4 sites will go into Sandstone Hall of Fame on Oct. 22

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 October 2015 at 12:00 am

File photo by Tom Rivers – St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Medina was one of the inductees in the first class for the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame in 2013. A new class with four sites will be inducted on Oct. 22 and includes two buildings in Orleans County.

MEDINA – Four new magnificent structures will be inducted in the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame on Oct. 22.

The Medina Sandstone Society welcomes the public to the induction ceremony from 1 to 3 p.m. in City Hall, 600 Main St.

The Sandstone Society created the Hall of Fame in 2013 and has inducted 10 sites in the first two years. Another four will be inducted on Oct. 22. The new class includes two sites in Orleans County and two buildings in Buffalo, said Don Colquhoun, a member of the Hall of Fame Committee.

“All four are terrific examples of Medina Sandstone and I think the public will be pleased,” Colquhoun said this morning.

The 68-foot-high tower in Mount Albion, a Civil War Memorial, was inducted in the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame in 2014.

The Sandstone Society wants to highlight the long-term stewardship with many of the buildings, and Herculean restoration efforts for many of the sites that likely would have been demolished.

The first class in 2013 included six structures: Pullman Memorial Universalist Church in Albion, St. Mary Catholic Church in Medina, the Medina Armory (now Orleans County YMCA), the Richardson Olmsted Complex in Buffalo, St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo, and Saint Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester.

The following were inducted in the Hall of Fame’s second class: Delaware-Asbury Church (Babeville) in Buffalo, St. Louis Church in Buffalo, Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Mount Albion Cemetery, and St. Peter Cathedral in Erie, Pa.

For more on the Sandstone Society and its Hall of Fame, click here.