ALBION – Last week the Albion Department of Public Works installed two hitching posts and a carriage step next to the Presbyterian Church and a village parking lot on Main Street. On Thursday the DPW put up an interpretive panel that explains the historical relics.

Albion and Gaines have many of these artifacts from horse-and-buggy days. The stand up in front lawns on many side streets and along Ridge Road. (Medina also has many but it looks like Albion and the 14411 area can claim to be king of hitching posts and carriage steps.)

I helped facilitate this project with the Albion Main Street Alliance. Local residents pitched in and bought the two hitching posts – as well as two others – from Fred Pilon in Albion. The carriage step was donated by the Albion Free Methodist Church. The step went with a next-door house that was leveled about five years ago.

Another one of the hitching posts is planned for downtown in a sidewalk by Krantz Furniture. I am on the agenda for Wednesday’s County Legislature meeting at 3:35 p.m. I’m going to ask the group to accept the other hitching post and put it in the courthouse lawn next to the historical marker about a pioneer resident. That marker was installed last year and recognizes the pioneer family who built a log cabin where the County Clerk’s Building now stands.

The interpretive panel was designed by The Lake Country Pennysaver in Albion and manufactured by Takeform Architectural Graphics in Medina. A Main Street grant paid for the panel.

There is another one about Downtown Albion and the community’s historic districts that should be installed soon. That one will be in Waterman Park about a half block south of the canal.

Photos by Tom Rivers – Four new bike racks, with a tugboat theme, were added to downtown Albion today.

The DPW installed two hitching posts and the foundation for an interpretive panel that explains the relics from the horse and buggy era.

ALBION – It was an interesting day for the Albion Department of Public Works. The DPW installed new bike racks with a tugboat theme in the downtown, just in time for the 500 cyclists who will be passing through Albion on Monday morning as part of the “Cycling the Erie Canal” event.

The bike racks are shiny and new. They were paid for with a Main Street grant for street-scape improvements.

The DPW also installed two hitching posts. Those sandstone relics were actually property markers from more than a century ago. A local blacksmith, George Borrelli, made rings and metal pins for the hitching posts.

Tony Russo, a stone mason from Medina, drilled holes in the posts and poured in lead to secure the rings. There are four altogether with one planned for the courthouse lawn and another headed for the sidewalk in front of Krantz Furniture.

Albion Main Street Alliance facilitated the hitching post project, raising the money and finding the specialists skilled in blacksmith and stone work.

The two hitching posts put in today are next to the Presbyterian Church by the village parking lot. That setup will also include a carriage step and interpretive panel.

Photos by Tom Rivers – The hitching posts were originally property markers. A blacksmith fashioned new pins and rings, and a stone mason put them in after drilling holes and pouring lead.

ALBION – Four hitching posts arrived in the Albion Department of Public Works garage today. It’s not the normal shipment for the DPW.

Tony Russo, a stone mason from Medina, has been working on these posts, which are to be set along Main Street in Albion.

One is planned for the Courthouse lawn, two others in the grass by the village parking lot next to the Presbyterian Church, and hopefully the other in the sidewalk by Krantz Furniture (the state Department of Transportation needs to sign off on that).

The posts are from more than a century ago. They were originally property markers. They didn’t have rings, a prominent feature of the old hitching posts.

Dusty DeCarlo moves the hitching posts from a truck to the DPW garage.

I heard that Fred Pilon, an Albion contractor with a stockpile of Medina sandstone relics, had these old posts. Several community members pitched our money together and bought the four from Pilon in a project facilitated by the Albion Main Street Alliance.

But we didn’t just want four posts without the rings. We would need new rings made. Then we wanted holes to be drilled into the posts. The rings (and the pins holding the rings) would then be set in lead.

We wanted this project to highlight all of the hitching posts and carriage steps in the Albion area. I think there are ore of these in the 14411 zip code than anywhere else. Having some on Main Street would raise awareness for the all of the others on the side streets, on Ridge Road and in the cemeteries.

The two by the village lot will include an interpretive panel that explains the original purpose behind the hitching posts and carriage steps, artifacts from the horse and buggy era. We’ll also have a carriage step that was donated.

George Borrelli works on creating a ring made out of steel.

George Borrelli, a blacksmith, created new rings at his shop in Carlton. He also made the pins that are set into the hole. To bend the shape the steel into a ring, Borrelli heated the material to 1,600 degrees.

We still needed a stone mason skilled in sandstone. There aren’t a lot of these people around these days. Tony Russo, owner of Romancing the Stone, is from a family of stone workers. His grandfather Joseph Russo was a curb setter and owner of Medina Stone. Tony’s father Joseph Russo owned P & J Construction.

Tony Russo loosens the straps that secured two of the four hitching posts he delivered today to the Albion Department of Public Works.

Russo experimented with sandstone blocks in drilling into the posts. He consulted with friends at Bernz-O-Matic about heating the pin and the lead in the hole. A micro-torch with its pencil-fine flame worked perfectly in heating the lead and the metal in the narrow hole.

Russo and the Albion folks working on this project wanted to try to recreate the look from more than a century ago. We didn’t want epoxy to hold in the ring. Russo said he is thrilled with how well the four turned out.

He marveled at the detail work in the old hitching posts, the recessed edges and textured finishes.

“The design alone had to be time-consuming,” he said.

This project not only returns historic artifacts to Main Street, but celebrates the quarrymen from more than a century ago. We didn’t want to see some of their work lost. We wanted it out in the public in prominent locations.

I’d like to see Holley and Medina add some of these to their historic downtowns. If anyone has an unwanted hitching post in their garage or one they want to give to a public project, send me an email at tom@orleanshub.com.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Dave Conlon sits on a historic carriage step that he said he was pressured to move out of the right of way by state Department of Transportation officials. State Assemblyman Steve Hawley says historic carriage steps and hitching posts can stay as long as homeowners sign off on taking liability for them.

ALBION – The state Department of Transportation isn’t forcing homeowners with historic hitching posts and carriage steps to remove the horse-and-buggy artifacts from the public right of way, State Assemblyman Steve Hawley said today after speaking with DOT officials.

The DOT, however, wants property owners to sign off on liability in case the hitching posts’ damage someone’s property or injure a person.

Hawley checked with the DOT about the issue after an article on the Orleans Hub on Sunday detailed the Conlon family’s experience with the DOT. Dave and Grace Conlon of Albion said the DOT forced them to move a carriage step and hitching post from near the corner of Linwood Avenue and North Main Street.

Mr. Conlon, 84, said the DOT told him he needed to move it or the DOT would have the pieces moved and then bill him.

Other property owners in Medina and Le Roy have told The Orleans Hub that the DOT has pressured them to take out hitching posts and carriage steps by the road in the right of way.

Hawley said DOT officials assured him they aren’t targeting the artifacts.

“They are not being told they have to remove them nor does the DOT plan to remove them,” Hawley said.

However, the DOT wants it in writing that property owners will assume liability for the artifacts in case there is an accident or incident, Hawley said.

The assemblyman said he wants the posts and steps to stay put. He said they are part of the historical fabric of the communities.

“It is obvious from my point of view and everyone else’s that they are a historic marking from years past,” he said.

‘We were very hurt about it. We still are.’ – Grace Conlon

Photos by Tom Rivers – The state Department of Transportation forced Dave and Grace Conlon to remove this carriage step and hitching post, which survived for more than a century at the corner of North Main Street and Linwood Avenue in Albion. The community has many hitching posts and carriage steps on village side streets, but the Conlons had two of the few on a public right-of-way on a state road in Albion. This photo was taken late last year.

Dave Conlon sits on a carriage step that he had to remove from near Main Street last Wednesday. Conlon and his son used a tractor to move the historic step back by a tree in his front yard.

ALBION – For 45 years, Dave and Grace Conlon enjoyed looking out their window facing Main Street and watching children sit or stand on a carriage step by the road.

The Conlons planted flowers by it. They carefully mowed the grass around a companion hitching post.

“They were a showpiece for our property,” said Mr. Conlon, 84.

Last year the Conlons received a letter from the state Department of Transportation, telling them the carriage step and hitching post were a hazard to motorists. The historical artifacts from the horse-and-buggy era would need to be moved off the public right of way, the DOT advised.

The Conlons called the DOT. They didn’t understand why they had to move it, given that the public right of way on North Main Street is lined with trees and telephone poles – other “hazards.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” said Conlon, a Kodak retiree who still works part-time as a custodian for Five Star Bank.

The Conlons received the first letter in the spring 2012. Another letter followed, advising them that the DOT could remove the pieces for a fee.

The Conlons fretted the DOT might show up one day and remove the carriage step and hitching post, and haul them away. Two weeks ago the DOT called, again pressing the issue.

On Wednesday, Conlon and his son Randy dug up the hitching post and used a tractor to haul it back by the house. They put it near a garden. It’s not very visible from the road, but the Conlons can see it looking out of their kitchen window.

The carriage step was a bear to move. Conlon cracked sidewalk panels leading to his house from the weight of the tractor. He tore up part of his lawn, but he was able to move it by a maple tree in his front yard.

The Conlons are angry and sad about the whole situation.

Dave and Grace Conlon also had to move this hitching post, which stood by Main Street for about a century. They put it back in their garden.

A mounting block sits by the side of the road on West Center Street in Medina. Hopefully its days aren’t numbered.

“We were very hurt about it,” Mrs. Conlon said. “We still are.”

I think it’s crummy that the DOT has launched an attack on the few hitching posts, carriage steps and mounting blocks that remain in the public right of way on state roads. Medina and Le Roy residents also have been sent warning letters from the DOT, advising the historical pieces need to be moved.

There are a lot of these artifacts in old quarrying towns, where residents had access to great building materials – sandstone in Orleans County and limestone in Le Roy.

They few that have endured – a century after horse-and-buggies were replaced by the automobile – should be considered treasures, part of the historical fabric of the community.

I have counted about 40 of the hitching posts in Albion and Gaines, which may be more survivors than anywhere in the world. (Until proven wrong, I’ll make the claim that 14411 is the historic hitching post capitol of the world.)

There are a lot of hitching posts but only a few carriage steps around. Most of these artifacts are on side streets. They were stripped from along the state roads long ago.

In Albion, the Albion Main Street Alliance has been working with the village to put four hitching posts back on Main Street in the downtown. They would be set back far enough to be off the state right of way, although we are asking the DOT to let us put one back in a downtown sidewalk. We hope to have these installed in the next month.

Some of us see the hitching posts and carriage steps as an attraction. We wanted to make a map of them. Most of them are in front of the finest historic homes in the community.

I think it’s shabby that the DOT pressured the Conlons to move their artifacts. They clearly valued and cared for the pieces.

It also hurts the Albion effort to promote these as part of the historical character of the community. We want some on Main Street, where they are more prominent. We’d like they to be by the road so they are more historically accurate, rather than moved back as lawn ornaments.

Our state legislators – Steve Hawley and George Maziarz – should intervene and make the DOT call off the dogs on the old hitching posts. These historic structures have survived every possible threat – from Mother nature, development pressure to wayward motorists. Can they now survive a government bureaucrat?

Photos by Tom Rivers – The Albion and Gaines area in particular has many historic sandstone hitching posts. The Lamonts on Densmore Road have a cast-iron one by their driveway on Densmore Road in Gaines.

Roger and Ingrid Lamont pose for a photo with two of their grandsons, Alex, left, and Aaron.

ALBION – Roger Lamont saw it in a barn, part of a collection of old relics that had been abandoned.

He knew it should be displayed, returned to the landscape.

A decade ago he put a cast-iron hitching post by his driveway at his old farmhouse on Densmore Road.

“I keep everything that is old,” he said.

I’ve developed a hitching post and carriage step obsession. I was at Lamont’s house last evening for a story about two new apple varieties. I noticed the hitching post. It’s unusual around here. Most of them are made of sandstone.

The cast-iron one dates back more than a century. Lamont said it was owned by a farmer down the road. The old hitching post was left with a farm acquired by the Lamont family.

When Roger and his wife Ingrid moved in his parents’ home in 2002, Roger decided the hitching post would be a nice touch by the house.

For several years the couple operated a bed and breakfast at the site. Ingrid hung a welcome flag from the hitching post. She planted flowers around it.

The house is 100 years old this year. It includes a sandstone foundation and sandstone base for the pillars on the porch.

If you have a hitching post or carriage step story to share, send me an email at tom@orleanshub.com.