampled by white patches on the horizontal or vertical joints shows where mortar has begun to disintegrate. The late George Chapman found that this crumbling can be stopped by making a thin paste
of cement end water, applying this with a brush over such places where disintegration is noted, taking care not to touch the cobblestone with the paste, the cement will harden and after a while it will turn to nearly the same color as the rest of the wall, and only a close inspection will show where the mortar had begun to crumble.
Why was it that such an art as this should die out? A big factor, of course, was the jealousy with which the masons guarded the features of their individual techniques. Most masons would stop work when anyone was near enough to observe the details of the work. But as with most facets of history, economic considerations have been the primary cause for there being no cobblestone construction after 1868.
After the Civil War, the economic pulse of the nation quickened; work became more plentiful and rewarding so that masons could find work in industry and business. Wealthy landholders, instead of tying up their money in stone monuments, invested it in the growing and robust manufacturing concerns, railroads, and other financial enterprises, But despite this pat economic explanation, one is still not quite satisfied. What is strange is that the end of the cobblestone building era came at the time when the craft had reached as near perfection as man may come and did not experience any decline in workmanship. May way it be due to our American spirit of enterprise that, when something can no longer be improved upon, interest in it is lost? Or is it that perhaps what made cobblestone houses so desirable in the early part of the era - their uniqueness, variety of colors, attractive wall texture were, as the art of cobblestone masonry gave way to the craft, replaced by uniformity in form, in color of stones, and the machine-like precision in which the stones were laid?
These relics leave the same impression on society today that they did on people of the last century, the character of the past has been immortalized in stone to symbolize that which made America what she is today - patient, ingenious, progressive, and most of all, yet almost paradoxically, stable.
We are proud of what our forebears could accomplish with limited means. I know that I speak for the many owners of cobblestone houses when I say that we are going to preserve them as a standing monument to our past and a prophecy to our future.
During the past year, I have traversed hundreds of miles, dug into numerous yellowing newspapers, letters, deeds and old records, and have talked with hundreds of people. Everywhere I was received with the spirit of hospitality and cooperation which made a normally pleasant task just a little more so, it would be difficult to acknowledge the names of all those good people, but I am deeply grateful to everyone who helped in any way, no matter how trivial that assistance may have seemed to them.
I am particularly grateful to those who let me browse through their scrapbooks and take up their valuable time — Mr. Carl F. Schmidt, Mrs. Margaret Merhoff, Miss Dora Westfall, Mrs. Lois Welcher, Mrs. Howard Jeffrey, Miss Mary Ziegler, Mrs. George Ennis, Miss Gerda Peterick, and N.G. Klahamer.
In compiling a work of this scope it is unavoidable that a few errors will creep in here and there, although every effort has been made to be accurate. Sometimes it took nearly a day's time to get a picture and the history of one house, due to location, weather, daylight, and the tracing down of people connected with the structure.
But these hundreds of hours of labor were made worthwhile by the broadening experience which they occasioned and the sense that they would result in historically valuable information and pictorial documentation much of which was, during the course of this research, assembled in one place for the first time.
I found a poem which I think expresses our reaction to cobblestone architecture, It was written by Dorothy W. Pease and follows:
As I go wandering up and
down
New York State's Ridge and old byways,
I stop and chat with farmers
there
And hear the lore of bygone
days;
Of houses built of cobblestones
Brought from the lake by
oxen strong
Or harvested with patient toil
From the glacial fields where they belong.
These stones were sorted then
for size
By dropping through a beetle
ring.
And reddish ones were laid
aside,
To use where they'd attention
bring.
The mason patiently did lay
In row on row of mortar
hard,
Round stones or patterned
herringbone
Which we with wonder now
regard.
O houses, blessed with memory sweet,
Of busy housewives, farmers
strong,
Who round the family fireside
sat
To worship God with evensong.
Arcadia (including Village of Newark)
This impressive cobblestone mansion at 518 West Maple Avenue at the corner of West Avenue in Newark was built in 1840, (according to the date stone) by Jacob Keller who came here from Columbia County about 1825. He first lived in a log house nearby. He purchased considerable property here and became a prosperous farmer. The water-washed stones came from Lake Ontario. Other early owners were Frederick Hoeltzel and a man named Burnham. It ultimately became the home of Stuart family who were long involved in the costume jewelry business and later founded Sarah Coventry Inc.
View of rear of the house at 518 West Maple Avenue.
Reminiscences of Franklin J. Keller
Wappengers Falls, NY May 23, 1935
My grandfather, Jacob Keller, came to Newark from Columbia County when a young man and bought the farm that lies around and west of the stone house. He first lived in a log cabin that stood about fifty feet north east of the large white house on West Avenue where S.S.Pierson used to live. He built the stone house about 1845 or ’46. It was two years in the building. The lumber and field stones all come from the farm except the cobble stones that are in rows around the outside of the wall, also the sand. The sand was taken from the ground west of the Edwin Frech [sic] house on West Avenue.
I can remember when the sand pit was still open. The logs for the lumber were cut on the farm, and were sawed up in the rough at a saw mill that stood south of the Budd house, and about where the Beader barn now stands. There was a dam and a pond of about 30 acres there. The saw mill was run by a man named Carll [sic], who owned the Budd farm at that time.
The lumber, to be dressed, was taken to a mill on the Outlet near Phelps. That mill was later owned and run, and was known as the Bigals Mill. I think it has been burnt down. The moldings were made by hand and the lime was burnt by a man named Horn about two miles west of Fairville. The small round stones on the outside of the wall were drawn from the Lake shore north of Fairville by my father.
My father’s name was Delavan Keller. He was the oldest of six sons and two daughters. It used to take three days to make the trip for a load of stones from the lake shore, if he had good luck, but sometimes longer as there was no road from three miles north of Fairville, only a rough crooked trail. I remember hearing my mother talk about it.
My grandfather sold the house and farm to Frederick Hoeltzel, who owned and lived there until Mr. Burnham bought it in the spring of 1876. Burnham’s purchase included about 12 acres of land and the barn that stood just west of the stone house. Burnham moved the barn over to its present location. I was employed by Mr. Burnham, and was a member of his family 4 years. My service began in April 1876 when they took possession. George B. was about 3 years old at that time. Two other children were born there while I was there, Eddie and Nellie, both died there. Those children were very dear to me.
In the spring of 1876 I went to the George Ehrhardt farm near Sodus R.R. depot and dug and drew home on a one horse wagon a load of small elms, none larger than one inch thick, and set out a row along the roadside of what you call West Maple Avenue, and in front of the property on the south, also a few in the back yard. I wonder if they are still standing, and also three rows of grape vines just east of the driveway.
Detail of the artistic craftsmanship in the use of Lake Ontario-washed Medina sandstone cobblestones. All stones exactly alike? It might seem that way but take a closer look at the variances from the cobbles above and below it. Even whole rows tend to have differences with other rows. Some have more rounds and other more disc-ovals. There is much minor variation. Here and there is even an anomaly, such as the last two cobbles in the row just beneath the lintel at the top left corner of the window. It was much patient work. Forms make it much easier and the joint work is at least as much trouble, but its more routine than what might be supposed. Paul Briggs of Ithaca, who restores cobblestone houses, said the stones all appearing to be all the same on some houses is an optical illusion. He said the stones actually vary widely in their interior depth which you can't see, and thickness (take a careful look). Plus some have to be angled to be the correct height, while others have to near vertical to to do it. Some appear as "eggs" while others appear as "wafers."
_____
_____________
The stately James P. Bartle cobblestone farmhouse was built on what is now West Miller Street in Newark in 1836. Bartle, served in the New York State Assembly as well as Supervisor of the Town of Arcadia, operated the first store in Newark. He was a veteran of the War if 1812 and was a prominent businessman. The house was demolished in 1938 to make way for the new junior high school. Photo taken in the 1870s. Courtesy of Newark-Arcadia Historical Society.
926 North Main St., Newark
Photo by Mary Smith
240 West Pearl St., Newark facing west
240 West Pearl St., Newark facing south
Photo by Mary Smith
545 Vienna St. facing east
545 Vienna Street, facing north.
This house at 112 East Miller St. was built in the 1830s. It was demolished in 1964. According to an article in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle of August 5, 1964 the property leveled also included the Crescent Theater. The gable end of the two-story house faced the street and had a two-story recessed wing shown at the right. Stones were a mix of water rounded and small field stones set four rows to a quoin on the front and three on the side. Some stones were set diagonally. The main part of the house had two windows up and two down with a grill-sized window centered above them in the gable which was complete with its own full sized limestone lintel and sill just as in the four other windows on the facade. The left elevation had a door with a window centered above it set toward the rear corner, otherwise no other openings on the wall. The recessed wing on the right was actually wider than the main block. It contained two (slightly smaller) windows up and a door and window centered below them. The roofline was unusual—it was basically a shed roof with a change of angle about a third of the way across the frontage, giving a slightly domed appearance. A roofed, open porch spanned the wing. For many years it was a doctor's office.
2659 Minsteed Road
This house at 2467 Parker Road may be one of the oldest cobblestone houses in Wayne County. It was built about 1833 for the Rev. Preston Parker. Four generations of the Parker family live here. It originally had 14 rooms. There was a meeting room on the second floor whee religious services were held for a group known as the “Parker Neighborhood.” Later this became East Palmyra Methodist Church.
3677 Heidenreich Road
Date stone on house at 3677 Heidenreich Road
301 2269 Dewindt Road, Newark
5598 Pardee Smith Road
309 Silver Road
Butler
Built in the 1820s, the Roe school house in the town of Butler is believed to be the oldest existing cobblestone school house in North America.Now a museum, it is located at 12397 Van Vleck Road at the intersection of Route 89. It was built by Daniel Roe, an early pioneer. It was often referred to as the Watson Schoolhouse. It is believed to be one of the very oldest cobblestone buildings in the area. Rather than using the smooth-washed lake stones characteristic of later cobblestone buildings, it is constructed of rough field stones that were taken from the property on which it rests. Some of the stones were split in half because of their larger size.
Roe school house in the early 1900s. It ceased to function as a school in 1932 and for years was a private residence. is now operated as a schoolhouse museum by the Butler Preservation Society, which also operates the Butler Church Museum.Both museums are open on the first Saturday of the month from May through October, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For appointment to see it call Dorothy Wiggins at 315-594-2332 or Lori Howland at 315-594-1844. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2009.
Thorn house, 10065 Turnpike Road, Marengo. The small "gingerbread" trim on the eaves is a late 1840's alteration from the Andrew Jackson Downing books. The windows were originally 6 pane over 6 pane, and the pillars on the porch were thick square tuscan style Doric columns. There seems to be a board missing from the gable-front architrave on the right side.
John Robinson House, 8841 Lock Berlin Road, was built in 1831-32 and has been occupied by the same family for several generations.
Seven generations of the Thorn family have resided in
this house at 10297 Turnpike Road, east of the hamlet
of Marengo.
this house at 10297 Turnpike Road, east of the hamlet
of Marengo.
8880 Sunderland Road near Lyons
Romyen House (Kyburg Black Angus Farm) at 1018
Eyer Road, Lyons. "T.T. Romyen 1841" on date stone.
Smoke house in rear of house
790 Gansz Road, Lyons, east side Mansard roof added
ca. 1875.
ca. 1875.
Huron
The Upson-Brundage House at 10785 Ridge Road is about five miles west of Wolcott. It was built by Solomon Upson in 1847-48.
Same house in 1955.
Former Arthur Vernoy house at 10699 Lummisville Road
Lyons
Construction commenced on the Jackson one-room school house at 336 Pleasant Valley Road, Lyons, in 1829. It was completed in 1831 at a cost of $187. It was named for President Andrew Jackson. The walls are 21 inches thick. It is built of field stones and measures 24 by 28 feet. The children left their coats and lunch pails in the entry area. There were no desks. Instead the students used shelves attached to the walls with benches for seats. Clark Mason was the first teacher. It was used until 1947 and then became a private residence. It is currently (2017) the home local historian Mark DeCracker and his wife. Photo courtesy of Mark DeCracker.
Same structure as it appears today. Photo by Mark DeCracker
Democrat & Chronicle, Rochester
Thursday, August 20, 1927
Centennial of Jackson School
To be Marked by Reunion Today
____
Little Cobblestone Building in Towns of Lyons
and Arcadia Still in Use, with but Few Repairs
to Exterior and Modernization of Interior
____
Lyons, Aug. 19. - The centennial of the erection of the cobblestone school house in District 6, known as the Jackson school, will be marked by a reunion tomorrow.
Among the early settlers in the community was Dr. Cyrus Jackson, who located about five miles southwest of this village in 1800. He was married and lived in a log cabin until 1821, when he constructed a more pretentious house near the site of his former home. This house, built in 1821, and now owned by Paul Seiling, stood with practically no reconstruction until two years ago when the siding began to give way on account of age and the outside was shingled.
In 1831 children in the neighborhood of the Jackson settlement began to reach school age and the problem of constructing a school house was brought to the consideration of the settlers. In March, 1831, Hugh Jameson of Lyons, then commissioner of common schools, called a meeting of the residents of the neighborhood at the home of Dr. Jackson. At that meeting a school organization was effected by electing Christopher Myers, Peter Ackerson and Reuben Penoyer as trustees, Dr. Jackson, clerk and Peter Lott, collector of taxes.
At this meeting it was decided to erect a school house. The plans provided it should be of cobblestone laid in lime and the building was 24 feet by 26 feet. The district was known as District 6 of Lyons and Arcadia, as the property is located partly in the two towns. The total cost of masonry and carpentry was $137. The school opened that summer with Clark Mason of Lyons as teacher. The tuition charged was that each family should furnish one-half a cord of wood split and ready to burn for each child sent to the school. The wood was used for heating the school house. As Dr. Jackson had ten children, it will be seen that he had to skirmish around and have five cords of wood ready.
Miss Carrie E. Jackson and Aaron Jackson, grandchildren of Dr. Jackson, still reside on the farm adjoining the school house which has always been known as the "Jackson School House," being named at its erection in honor of Andrew Jackson, then President of the United states, between whom and Aaron and Miss Carrie Jackson there is a well defined line of family relationship.
Today, 100 years after its erection, this little school house is still performing the duties for which it was built. The stone walls, two feet in thickness, in places show a slight separation, but aside from this and new siding from the roof to the stone wall, all remains as when first erected, even to the beams laid upon the stone walls.
Teachout House, Old Route 31, [old portion of Montezuma
Turnpike] is Currently unoccupied. Teachout family lived
here, 1847-1943.
View of west wall
The kitchen at left added. A story is told of a young girl, Minerva Croul,who observed construction of the house and dreamed of one day living there. She eventually married Henry Teachout, who had a tannery in Lyons. He later purchased the house and its 212-acre farm. The land was heavily wooded and stony at the time andtook a tremendous effort to develop. Eventually tobacco was one of their major crops. Minerva lived there until she died at 90.
This house at 8729 Old Route 31 was built for Elias Richmond in 1834. It has wooden lintels and transom over inset front door.
937 Route 14, just south of Lyons
The Cobblestone Blacksmith Shop at 300 Water St. in Alloway
As the early settlers of Lyons began to clear their land, they faced a special problem. The recession of the glacier that covered much of New York State in prehistoric times, left small, round stones, known as cobbles, covering the farmland. These stones had to be removed before the fields could be planted with crops. The cobbles were gathered up and used for building and, as a result, Wayne County is the site of one of the most unusual and beautiful kinds of architecture in this country. Lyons has several beautiful cobblestone homes and buildings, but the most unique is the blacksmith shop in Alloway.
In 1832, Alfred Hale built a small two-story, octagonal, cobblestone blacksmith shop on Alloway Road. Each side of the building is 12 1/2 feet long, has walls three inches thick and is constructed of fieldstone cobble. The building was used for years as a blacksmith shop, and most recently as a machine shop.
There were many advantages of using cobblestones for a shop of this sort. Cobblestones are very strong and make a solid structure. They are fireproof; a very important consideration in the days before fire departments, and the thick walls kept the building warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The stone buildings required little outside maintenance and needed no paint.
Nearly one hundred seventy five years after its construction, the unique building retains its original charm and is often the subject for photographers and artists. The crack near the door was made when a car lost control and crashed into the building and one can still see the remnants of paint left from when the shop owner lost a election wager and the structure was painted red, white and blue.
Cleveland Frind bought the blacksmith shop, and the cobblestone house across the street, in 1918. The blacksmith shop closed in 1936, after the automobile had replaced horses. The building was then used as a machine shop until around 1960. Cleveland’s son and daughter-in-law, Ralph, and Helen Frind, lived in the cobblestone house across the street from the octagonal structure for many years. Shortly after Ralph passed away in 2008, the house and shop were sold to former Lyons resident Mary LaGasse Tatum.Note: There was once a cobblestone barn on the farm of Mrs. Elizabeth Dunn farm on Alloway Road (Route 14) just south of Lyons that burned early on the morning of September 30, 1904.
House across from blacksmith shop at 8272 Alloway Road
3425 Middle Sodus Road
This house at 824 County Route 238 (Old Pre-emption Road) was early occupied by D. Van Patten, according to the 1853 map of Wayne County. It was built in the 1840s of field cobbles gathered from the farm. At one time is was the home of Roy Gardner. In the 1960s Mr. and Mrs. Lee Bauer resided there. It is now unoccupied.
Robert Roudabush photo, 1970s
Same house in 2019
Richard Palmer photos
Macedon
Jordan House built in 1834, is at 1484 Alderman Road
This house is at 3532 Layton Street Road. Inscription on date stone over door is “A.H.V.D.B. 1831,” initials of original owner, Arthur Henry Van Der Bilt. It may be the oldest cobblestone house in Wayne County. It is quite attractive with wooden lintels and rough quoins. The original cornice moldings are not visible under that aluminum but might be late neo classic. The windows were originally 6 or 9 panes per sash. The 2 over 2 panes there now date from just after the Civil War up to about the 1880's. I strongly suspect it had shutters like most - but not all. Also it is rare as the size of cobbles in front seem to be the same as the sides. They are close to about three cobbles per foot and were the fastest cobbles to build with. These are obviously not the original steps. It was in the Marsteiner family for many years.
3425 Middle Sodus Road
This house at 824 County Route 238 (Old Pre-emption Road) was early occupied by D. Van Patten, according to the 1853 map of Wayne County. It was built in the 1840s of field cobbles gathered from the farm. At one time is was the home of Roy Gardner. In the 1960s Mr. and Mrs. Lee Bauer resided there. It is now unoccupied.
Robert Roudabush photo, 1970s
Same house in 2019
Richard Palmer photos
Cobblestone foundation on house at 185 Pre-emption Road.
Jordan House built in 1834, is at 1484 Alderman Road
Macedon Historical Society
District 1, cobblestone schoolhouse, 1113 Alderman Road, stuccoed over, now privateresidence.
Historical marker for Bullis House
Fine herringbone design on Baker House.
This house at 5 West Main St., Macedon, was built in 1839 by Nathan Reed, a Quaker. Cobblestones came from the shore of Lake Ontario near Pultneyville.
Bullis House, 1727 Canandaigua Road. Built circa
1839 by Charles Bullis.
______
2631 Quaker Road, called "Tamerlayne."
Same place in 1877
Baker House, 815 Canandaigua Road. Inscription,
”J. & D. Baker 1850" appears on date stone. Jacob
Terry was the mason. It is of the Gothic Cottage
design.
North side of house with modern brick chimney.
Kitchen side of house
Fine herringbone design on Baker House.
The main part of this two-story house at 4482 Cory Corners Road is quarried gray limestone blocks and is of the 1830-1840 while the smaller wing on the south side built of field cobbles may have been built in as a school house in the 1850s and was later used as a smokehouse and later was used as a kitchen and storage area.
This is a view of the rear part of the cobblestone portion of the house.
This house is at 4778 Marion-East Williamson Road just south of White Road. This is known as the Congdon house as at one time it was owned by Lyman Congdon whose family was involved in the founding of Lima Seminary. Tradition says it was a station on the Underground Railroad. There is a concealed area near the fireplace large enough to house a person. But these Underground Railroad stories are apocryphal. Glass in the windows of the kitchen and living room are hand blown. It is constructed of multi-colored fieldstones.
|
School house as it presently appears.
| ||||
 Herringbone design is evident on the building.
|
4398 Ridge Chapel Road
4092 North Main St., Marion
Date stone on the house at 4092 North Main St.
This house at 4057 N. Main St., Marion was built for
the pastor of the Christian Church.
the pastor of the Christian Church.
Cut fieldstone house at 3541 Parker Road. It was built by
Peleg Sanford in 1823.
Peleg Sanford in 1823.
3456 Newark-Marion Road, said to have originally
been a well house on the Caldwell farm.
4398 Ridge Chapel Road
4413 Ridge Chapel Road
4851 Ridge Chapel Road
4513 Eddy Ridge Road
As it was in 1877
5330 Eddy Ridge Road
Wells House, 5137 Mason Road, pre-1833
Same place in 1877
Wells House. Built on cobblestone foundation
Notice the interesting stone configuration.
Facing north
Multi-colored washed lake stones
4735 Farnsworth Road
This cobblestone house at 3713 Parker Road was built
in 1832 by Stephen and Peleg Sanford.
|
4471 Dormedy Hill Road. Datestone: “J.C. Green Erected
A.D. 1849”
Cobblestone barn at 4154 Marion-East Williamson Road, built 1840.
This house at 4685 Marion-East Williamson Road was built in 1840 by Samuel Barrett according to the date stone. This family resided there for several generations.
4978 Marion-East Williamson Road
Robert Roudabush photo from 1970s. |
This house at 4676 White Road was originally owned by Samuel Smith. It was built ca. 1830-32. The 68-acre farm was purchased by James White in 1880. It included a large apple orchard. Later it was a tenant house and still later for storage. It has since been restored as a residence.
5336 Van Cruyingham Road
This view of what appear to be cobblestone house in Marion but do not match any in appearance that currently exist. They appear in the History of Wayne County published in 1877.
Ontario
This house at 487 Lake Road was built in 1844.
1695 Lake Road
7105 Fisher Road
Several views of 1556 Lake Road, built about 1835
5668 Lincoln Road
7101 Knickerbocker Road
7325 Knickerbocker Road
7272 Ontario Center Road
7272 Ontario Center Road facing south
6952 Ontario Center Road
5668 Lincoln Road
5708 Walworth-Ontario Road
5820 Walworth-Ontario Road
5656 Walworth Road
5656 Walworth Road
Palmyra
This house at 2095 Maple Ave., Palmyra, replaced a one and a half-story wooden frame house that originally stood on this site. When Martin Harris, a follower of Mormon leader Joseph Smith, left here in 1831, it was occupied by William Chapman. The house burned to the ground in 1849 and was replaced by this cobblestone house, built by Robert Johnson for Chapman. The stones were collected from the shore of the lake by his son, Thomas Johnson, who was only 10 years old at the time. It was a three-day round trip to Lake Ontario and return. Hauling back a load of stone was a slow process. It took one day go to the lake, one day to gather the stones and one day to return home. The stones were then sorted and sized, with the most uniform ones used for the front, and the less desirable ones on the sides and back.
Fireplace chimney on north side of house
_____
 |
The house, on the west side of Maple Avenue, is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Once a visitors center, it now serves as the private residence for missionaries.
This commercial building at 105 Market St., Palmyra, was built in the 1830s by William Tilden, a local tinsmith. During the post-Civil War period it was occupied by L. D. Sellick & Company, basket-makers. It has a bracketed cornice. The facade consists of varied-sized lake cobblestones. Some discrete alterations have been made over the years. There are apartments upstairs.
Rear of 105 Market St., facing west
This residence at 2121 Walker Road, Palmyra was originally a typical five-bay farm house of the 1840s, built of field stone. It is believed it was built by Aretus Lapham, an early pioneer who came here from Providence, R.I. in 1810. Lapham originally resided in a nearby log house. Later it was occupied by his son, Nathan. In the 1870s the farm was sold to Charles C.B. Walker who may have added the third-story frame section and cupola of Victorian design. A 1904 map of the Town of Palmyra shows it as part of the Charles C.B. Walker estate. The caretaker for the Walker estate resided here, according to the present owner.
The William Luce House is situated at 2792 Shilling Road, Palmyra. It was built of lake stone with a large chimney at either end. A marble plate over the door reads "W. L. 1839”. The alternate slanting of the lake stones is an exclusive feature of this house. The stones are very well graded, and the mason work is well done.
2873 Route 21
2822 Route 21
Same place in 1877
District 7 school house at the intersection of North Creek and Lyons roads was built in 1846. It is about a mile north of Port Gibson. Later it was used as a barn. A large door cut in in one end. It also was used to store farm implements. It is constructed of lake washed red sandstone cobbles. The lintels and quoins are quarried limestone.
Jagger House, 2799 Lyon Road. Built 1840.
Thomas House, 3313 Jeffrey Road
Rogers house at 4449 Hogback Road.
Field stones blend with lake-washed cobbles.
Bela Morgan House, 3049 Hanagan Road. This is believed be one of the oldest cobblestone houses in the town of Palmyra, built in 1832 or earlier. A later owner nicknamed it "Fiddlesticks Farm". It is built of field cobbles.
Facing north
3336 Hanagan Road, built 1834. Facing west
Also note cobblestone cellar entrance.
2775 Maple Ave.
 |
2799 Quaker Road |
This house is at 151 Church St., Village of Palmyra. It was built in the 1830s by Alexander McKachie, a native of Scotland. There was once a malt house in the rear.
Cobblestone barn, 3140 Maple Ave., five miles north of Palmyra.
Job Durfee house at 3175 Route 21 was built in 1840.
2792 Shilling Road
Out building at 930 Vienna Road
Back of wooden frame house at 880 Vienna Road
____________
Back of wooden frame house at 880 Vienna Road
____________
Original Baptist Church
According to currently available information, the Baptists' first church in Palmyra, erected in 1841 at 100 W Main St, was constructed of cobblestones. It was dedicated on January 28, 1841, measuring 40 by 60 feet with accommodations in the basement.- Palmyra and Vicinity by Thomas L. Cook, 1931. That building was razed to make way for the new, Romanesque Revival style First Baptist Church (1871)." The Clinton Brown Company Architecture, PC published the "Palmyra Village Historic District Cultural Resource Survey,” 2009, footnote 19, page 11.
The original Baptist Church in Palmyra was a cobblestone building. It was located on the southwest corner of West Main and Canandaigua streets, and was torn down when the present Baptist church building was built in 1870 - “Palmyra of the Past” No. VI by Pliny S. Aldrich ( Wayne County Journal, May 27, 1915).
Views of Newton Warehouse
Newton warehouse, Canal Street, Palmyra. Built 1845 to store apples
and potatoes to ship out on the Erie Canal. Owned by John S. Blazey Inc.
The Maltby Clark house and out building, 4698 Port Gibson
Road, East Palmyra. Built of field stones.
Road, East Palmyra. Built of field stones.
Paul Jagger House, 3142 Lyon Road
3458 Lyon Road
3049 Parker Road. Built by Caleb Avery in 1840 field stones.
In later years it was nicknamed "Cobble Nob."
4306 Route 414
11273 Maunder Road
This now-gone house, once owned by Chester Haviland on the Rose-Wolcott Road, was a small, one-story structured with a narrow gable facing the highway. A portion of the front had been stuccoed over. The front was faced with lake stones and the sides with field stones. The house was roughly built. The quoins were an irregular red or white and had striped stones. The lintels were of wood.
Cobb's Corners Joint School District #1 at the northwest corner of Clyde-Hunts Corners Road and Hadden Road in the 1970s after it became a private residence. It served Joint School District No. 1, which was shared between Galen and Savannah. It was closed in 1940. It no longer exists. It appears Cobb schoolhouse was at 12079 Clyde Hunts Corners Rd. (Tax ID 75113-00-923894) just in the Town of Savannah with the west border of the 0.3 acre property on the town line, 664 feet from Butler Rd.. The tax records note that a building of no description was removed from that property in August 1997. This property and the adjoining 436 acre tract (on both sides of Clyde Hunts Corners Rd with an address of 3232 Galen Rd Tax ID 75113-00-7981617,) in the Town of Galen are owned by Madeira Associates, Syracuse. Tax records list both properties as private hunting/fishing. Based on the current property map, this evidence seems to concur with the 1874 map. Robert Roudabush photo
Clyde Herald, March 8, 1933
Cobb School, in Three Towns, is 100 Years Old
____
Cobb School, District No. 1, towns of Savannah, Galen and Butler, was built in 1833 at a cost of $1890 on land donated for school purposes by J.M. Cobb. This makes the Cobb School antedate the District No. 9 School of Rose. Cobb School has been in continuous operation ever since its establishment.
Among those present at the School Meeting of 1833 was Mr. Samuel S. Briggs, who had recently purchased the farms now known as the Hunt Farm. During the first 50 years either he or at least one of his descendants was present at every school meeting, generally as a member of the School Board. Until 1863, this District had three trustees, one being chosen from each of the three towns from which the district was formed. since then only one trustee has represented the district.
It is believed that there are few, if any, school districts which have a complete record of all meetings held in the district. This district has the clerk’s book used in 1833 and in it are the minutes of every annual and special school meeting from that time to date. It will be used again next May to record the minutes of the 101st Annual School Meeting since this building was erected.
Cobblestones Hauled by Oxen
The Cobb School was a 22’ x 28’ foot building built of water glazed cobblestones hauled by ox-carts from the shores of Lake Ontario. The cobblestones were set in mortar by masons whose workmanship apparently cannot be duplicated today. During the 100 years of existence, very little repair work has been required.
The long board seats were used in the school until 1904, when they were taken out to make room for 16 modern single seats. A new floor was laid at this time. During the past four years, an eight foot extension has been built on the south side of the building for a cloak room and wood house. Windows have been placed in the east side as recommended by the State Department of Education. Ten more new seats have been added to take care of the increased enrollment.
It is to be noted that the modernization of the Cobb School has taken place during the trusteeship of William Burke. Mr. Burke was trustee from 1093 to 1910 when he resigned to become road commissioner of the Town of Galen. It was at this time that new desks were installed. Mr. Burke was again elected trustee in 1926 and has served in that capacity to date. During this last incumbency, the building and equipment have been brought up-to-date. Due to Mr. Burke’s wise and efficient management and the personal interest he has taken in the betterment of local conditions, all of this modernization has been accomplished without increasing the tax rate in the District.
Although the assessed valuation of the district has been decreased almost $10,000 during the past ten years, the school tax rate for 1932-33 was the lowest for that period.
The writer knows of no other century-old district school in which wood is the only fuel that has ever been used, thereby making possible the retention of a considerable amount of school monies in the district.
A comparison of the school records of the 1830s with those of the 1930s is interesting. In 1836, the district received $42 in public money. It paid a male teacher $28 for a $16-week term during the winter months and $16 was paid for a lady teacher for a 12-week summer term. Wood for the fuel and board and lodging was furnished by the parents of children attending school.
In 1932, under State Law which requires school districts to expend $1,500 in order to obtain the maximum amount of public money, the Cobb School received $999 from the State and raised $603 by direct taxation of property in the District. Of this amount, $950 is paid for teaching 38 weeks and the remainder expended for transportation of High School pupils, building new fence, book, maps, fuel, and the many incidentals required to properly carry on in a modern school.
In the 1830s, school attendance was not compulsory. Boys and girls attended school when they could be spared from farm work. Attendance was very irregular.
Pen and ink sketch of Cobb school house by artist Judy (Palermo) Shumway based on old photos.
Pen and ink sketch of Cobb school house by artist Judy (Palermo) Shumway based on old photos.
26 Pupils Now
At present, there are 26 pupils attending this school, the largest number attending a district school in the town of Savannah. Of these, the following eleven have maintained perfect attendance so far this year:
Gracy Bellinger, Hilda Bornheimer, Mary Kane, Marjorie Secore, Junior Buckler, Leland Covill, Wesley Kane, Fred Secore, James Hall, Richard Hall, Robert Hall.
The school has 99 percent attendance.
In the 1830s, many teachers had not attended school more than three or four years. Today, the minimum requirements for a teacher’s certificate call for thirteen years of school attendance. The present teacher, Ethel C. Beecher, is a graduate of Rochester University.
This article would not be complete without mention of the credit due the District Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Frank L. Miller, for is tireless efforts to make the schools in this section of Wayne County models of efficiency in the training of our rural children. His thorough comprehension of all matters relating to rural school problems and his whole-hearted cooperation with both trustees and teachers have been of inestimable value, not only to this district but to all schools in the southeastern section of Wayne County.
2735 Wilsey Road. Built ca. 1858
Sodus
In October, 1970, Gene Bavis, Walworth Town Historian, took this picture as part of a series of photos for a field trip he was developing for 7th graders while working on his master's degree. This house was abandoned at the time following a fire. It remained there in a deteriorated condition until at least 1974 after which it was demolished. It was on the east side of South Geneva Road just north of the intersection with Quarry Road, 1.4 miles north of the Sodus-Lyons town line.
8524 Ridge Road (old Route 104), Alton
Date stone: “1840 J. Collier”
6499 Middle Road
7147 Maxwell Road
William Swales Cobblestone Houses
William Swayles built 11 or 12 cobblestone houses for himself,
his children and for tenants on what later became Sodus Fruit Farm.
These included:
1. Preston house (Gaylord) for his daughter, Elizabeth, wife
of John Preston (Buried Sodus Rural Cemetery).
2. Maulendyke house (Dufloo Road) for his son, John,
(buried, Swayles Cemetery).
3. Gibson - Lake Road, for son, William Jr., buried Sodus Rural Cemetery.
4 - 5. (Two) Sodus Fruit Farm, for himself, buried Sodus Rural Cemetery.
6. Monar House, Lake Road (formerly Swales) built for son, George.
7. Miller's house, south of Preston's - not known for whom built.
8. Dearlove House - south side of Halcus Road for daughter Sarah,
now in ruins.
9. Three or four houses built on Sodus Fruit Farm, now gone.
(This information from his great-granddaughter, Emma Potwine, ca.1955).
Cemetery Records
William Swales ( Sept. 26, 1776, Hutten, Cranswick, Yorkshire, England -
Jan. 28, 1855 - Swales Cemetery)
William Swales Jr. (1806-1857 - Sodus Rural Cemetery)
Elizabeth Swales Preston (Born Sept. 18, 1813 - Died Dec. 26, 1903 -
Sodus Rural Cemetery)
John Swales (1815-1857 - Swales Cemetery)
William Swales Jr. (1833-1912 - Sodus Rural Cemetery)
Sarah S. Swales Gibson (1839-1927 - Sodus Rural Cemetery)
Maria Swales Nash (1843-1918 - Sodus Rural Cemetery)
Joseph Swales (1843-1907 - Sodus Rural Cemetery)
Elizabeth Swales Weeks (1841 - July 30, 1859 - Swales Cemetery)
Jame Ann Swales (1843- Jan. 2, 1845 - Swales Cemetery)
Ella G. Swales Vosburgh (1879-1976 Sodus Rural Cemetery)
William Swales Manor House at 8602 Lake Road, Sodus, formerly the Sodus Fruit Farm, has been abandoned for many years and is rapdly deteriorating. This house is cobblestone covered with stucco.
Pealing shows house was stuccoed over cobblestone.
William Swales Manor House, in back of 8602 Lake Road, Sodus, in 1959.
Main stairway and hall of Manor House in 1959.
Adjacent cobblestone barn is collapsing. A cobblestone house was located some distance to the north.
Cobblestone barn still in use in 1959.
Abandoned Swales stone house about a mile north of the Manor house. Photos by Glenn Hinchey.
These houses were built by William Swales
7570 Dufloo Road
7552 Buck Lane
7752 Dufloo Road. Built for John Swales.
Old photo of 6419 Lake Road
 |
This house at 563 Lake Road for many years was known as Maxwell Creek Inn Bed & Breakfast. It was built in 1846. The original owners were John and Elizabeth (Swales) Preston. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. Reputedly, it was a station on the Underground Railroad.
Former carriage house behind the house.
_______ 
Ruins of cobblestone building, Beechwood State Park,
Lake Road, Sodus Point.
___
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
August 31, 1952
Without Benefit of Architect
_______________
More Than Century Old Preston Farm House
Near Sodus Point Comes Alive Again
By Lilah Henry
On the Old Preston Farm about two miles west of Sodus Point along the Lake Road, is one of the finest cobblestone houses in the area. Built without benefit of architect in 1845, the house has four levels and conforms to the slope of the terrain so closely that it gives the impression of having grown out of the soil.
It stands on a rise of ground like a sentinel scanning the horizon at the spot where a stream widening into a bay joins the waters of Lake Ontario. It has stood thus for more than 100 years, with its solid front door and wide flanking windows facing the oldest road in the township, which runs across the edge of the sloping front lawn and then dips downhill to cross the stream flowing at the side of the house.
One under and seven years ago William Swales bought this land and built the present cobblestone house for his daughter, Elizabeth, who 10 years before had married John Preston Sr.
The house which Swales built, with its smoothly rounded, uniform lake stones marching in straight rows back and forth across its walls from foundation to roof line, has been known simply as the Preston house from the beginning. The stream between is designated Salmon Creek on the maps, but no such name has ever been used in Sodus. It, too, has ben Preston's Creek now for more than a century.
With the exception of about 26 years, the Preston farm and its cobblestone house have been owned by descendants of the first John Preston who came from England in 1831. Today it is back in the same family again...owned this time by Preston Arms Gaylord Jr., the great-great-grandson of the builder of the house.
The present owner, better known as Buddy Gaylord and his wife, Mary Ellen, who i is the daughter of F. Ritter Shumway of 375 Ambassador Drive in Brighton, purchased the Preston farm this spring. Almost immediately the young couple set about the gigantic task of restoring a century old house, lived in and altered more or less by four or five generations of Prestons and as many other families.
Entering the heavy front door with its wrought iron latch and knocker, the visitor finds himself in a wide central hall. At the far end of the hall are two stairways ... one leading down to the big dining room and kitchen on the ground level and the other rising a few steps to the bedrooms in the back wing of the house, before turning to rise to the second floor above the main part of the house.
Opening off the front hall to the right is a long living room with twin fireplaces and deep windows, whose casings are unusual in that they slant or flare outward at about a 30 degree angle to join the interior walls of the room. The window panes, many of which are of "wavy" glass, came from England.
As for the twin fireplaces, which the Gaylords have opened and restored, the two flues join part way up and form one chimney. This is the room in which succeeding generations of Prestons have held parties and dances. Down through the years however, this large room has been used for various purposes by different occupants. One owner used it for a combination riding room and kitchen, building a half partition or counter across the middle to separate the two areas.
Across the hall from the living room is a smaller room, which the builder must have called the parlor. The Gaylords have opened the fireplace in this room and constructed book shelves about it. The wallpaper here is an early American design showing a repeat pattern of a Puritan girl, a hunter and his dog and a young lad playing a lute.
Directly behind the parlor is what must have been a parlor bedroom, the Gaylords have made a pine paneled den. However, the fireplace in this room could not be opened for use since it is now in some way connected with the heating plant chimney. This is the only one of the fireplaces to be restored.
Up a few steps aft the end of the front hall, to the next level are bedrooms furnished attractively with canopied beds, hand quilted coverlets and authentic old chairs. On the next level, which is the second story above the main part of the house, there are still more bedrooms. Here is the mast bedroom which has been decorated around the theme of the 115-year-old red and white hand-stitched quilt on the bed.
One of the most unique features is the ground floor level at the back which contains the old fashioned kitchen with its large fireplace and brick oven at the side, where that first Elizabeth Preston, (Buddy's great-great-grandmother) baked coarse bread, pies and cookies.
The large, sunny kitchen with its Dutch door at the grade entrance and its wide west window is one of the pleasant spots in the house. This Buddy and Mary Ellen are using for their dining room.
Adjoining it is the old milk room with its one-time brick floor, which has been made into a kitchen. Cupboards in natural wood finish line two sides of this long narrow room and a window at the north end looks out over the sloping lawns to the inlet and the lake beyond. With a bit of imagination the visitor can see on ledge big pans of milk waiting to be skimmed.
Stepping directly from the kitchen into the cellar which makes up the remainder of this level, two feet thick foundation walls can be seen and the base of the exterior walls which are 18 inches through. All the original partitions in the house are masonry walls, some measuring six and others 12 inches thick.
The Gaylords are furnishing the house in keeping with the period in which it was built. Some of the original wide plank floors have been restored and the doors have wrought iron latches, many of them the originals.
Down the slope from the house towards the waters of the inlet, stands a two story cobblestone carriage house and on the bank of the creek, the remains of an old grist mill, which was operated for 100 years by a huge wooden water wheel polished smooth by the waters of Preston's Creek pouring from the flume into the mill wheel basin.
Giant locust, horse chestnut and maple tress, apparently also centenarians, cast protective shade about the house, the carriage house and the old mill. The creek, less boisterous now than it was in the early days when shallow draft Canadian boats docked at the old mill to load flour, still flows smoothly past the house to the lake.
And thus old Preston house begins its second century with an air of pleased contentment at sheltering once again a descendant of that first John Preston.
 |
Another Swales house at 6543 Lake Road, Sodus.
5502 South Geneva Road, east side near intersection with School Road in 1970s.
Residence at 6563 North Geneva Road is barely recognizable
as a cobblestone house.
6242 North Geneva Road
6387 North Geneva Road
6644 North Geneva Road in 1970s
Robert Roudabush photo
5821 Buerman Road
United Methodist Church, 8575 Ridge Road, Alton. The steeple is
a later addition - a touch of Romanesque style while the church
itself is Greek Revival. Lintels above windows are of wood.
_____
Alton Methodist Church Has Long History
By Arch Merrill
(Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, January 13, 1963)
Back of the old cobblestone meetinghouse that stands on Route 104 in Alton is
story of patient, painstaking labor on the part of its founders.
In the middle of the 19th century, so the story goes, men of the congregation carefully gathered cobblestones from Lake Ontario's shores in bushel baskets, which were loaded on stone-boats and hauled by oxen to the church site. In 1851 the stone church was completed.
It is now Alton Methodist Church but it began life in 1842 as the Christian Church of Alton. The principal organizer of the society was the Rev. Amasa Stanton; the first deacons were John Kelly and John Baker and the first clerk was George Gould. When the cobblestone church was built, the trustees were John G. Kelly, Frederick Utter and William R.K. Hone.
Around 1880 the church was taken over b y the Methodist Protestant denomination, an affiliation it retained until merger with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1939.
Its Pastor since June 1959 has been the Rev. Victor L. Smith, who also serves the Methodist Church at Sodus Point where he resides. A graduate of Houghton College and Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N.J., he previously previously held Methodist pastorates at McGraw and Lodi.
His predecessors have included the Rev. F. M. Purdy, the Rev. Henry M. Becker, the Rev. David Short, the Rev. L.J. Reed, the Rev. Alden Allen, the Rev. J.C. Walden, the Rev. Floyd C. Rogers and the Rev. Fay A. Wideman, who served from 1945 to 1959, the longest tenure of any pastor. During his pastorate an elaborate centennial observance of the church was held in 1951.
Mrs. Dayton Pitcher, now 82, has been attending Alton church since the age of six, and for more than 50 years was its organist and for many years taught its Sunday School. Other long-time members are Samuel VanderPool of Sodus who joined in 1905 and Mrs. Agnes Raymoor of Alton in 1906. The present membership of the society is 150.
This distinctive 112-year-old house of worship in the pleasant Wayne County fruit country is a tribute to the craftsmanship of the cobblestone masons, those artisans of many years ago.
Abandoned cobblestone house, 6020 Shaker Road, Alton. It is on the east side of the road and is owned by Van DeWalle Fruit Farm.
Same house as it appeared in the 1970s.
Photo by Robert Roudabush
District 22, Pulver school house at 6343 Kelly Road
7383 State Street, Sodus
Smoke house at 4917 Route 88
6507 Route 14, west side, near Sodus Point
5351 South Geneva Road
5577 South Geneva Road
Barn behind the house, west side of road.
Date stone on barn "J. F. Proseus 1849"
5893 South Geneva Road
5256 Route 14
5584 Main St., Sodus Center
5549 Main St., Sodus Center
5539 Main St., Sodus Center
6813 Maple Ave.
5893 South Geneva Road
Practically hidden from view is the cobblestone attachment to the wooden frame house at 5502 South Geneva Road just north of the intersection with Brick Church Road. Over the years it was owned by the Walhizer and Cornwall families. It is
constructed of multi-colored field stones. The wooden frame house was a later addition. As a note, there was once a cobblestone house on the west side of South Geneva Road near the intersection of Stell Road now gone.
5256 Route 14
5584 Main St., Sodus Center
5549 Main St., Sodus Center
5539 Main St., Sodus Center
6813 Maple Ave.
7851 Ridge Road, north side, Wallington. House known as the Walling Cobblestone Tavern (old Route 104) in the hamlet of Wallington, is a heavily modified Neo Classical style cobblestone building erected about 1834. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
August 25, 1929
Early Tavern Loses Its Romance
But Not Comfort as Modern Home
______
Stage Coach Once Rattled to Door of Turnpike House
Where Weary Travelers Rested or Made Merry:
Remodeled, It Shelters 20th Century Family
____
Wallington, Aug. 24. - The days of stagecoaches and quaint-looking taverns where many years ago travelers along the main turnpike between Eastern and Western New York made merry over the flowing bowl as the village fiddler played "Money Musk," "Pop Goes the Weasel" and other old-tome airs are recalled in an old cobblestone house standing close to the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks here.
The Wallington Tavern, for as such it was known in stagecoach days, was built entirely of cobblestones in 1834 by William Walling, the village's honored sage. Shortly afterward the tavern became known as the halfway house between Oswego and Rochester. Here coach horses either rested or were exchanged and passengers whiled away the hours in rollicking pastime. Stories of merry holiday parties, especially around Christmas time, are still narrated and it is said that the jovial landlord spared neither the best of his wine cellar nor the most appetizing which his larder afforded to give his guests a welcome would insure their early return.
Many years ago a traveler stopped at the tavern to rest and refresh himself, according to a story which is still told in this village. He entered the tavern through swinging doors over which appeared the boldly painted sign: "Beer." After he had remained in the taproom for some time, he was struck with a blunt instrument by another guest and killed. The motive may have been robbery or revenge. That point has never been made clear in the narrative. After he was killed the body was taken to strip of woods near the village, a shallow grave dug and the body thrown into it.
Years later, his remains were accidentally unearthed, but his identity never was established definitely. Above the present front of the once old tavern, now an attractive dwelling owned and occupied by Charles E. Whiting, the marble stone sign bearing the words "William Walling, 1834," is sill plainly visible. Walling conducted the tavern, which he later called the Wallington Hotel, for many years, and its ownership subsequently changed several times until the Town of Sodus went dry under the local option law and eventually Gabriel Ackerman, the last proprietor, barred the doors.
New Family Home
With the coming of the automobile and interurban bus lines, this famous old landmark has been converted into an attractive and comfortable home by its present owner. There are other cobblestone buildings in this vicinity. Some of them are old, while a few of them existed when a war between the United Stages and Mexico never was dreamed of by early residents of the northern tier of Wayne County. The passing of the stagecoach has left many reminders of those romantic days in this section, but the old Walling Tavern will probably be known a long time hence as the popular rendezvous of weary but fun-loving travelers close to a century ago between the "Lake City" and the "Flower City."
View of the same structure in the 19th Century, looking east, showing modifications over the years. The current porch was added in the 1920s. Pole at left is a grade crossing warning sign for the Northern Central Railroad.
Cobblestone schoolhouse, 5663 Lake Road, Wallington was placed is on the National Register in 1994.
6172 Ridge Road, Sodus
6211 Route 88
6172 Ridge Road
Walworth
Evangelical United Brethren Church, 3960 West Walworth Road, built 1856
Cobblestone schoolhouse, 2677 Smith Hill Road at the corner of Townline Road.
4090 Walworth-Ontario Road. Date stone says “M. Padley 1844”.
2209 Walworth-Penfield Road
2203 Walworth-Penfield Road
2188 Walworth-Penfield Road
4625 Lewis Road, built 1835
Williamson
7127 Townline Road
This cobblestone house at 4051 West Main Street (Ridge Road) ,Williamson, built in 1838 as the home of Dr. Josiah Bennett, who died in 1850; later Dr. Westel Willoughby Ward, who had his office nearby. About 1931 the house became a gas station. In 2019 it was close to being a pile of rubble..
Same location in 1940s. In a brief interview published in the Williamson Sun on December 1, 1948, Ed Ver How said, “I’ve laid up a few cobblestones, but I don’t know anything about it!” He said he had never seen a real cobblestone mason a work, but at the request of the owner, head had constructed the cobblestone peak on the local Cobblestone Service Station by simply following the pattern of the main building.
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Evangelical United Brethren Church, 3960 West Walworth Road, built 1856
Cobblestone schoolhouse, 2677 Smith Hill Road at the corner of Townline Road.
2427 Smith Hill Road
2209 Walworth-Penfield Road
2203 Walworth-Penfield Road
2188 Walworth-Penfield Road
3353 Daansen Road
Cobblestone smoke house, 3973 Canandaigua Road
3355 Autumnwood (formerly Gananda Parkway)
Cobblestone smoke house, 3973 Canandaigua Road
3355 Autumnwood (formerly Gananda Parkway)
Williamson
Williamson Sun
November 4, 1948
SUN SPOTS
By LILAH HENRY
The country side bordering the Ridge Road, (or in present day parlance, Route 104), might well be called the “Land of the Cobblestone Houses.” There are more cobblestone houses along this wave-built Ridge Road, for some 30 miles or more both east and west of Rochester, than along any other highway in America.
Th ingenious technique of building cobblestone houses has virtually become a lost art since the Civil War. It was 123 years ago that the pioneers of the Ontario Lake plain began using small round, elliptical stones washed smooth by the waves and weather, for building churches, schools, homes and barns.
The yellowed pages of old records and diaries traced with faintly legible ink, tell how whole families would spend days and days of painstaking back breaking labor in searching for these cobblestones of just the right shape and color, with which to build their houses and public buildings. At that time the stones could be found in the fields along the Ridge where glacial waters had washed them up. These cobblestones, we are told were loaded into ox-drawn wagons to be transported to the site of the proposed building. One account reports that it took 75 loads to build a house!
After the stones had been gathered, there would often be a “grading bee” at which the whole community would gather to sort out the cobblestones of just the right size and shape, by the simple expedient of passing each individual cobblestone through an iron ring of the approved size, or in other cases through holes in a board. Those which passed through easily, yet almost completely filled the ring or the hole in doing so, were placed in a pile ready for the masons, while the others were discarded, or used for other purposes.
The art of setting these small stones in masonry in perfect rows, was jealously guarded by the few men who practiced and perfected the art in this area. We are told that some of them even refused to let anyone watch them as they worked, with the result that the secret of cobblestone masonry seems to have died with them.
The process of building a cobblestone structure seems to have been a long one. The masons, it seems, would work on two or buildings at a time, laying a row on one building and then, while thatg was drying, laying a row on a second building and so on. At this age it comes took two and three yeas to build a house! For their labors the cobblestone artists received a dollar and a half a day. (Today’s masons receive that much or more for an hour’s work!)
In the Williamson township along there is a generous shrinking of cobblestone buildings still standing as sturdy and strong as the day they were built. Among the first of the cobblestone structures to be built in Williamson was the old Methodist church which was erected about a century and a quarter ago near the Ridge Chapel. The church is still standing today, although it is now used as a dwelling. The cobblestone church which was erected at East Williamson is no longer in existence, but the First Baptist church of Williamson which is a cobblestone structure, is still in use today after more than a hundred years. Cobblestone dwellings are to be found on nearly every road in the township, of which the most famous is the Captain Throop house at Pultneyville built by the famous Lake Captain by that name.
Although the country side bordering the Ridge is often spoken of as the blossom country, still it is also the land of cobblestone houses and will remain so for many years to come.
____
The two-story cobblestone building, below, known as “The Beehive” once stood on the north side of East Main Street in the village of Williamson on the site of what was later the Hart Store building and later Gallo's Store, 4119 Main St. It was called that because it was always a “beehive of activity.” It housed a flour mill, undertaking establishment, flour mill and dried apple packing plant. Families lived on the scone floor. Its was torn down in the mid 1900s by Isaac Moon, Jacob Ver How and M. O. Engleson while preparing to build the Moorman-Ver How block, later the Hart block - From article, “The Beehive and the Band Stand,” Williamson Sentinel, August 24, 1950. It is believed the building was demolished about 1915.
Main Street in Williamson was dirt when this old photo was taken in the early 1900s. Standing in the box of the wagon and overflowing into the next wagon are about 23 men and women who worked at The Beehive packing dried apples in M. O. Engleson’s packing plant. He purchased apples from local farmers, dried them and shipped them out. Posed on the step of the nearest wagon, with his foot on top of the wagon wheel in the stance of a victorious lion hunter is the late Levi Cunningham, the father of Frank Cunningham of Wayne Street. Just back of him is Cornelius Moorman of Lake Avenue, wearing a dark cap and white shirt; the late John Boekhout, wearing a busy mustache and a pair of overalls, and the last M. O. Engleson in dark top coat and hat. Among the women on the wagon seats and standing high up behind the seats are Mfrs. DePortal Nye, Ophelia Bruzee, Mrs. Rob Morgan, Mrs. Chauncey Smith and Mrs. Isaac Brooks; Dan Giebel’s sister, Sarah, Nellie Paslow, (Mrs. John De Frine); and Minnie Pool. From article, “The Beehive and the Band Stand,” Williamson Sentinel, August 24, 1950. David Contant had a meat market here in 1911.
Williamson Town Historian
This house at 4184 Washington St., Pultneyville, was built 1832 by stone mason Washington Throop for his brother Captain Horatio Nelson Throop, a noted lake captain and steamboat magnate. It was completed in time for the marriage of Captain Throop to Mary F. Ledyard. Quoins, lentils and front door surround with transom window are red sandstone. The house features a wide frieze and crescent windows in the gable ends. Large cobbles were used which is unusual since the house is near the shore of Lake Ontario were lake cobbles were plentiful. Formerly a bed and breakfast. (Below, same house in 1877).
Aaron Brewer's blacksmith shop at the end of Jay Street in 1902. That area has long since eroded away into Lake Ontario.
Another view of the blacksmith shop, courtesy of Perry Howland, Williamson town historian
Aaron Brewer's blacksmith shop at the end of Jay Street in 1902. That area has long since eroded away into Lake Ontario.
Another view of the blacksmith shop, courtesy of Perry Howland, Williamson town historian
Brothers Aaron and Cornelius Brewer operated this blacksmith shop at the foot of Jay Street and employed three to four men. Brewer lived at the corner of Washington and Jay streets in Pultneyville. His blacksmith shop was across from his home. He later sold out and moved to a farm near East Williamson.He committed suicide on March 14, 1899 at the age of 70. He adjusted a rope around his neck and then shot himself in the head with a revolver.
The point of land where the shop stood was gradually worn away by the action of the waves, until the water began to undermine the foundations of the building. As a result it cracked and sagged and finally had to be demolished. David Benedict was the last blacksmith to use the building. There was space enough between the building and the lake for a roadway for a team of horses. There was an outside flight of steps on the east side of the building.
Old timers recalled the big mill stone in the front yard, where the blacksmith would lay a wagon wheel, while he hammered the red hot iron tire into position on the felly, after heating it in the forge. The ringing of the strokes against the iron tires was as much of the sounds of the village as the pounding waves of the lake and rattling of anchor chains of ships.
This old mill stone originally came from the grist mill which stood near the bridge in Pultneyville. Later it was on the terrace of the former of a house at the corner of Jay and Washington streets.
3653 Ridge Road Photo by Gene Bavis
Williamson Sun
July 28, 1949
118 Year Old Homestead
To Change Hands Here
An old cobblestone homestead which has been in the same family for four generations is about to be sold. This will be the first time that the house has been offered for sale since it has been in the Britton family or its descendants ever since it was built back in 1833 when cobblestone architecture was popular in this area.
It was 118 years ago Richard Britton and his wife, Ann, bride of only two years, left their naive England to undertake a seven week voyage across the Atlantic, at the end of which they sailed down the St. Lawrence River into Lake Ontario and landed at Pultneyville.
Almost immediately this first Britton, who according to “Landmarks of Wayne County” was a veterinary surgeon and farmer, purchased a tract of land just west of the village of Williamson on the Ridge and built there one of the early cobblestone houses in this area.
To Richard and his wife was born a son Joseph in the fall of 1833, to whom in his 28th year the father deeded the cobblestone homestead and its surrounding farm lands. Joseph, is in turn, had a daughter, Carrie M., who was born, lived most of her life and died in the old homestead. It is her son, Howard Santee, who is the present owner of the old place.
Howard Santee, who, of course, is the great grandson of the original Britton, now plans to dispose of the old homestead, which will be the first time in 118 years that the property has changed hands. It was originally purchased from Sir John L. Johnstone of England through Joseph Fellows, an early land agent.
The Wayne County Historical Society and Museum at Lyons will benefit by the selling of the old Britton place, in that the great grandson of the builder of the homestead, has presented to the Museum his mother’s (Mrs. Santee’s) beautiful ivory faille wedding dress, complete with veil and slippers, which she wore on here wedding day, February 18, 1892 when she was married from the old cobblestone homestead. The present owner also gave the Museum the suit in which his father was married and a most unusual pair of honeycomb pattern glass communion cups which were used in the old Wesleyan Church of Williamson where the Britton family worshipped. (Old timers of the Williamson area will remember that this old Wesleyan church building is now the West Main Street home of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Young.)
The old Britton home contains many antique pieces of furniture, some of which came from England. These and the tall grandfather clock, which has even in the family for many years, the great grandson will keep in the family,
3424 Ridge Road. Originally First Methodist Church of Williamson.
Date stone:”Ridge Chapel 1839”.
6405 Salmon Creek Road built by C.B. Adams, 1850.
“C.B. Adams, 1850”
6520 Townline Road. Built by J.R. Willard, 1848.
7127 Townline Road
This cobblestone house at 4051 West Main Street (Ridge Road) ,Williamson, built in 1838 as the home of Dr. Josiah Bennett, who died in 1850; later Dr. Westel Willoughby Ward, who had his office nearby. About 1931 the house became a gas station. In 2019 it was close to being a pile of rubble..
Photo taken in 1920s shows Dr. Ward and his wife, Mary.
Courtesy of Williamson town historian
Same location in 1940s. In a brief interview published in the Williamson Sun on December 1, 1948, Ed Ver How said, “I’ve laid up a few cobblestones, but I don’t know anything about it!” He said he had never seen a real cobblestone mason a work, but at the request of the owner, head had constructed the cobblestone peak on the local Cobblestone Service Station by simply following the pattern of the main building.
Demonstrating with pencil and paper, he showed how the little egg shaped stones were laid in rows with lines of mortar above and below as well as between the individual stones, so that they would protrude a bit to give that characteristic cobblestone texture. The masons in the old days must have had a special to to do that with, he said. “Just how they laid the stones all so perfectly, I don’t know! Of course the cobblestones were just used as facing, with the main part of the wall behind them constructed of common field stones and mortar.”
A subsequent scrutiny of the facade of the cobblestone service station on West Main Street, one could not tell the difference between what was done a century before and what Mr. Ver How had added.
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
February 13, 1953
A Century Old Landmark
An old cobblestone farm house on the Ridge Road west of the village, is being restored. The "old Adams house," as it is called, has stood with its shoulder toward the Ridge since Zachary Taylor was president.
It has seen the Ridge Road change from a dusty trail to a busy modern highway and has watched surrounding woodlands and muck swamps change to productive farm lands.
The narrow end wall which faces the Ridge is made up with smooth cobblestones of uniform size, while the two side walls which extend back quite a distance are fashioned of cobblestones of a slightly larger size. The thresholds are huge slabs of gray stone. The second story windows under the sloping eaves are the small rectangular grill windows usually seen in cobblestone houses.
A little over a year ago this house passed out of the hands of the Adams family, afer being owned by it for well over 100 years. The new owners, Mr. and Mrs. Louis G. Clemens, who are now deep n the process of restoring the house.
Clemens, a former tin can manufacturer, has retired twice ... once in 1945 after which he went back to work again after a few months of leisure time, and again in 1952 after which he bought the 92-acre Adams farm and began seriously to learn to be a farmer, and to remodel the cobblestone house.
Two form front rooms have now been converted into a large sunny living room, dominated by a stone fireplace, whose attractive and rather unusual stones were picked up on the farm by the masons to lend a variety to the stonework.
Each window has a deep ledge and most of the windows have been restored with 13 lanes in the too sash and eight in the lower sash.
Huge square hand-hewn beams are built into the house and here and there hand-forged square headed nails are to be found. All these will remain to add to the beauty and sturdiness of the old house, although much of the old-time lath and plaster has been been removed from the interior walls and replaced by modern lath and plaster. Thus another Williamson landmark is being preserved for generations to come.
4965 Main Street, East Williamson
4535 Ridge Road
First Baptist Church, 4212 Ridge Road. Built 1843.
5621 Ridge Chapel Road
5875 Eddy Ridge Road. Cobblestone house with wooden frame
house built as later addition.
house built as later addition.
5811 Eddy Ridge Road. Stone house with cobblestone
kitchen.
3520 Eddy Road
6554 Salmon Creek Road
6934 Bear Swamp Road
7076 Bear Swamp Road
3530 Shephard Road. Built 1834
4442 Jersey Road
5149 Middle Road
This attractive cobblestone house at 4100 Lake Road just west of Pultneyville was built in 1850 for Zimri Waters by a mason named Cottrell and Rufus Moses, a carpenter. The front wall is constructed of lake washed stones.
Schoolhouse, 4092 Lake Road, Pultneyville, built 1845
7212 Fisher Road in the 1970s, now gone.
Robert Roudabush photo
Wolcott
6583 Route 104A, Red Creek
6583 Route 104A, Red Creek, in 1955.
_______
7212 Fisher Road in the 1970s, now gone.
Robert Roudabush photo
Wolcott
This cobblestone house once stood at the corner of Auburn and Oswego streets in the village of Wolcott. It was built in 1833-4 by Levi Smith Sr., an early settler in the area. A small store was located in the west end. It burned February 2, 1909.
Lakeshore News, Wolcott, N.Y.
August 30, 1906
History of a Cobblestone House
A local correspondent seems to have looked up the history of Ashael Foster’s cobblestone house, Wolcott, which is about to be taken down. He says:
“The land on which this house stands was part of a tract of 500 acres, granted to Jonathan Melvin, in 1806. In 1820, when Melvin suffered financial reverses, that option of the tract lying east of Mill Creek was sold to Levi Smith. At that time a tavern known as the White Hotel has been erected in Wolcott and was notorious and was notorious for the sale of intoxicants.
“Smith erected on his purchase, directly across the road from the White Hotel, the stone house, which he proposed to run as a “cold water” tavern. This was in 1833. The enterprise school failed and Mr. Smith changed it into a store, which he conducted until about 1841 or ’42, when it was converted into a dwelling and has ever since retained its present appearance.”
Lake Shore News
Wolcott, N.Y.,
September 6, 1906
Furnace Village School House
A correspondent writing of the Furnace village schoolhouse says no one knows who built it. It was built by Levi Smith, the same man who built the Foster cobblestone house in Wolcott. We have this on the authority of Wesley Hendrick, of Sterling Valley, who lived there when the school house was built.
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Tuesday, August 28, 1906
Will Raze an Old Wolcott Landmark
____
Cobblestone Building Erected by Levi Smith
____
Wolcott, Aug. 27 - One of the few remaining dwellings erected here in the early days is about to be removed. The old cobblestone building at the top of Mill hill, which as in turn done duty as tavern, store and dwelling, has begun to fall apart and will soon be taken down. For more than a year it has not been considered safe and now a long section of wall has caved in.
The land on which this house stands was part of a tract of 500 acres, lying in the center of what is now the village of Wolcott, which was granted to Jonathan Milvin Sr., in 1806. In 1839, when Milvin suffered financial reverses, that portion of the tract lying east of Mill creek was sold to Levi Smith. At that time a tavern known as the White Hotel had been erected in Wolcott and was notorious for its sale of intoxicants.
Smith erected on his purchase, directly across the road from the White Hotel, the present stone house which he proposed to run as a “cold water” tavern. This was in 1833. The enterprise soon failed and Mr. Smith changed it into a store, which he conducted until about 1841 or ’42, when it was converted into a dwelling and has ever since retained its present appearance.
Syracuse Post-Standard
Tuesday, February 9. 1909
Old Landmark Laid in Ruins
Old Landmark Laid in Ruins
___
Cobblestone House at Wolcott
Succumbs to the Elements
___
WOLCOTT, Feb. 2. - The recent cold weather has proved too severe for one of the oldest landmarks of Wayne county and the old cobblestone house at the top of Mill hill in Wolcott village has become a heaped mass of stones and mortar. The building has served in turn as a tavern, a store and a dwelling, being finally vacated about five years ago by the late Mrs. Kimplin.
The building was erected by Levi Smith, one of the pioneer settlers of Wolcott, in 1833. Mr. Smith bought the land on which it stood from Johnston Melvin, being a part of a 500-acre tract which was granted to Melvin by the government in 1804. This parcel of land is now the northern part of Wolcott village.
It was built by Smith for a "cold water" tavern. Mr. Smith's enterprise failed and he turned the building into a country variety store, for which purpose it served many years. Later when the mercantile establishments of the village became located on the opposite side of Wolcott creek the building was converted into a dwelling and has since retained that appearance.
The cobblestones with which the wall was faced were carefully selected along the lake shore. They gave the appearance of being almost uniform in size and were laid with extreme regularity.
_____
6583 Route 104A, Red Creek
6583 Route 104A, Red Creek, in 1955.
_______
Hammondsport Herald
September 7, 1904
The cobblestone school at Furnace village, near Wolcott, Wayne county, built 85 years ago is being torn down. The desks are being made into souvenirs and being sold.
No comments:
Post a Comment