Clarendon buys old stone store for historian’s office, records storage
File photo: The Town of Clarendon is buying the former stone store building, at the corner of routes 237 and 31A.
CLARENDON – The Town of Clarendon is buying a historic building at the corner of routes 31A and 237 to use for the historian’s office and also for records storage, Town Supervisor Richard Moy said this morning.
The town has submitted an offer for $47,000 and that has been accepted by Joe and Sue Fertitta of Hilton.
The town is cramped at the current town hall and was considering an addition at $80,000 to $100,000, Moy said.
That addition would have been smaller than the 3,200-square-foot stone store building, Moy said.
He praised the Fertittas for their work the past five years in renovating the site, putting in new electric, plumbing, a furnace and many other upgrades.
“They did a fantastic job rehabbing it,” Moy said. “It made sense for us to keep it. We were short on space. We know it will be kept up.”
The building only a few years ago seemed headed for the wrecking ball when it was in disrepair and neighbors complained to the town about rodents at the site.
Other residents insisted the building was important and needed to be saved. The building goes back to the 1840s. The 3,200-square-foot building was used as a store up to 1975. It is a rare surviving example of a 19th century general store. The Landmark Society of Western New York and the town were successful about five years ago in getting the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Fertittas acquired the property and rented out the top floor as an apartment and the first floor for commercial space.
Moy said the first floor will be used by Town Historian Melissa Ierlan and the top floor will be used for records that need to be kept by the town.
