Cobblestone Museum director says designation opens up grant possibilities and benefits property owners with tax credits

Photos courtesy of Landmark Society of WNY: The cobblestone schoolhouse from 1849, left, and Cobblestone Universalist Church from 1834 are among 29 contributing buildings in the historic district in the Childs Hamlet.

CHILDS – The Childs hamlet has been nominated by Gov. Kathy Hochul to be included on the state and national registers of historic places.

The Cobblestone Museum has been working with the Landmark Society of WNY on an application for the historic designation for 19 contributing primary buildings, 10 contributing secondary structures, one contributing object as well as 12 non-contributing secondary structures and two non-contributing primary buildings. The district is at the Ridge Road and Route 98 intersection and also extends along Ridge Road that reflect the rural and commercial character of the district.

Three of buildings – the cobblestone church, cobblestone schoolhouse and the Ward House – were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993 by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The historic Childs hamlet expands the number of buildings to be recognized.

“Architectural styles seen in the nominated district reflect its long history with examples of Federal, Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, and one designed in the Craftsman style,” according to the nomination.

A National Register designation opens up grant possibilities and benefits homeowners with tax credits, said Dog Farley, the Cobblestone Museum director.

Once the designation is finalized, Farley said the museum plans to hold a community workshop to look at streetscape improvements in the hamlet.

Photo by Tom Rivers: The Landmark Society of Western New York in October 2019 unveiled its annual list of “Five to Revive,” which included the hamlet of Childs in the Town of Gaines, Orleans County. The district is home to several cobblestone buildings, Tillman’s Village Inn and other historic structures. That designation launched the effort to get the Childs hamlet recognized as a historic district.

He thanked the Landmark Society for its assistance in trying to elevate the status of the hamlet. The Landmark Society in October 2019 named the Childs hamlet to its annual list of “Five to Revive,” an annual list of historically significant sites that are need of protection and financial resources.

“The future economic potential of Childs lies in its unique historic character,” The Landmark Society stated in October 2019. “Modern planning and zoning practices that encourage sensitive new construction, along with the addition of pedestrian-oriented infrastructure and design, could help guide the hamlet’s growth and enhance its economic development.”

The Childs district includes a historic schoolhouse, the First Universalist Church, residences, a former village inn and stagecoach stop, a former blacksmith shop, and mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth century agricultural buildings such as barns.

The museum has also relocated several mid-to-late 19^th century buildings. Those buildings are non-contributing to the nominated district because they were moved to the complex outside the nominated period of significance, beginning in 1977. The buildings should therefore be reevaluated as a museum unit when their date of relocation collectively achieves 50 years of age from when the last building was moved to the campus, the Landmark Society stated in the nomination packet.

Map from Landmark Society of WNY: The district is at the Ridge Road and Route 98 intersection and also extends along Ridge Road.

The description from the governor’s office about the Childs hamlet includes:

“Childs Historic District, Orleans County – The Childs Historic District represents the critical relationship between rural and commercial that characterized the nineteenth century in New York. The hamlet of Childs developed at the intersection of two new state routes during the 1800s which later developed into major thoroughfares.

“The community’s proximity to the Erie Canal catapulted it onto the global stage in the 1820s, as Orleans County became the national center of wheat production as a result of being able to cheaply and efficiently ship wheat eastward. Suddenly, rural subsistence farmers were plugged into massive markets and quickly became cash crop farmers.

“This resulting economic stability led to an increase in building and infrastructure, and locals were able to construct buildings that reflected their wealth and prosperity. The architectural resources in this historic district collectively represent the hamlet’s commercial development due to its prominent location from 1820 until 1960.

“The district includes Federal, Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, and even one Craftsman-style building. The several Greek Revival structures built using cobblestones present a unique regional building material and method of construction.

“Taken together, these buildings retain their character-defining features and integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling while their proximity to roadways evoke a mid-nineteenth to early twentieth-century community feel. They also highlight efforts to preserve the hamlet’s architectural heritage which dates back to the 1960 founding of the Cobblestone Society.”

The brick house from the 1820s is at the southeast corner of routes 98 and 104. The site will become the Thompson-Kast Visitor Center for the museum.

The Childs hamlet is among 37 nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul. She said the sites have been recommended by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation.

“These nominations reflect generations of community building, planning, and activities that give us a glimpse into our collective past as New Yorkers,” Hochul said in a statement. “Identifying these resources and adding them to our historic registers expands our ongoing understanding of our shared history and are important reminders of the innovation, passion, and lived experiences of New Yorkers who came before us.”

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Erik Kulleseid will now review the recommendations for approval. That list will then go to the National Park Service for a review. Once approved, they are entered on the National Register.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Robert Brown, president of Lake Ontario Fruit, speaks during Thursday’s meeting of the Orleans County Planning Board.

ALBION – The Orleans County Planning Board gave its blessing to an expansion at Lake Ontario Fruit, an apple-packing business on Route 104.

The company, which packs and distributes about 1 million bushels of apples each year for more than 30 local farms, is working on a 28,070-square-foot addition of controlled atmosphere storage, a $5.5 million project that would mirror a similar expansion in 2013.

The County Planning Board recommended the Town of Gaines approve the site plan for the project and also a height variance. The building is proposed to be 36.2 feet high, just above the town limit of 35 feet. The 36.2 feet is same as other buildings on site and Lake Ontario Fruit wants to maintain that continuity.

The warehouse will also be 140 feet wide and 200 ½ feet in length. The new space is needed because many of the new apple trees that were planted in recent years are coming into maturity, with a full crop expected next fall. The new addition would allow the company pack about 220,000 more bushels, said Robert Brown, president of Lake Ontario Fruit and co-owner of Orchard Dale Fruit Co. in Waterport.

The project will disturb about 2 acres, with construction taking about 10 months. Brown told the county planners that Lake Ontario Fruit is working to upgrade its stormwater management system, which includes storm sewers and a pond behind the buildings that is designed to slowly release water into Proctor Brook. The company is working with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Town of Gaines on the stormwater management plan.

Lake Ontario Fruit has 71 employees and will add 10 more jobs as part of the controlled atmosphere storage expansion at 14234 Ridge Rd. The project was backed by the Orleans Economic Development Agency with nearly $600,000 in incentives, including sale tax abatements of $240,000 on construction and $156,000 on fixtures and equipment.

The EDA also approved a 10-year PILOT that gradually phases in the taxes on the new addition. Lake Ontario Fruit would get a 100 percent exemption or $34,496 off in property taxes the first year, and then 10 percent will be added each year until it’s at 100 percent in year 11. That PILOT will save the company $189,729 in property taxes over the 10 years. Lake Ontario Fruit also will be paying $155,233 more in taxes during than 10 years than is currently paid on the existing buildings.

Albion fire chief says not enough ambulances available to serve community, often resulting in long waits

GAINES – The Gaines Town Board approved a contract with Monroe Ambulance to provide service in the town for 2024, making Gaines the sixth of seven towns to approve the agreement. Carlton is the last of the seven and the Town Board meets this evening at 7 to vote on the contract.

File photo: Albion Fire Chief Jeremy Graham

Monroe upped the contract from $181,200 in 2023 to $300,000 next year. The agreement for 2023 would have been $200,000 but Kendall didn’t pay anything towards ambulance coverage this year.

Among the seven towns in the agreement only Gaines is seeing a decrease, down from $24,600 in 2023 to $12,030 next year.

The other six will all pay more as part of the contract. Here are the financial terms for the other six town for 2024 (with 2023 in parentheses): Albion at $155,820 ($84,400), Barre at $13,740 ($8,000), Carlton at $22,350 ($14,800), Clarendon at $25,350 ($18,800), Kendall at $17,850 ($0) and Murray at $52,860 ($30,600).

The leaders to the towns divvied up the town shares based on call volume. An Albion resident, Jason Dragon, said he believes an error was made and some of the Gaines calls were put in the town of Albion. Part of the village of Albion is also in Gaines, and Dragon said he suspects those Gaines calls in the village were mistakenly put in Albion’s numbers and is part of the reason Albion is seeing a huge increase while Gaines goes down.

“As a taxpayer in the Town of Albion I would hope Gaines would pay its fair share,” he told the Gaines Town Board.

Tyler Allport, the Gaines town supervisor, said he would ask Richard Remley, the Albion town supervisor, to verify that the village calls were properly accounted for each town.

Albion Fire Chief Jeremy Graham also spoke during the Gaines Town Board meeting on Monday and he said the current ambulance coverage is deficient for the Albion fire protection area in Albion and Gaines.

Albion firefighters are often first on the scene for an EMS call. What used to be a 5-minute wait for an ambulance to arrive and take over for more serious EMS calls has often turned into 30 minutes to an hour, Graham told the Gaines officials.

He looked at the data since April 2023 when Monroe first started as a primary ambulance provider in central Orleans. Graham said there have been 180 EMS calls, and 68 times Albion firefighters have responded because an ambulance wasn’t available nearby.

“Monroe Ambulance can’t provide us with enough ambulances,” the fire chief said. “The patients get very upset and irate with the wait.”

The $300,000 contract calls for Monroe to station an ambulance in Albion 24 hours a day, seven days a week and one in Holley for at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Monroe also will draw on ambulances in Monroe County if there is a need in Orleans County.

Allport said stationing two ambulances 24-7 in Orleans County would have cost $500,000.

Dave Bertsch of Carlton, a long-time medic with COVA ambulance, said the community is getting less service despite more cost for ambulance services. COVA closed late last year due to financial challenges. COVA did not receive any government aid from the local towns.

There often isn’t an ALS ambulance available for central Orleans, Bertsch told the Gaines officials.

“I said it last year that we’re going backwards and we’re still going backwards,” he said.

Charlie Ricci, a Carlton town councilman, asked the Gaines officials if they would be willing to partner with Carlton in a contract with Mercy EMS for ambulance services. The Gaines officials didn’t comment on that request.

Photo by Tom Rivers

GAINES – Navarra’s Farm Market and Greenhouses is in its fourth year of hosting vendors for the holiday season, and this year has 149 in four greenhouses.

Pictured from left include Janet Navarra-Salvatore, James Salvatore and Navarra’s employee Madison Nardi (as well as Hank, the dog). They welcomed customers on Saturday to Navarra’s at 3272 Eagle Harbor-Waterport Rd.

The first year Navarra’s hosted vendors in 2020 there were 16. That was followed by 67 in 2021, 96 last year and now nearly 150.

The greenhouses are open for five weekends with the creations and products from the vendors. There are two weekends left: Dec. 14-17, and Dec. 21-24 with Navarra’s open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Provided photo: Santa visited Navarra’s on Saturday. He is holding Caleb Paul Allen, son of Scott Allen and Navarra’s co-owner Amanda Mrzywka.

Mrzywka opened up the greenhouses to other vendors at craft sows and festivals in 2020 because so many of the events were cancelled that year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Mrzywka sells vegan soaps, which are made without any animal byproducts.

She said crafters were all feeling the financial strain from losing those shows in 2020.

Navarra’s has proven a good location for the vendors. They are in a heated spot, and can keep their items on location for multiple days. Navarra’s has a code system to track what is sold without the vendors having to be there all the time.

There are other attractions to the site as well. Santa visited on Saturday. There are wine tastings every Sunday with Circle B Winery from Elba.

Navarra’s also hosts classes and workshops during the holiday season.

140 attend first-time event as museum seeks more supporters for mission

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Andrew Meier, an attorney in Medina who has tackled several preservation projects, served as keynote speaker on Friday at a preservation awards celebration for the Cobblestone Society and Museum.

About 140 people attended the event at Maison Albion. Meier entitled his speech, “Preservation 101: A Brief Science Lesson.”

Meier has led the ongoing renovation of the former R. H. Newell Shirt Factory. He started that project in 2005, and continues with the work on the building from 1876. It has hotel rooms, a law office, the Shirt Factory cocktail bar, and for many years was home to 810 Meadworks.

Meier said the labor from the stone and wood artisans, and other craftsmen can’t be duplicated with new buildings, where the focus is often on speed and the lowest cost possible.

Those older buildings in the county were built with old forest trees that were 200 to 300 years old. The sites were often made of the incredibly durable Medina Sandstone, which was hauled to sites on wagons by powerful animals.

“There were no concrete trucks or cranes,” Meier said. “This was all brute force, muscle labor from men and horses,” he said.

Andrew Meier acquired the Robert H. Newell Building at 113 West Center St. in 2005, when he was 25 and starting out as an attorney. The 14,000-square-foot building for 86 years was home to the Robert H. Newell Shirt Factory, which manufactured custom-made shirts, including for many famous customers, including Winston Churchill and Bob Hope. The site was originally a hotel that opened in 1876.

Orleans County continues to benefit from the legacy of people who built for the long haul with downtown buildings, churches, residences, even cemeteries, Meier said.

Meier admitted preservation projects are often very frustrating, with unknown challenges and expenses. But he said the undertakings are well worth it. Reviving a historic site or an already-built structure is good for the earth by preserving existing materials.

“Retrofitting an existing building emits less carbon than building new,” Meier said.

Meier said the four villages in the county – Albion, Holley, Lyndonville and Medina – all have buildings from the 1800s and early 1900s that are marvels. Even the hamlets and countryside in the county feature many sites that have endured for generations.

Those buildings are tremendous feats and the residents today benefit from them, and are linked to the “giants” of the past, who put so much human capital into these buildings, Meier said.

That human energy remains stored and is ready to be unleashed, he said.

“Our built environment is waiting for that little nudge from the dreamers and risk-takers,” Meier said.

Andrew Meier speaks during Friday’s preservation awards program which was held at Maison Albion.

The community is seeing the benefit of projects in the historic buildings, from bustling restaurants in Medina, and several “boutique” hotels and small businesses in the region’s historic downtowns.

Meier said he is pleased to see so many people in his hometown of Medina take a chance on the older buildings, and give them new purpose that has been embraced by the local community, and increasingly many out-of-town visitors.

“Medina has become a different town,” he said. “There is more vibrancy, more restaurants. It would have been impossible without the buildings.”

He is thankful the county largely avoided the urban renewal movement that leveled many historic downtown sites in the 1960s and ’70s. He noted Albion has the wondrous Courthouse Square, downtown business district, and Mount Albion Cemetery with the Cobblestone Museum close by.

Holley has its Public Square which is seeing a resurgence in investment, and so is Main Street in Lyndonville. Kendall’s historic tavern has been a success in the year since it opened with new owners with a vision for the culinary arts, Meier said.

(Left) Brenda Tremblay, an Albion native and morning radio host for WXXI in Rochester, served as emcee of the dinner and celebration on Friday. She told the group, “You are surrounded by so much amazing historical stewardship.”

(Right) Matt Holland, a member of the Cobblestone Museum board of directors, urged the group to donate and support’s the museum’s mission, which includes breaking ground on a new visitors center next year.

The Thompson-Kast Visitors Center will be a new building next to an 1824 brick home that will be part of the visitors center at the intersection of routes 98 and 104.

The center will join the museum’s building inventory that includes the Cobblestone Universalist Church from 1834, Brick House (museum office) from 1836, Ward House from 1836, Peter’s Harness Shop from 1838, District No. 5 Schoolhouse from 1849, Farmers Hall from 1855, Hill’s Print Shop from the 1870s, Voting House (now used book store) from 1909, Vagg’s Blacksmith Shop from 1921-22, and the Vagg House from circa 1830s and then remodeled in the 1920s.

Doug Farley, right, is director of the Cobblestone Museum. He presents an award to Steve and Paula Nesbitt, owner of the Pine Hill School at 4757 Pine Hill Rd., Barre. They were one of six winners of preservation awards from the Cobblestone Society and Museum. The Pine Hill School was built circa 1835 of fieldstones.

The award winners also received citations from the Orleans County Legislature and State Legislature.

(Left) Tim and Catherine Cooper of Medina restored the Wash Hotel, which goes back to 1852, when the Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls Company completed the railroad through Medina. The building was recently purchased by Rollin Hellner.

(Right) Harriet Greaser and her late husband Phil restored the Presbyterian Manse at 31 East State St., Albion. The site has now been privately owned for more than 30 years. The Greasers brought the site back to grandeur.

Diana Dragan Reed’s home at 349 South Main St., Albion, was built in 1876 and took seven years to build. Reed recently moved back to her childhood home and has made several changes more reflective of its historic character.

Talis Historic Restoration employees, Ian McAnn and Dan Totten, accepted an award on behalf of Roger Hungerford for the restoration of the Bent’s Opera House.

Hungerford restored three floor of a historic Medina Sandstone building at the corner of West Center and Main streets in Medina. The building opened in 1865. It is now home to a boutique hotel with 10 rooms, an upscale restaurant and events center.

Kim and Neal Muscarella were honored for their efforts to turn the former Cooperative Extension building at 20 Main St. in Albion into the Marti’s on Main art gallery.

Cobblestone Museum leaders said they are pleased with the attendance at the first-time event.

Children walked with mules pulling boats in canal’s boom days

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Graham Kirby, 10, of Albion served as a hoggee on Saturday in a boat captained by Veronica Morgan of Albion.

Morgan put together a program, “I was a hoggee on the Erie Canal.” She wanted to spotlight the role of hoggees, who were children who walked with mules that pulled boats on the canal.

The Orleans County Historical Association assisted Morgan with the event that included activities at the Gaines Basin cobblestone schoolhouse as well as the boat rides from the canal, going from near the Gaines Basin Road bridge to near the lift bridge in Eagle Harbor.

Graham Kirby looks to the boat captain to see if he is needed for any task. The hoggees would get the captain food and be sent for other chores on the boat when they weren’t outside walking with mules.

Bill Lattin, retired Orleans County historian, was in the canal boat and shared stories and history of the canal in Gaines and Eagle Harbor during the 40-minute boat ride. Lattin is also Graham Kirby’s grandfather.

Lattin said Eagle Harbor is largely a “ghost town” now compared to the 1800s and early 1900s when it had its own grocery store, and other merchants who were coopers and blacksmiths.

Eagle Harbor also had the third golf course in the United States, a 6-hole course north of the canal that operated from 1898 to about 1940.

Lattin shared how Gaines has the northernmost point of the canal, endured a big flood in 1927 when there was a breach on the waterway. The section also has a widewaters east of Eagle Harbor where boats could turn around. The widewaters was especially needed in the early days of the canal when it was only 40 feet wide and difficult for boats to change directions.

Arthur Barnes does a pen and ink drawing of the a log cabin behind the Gaines Basin Schoolhouse on Saturday.

The schoolhouse was open for people to relax and tour on Saturday. The school was built in 1832 and is among the oldest cobblestone structures in the region.

It served as a school until 1942. Bill Lattin said there used to be 144 schools in the county. After decentralization, the number of school districts dropped to five.

Veronica Morgan captains the boat. She steered it about 65 miles from Macedon for the event on Saturday.

She wants to offer the hoggee program again in 2025, on the 200^th anniversary of the Erie Canal and also Orleans County.

Morgan works as a lift bridge operator in Brockport.

The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council supported the hoggee program on Saturday, covering the cost for the boat rides and other entertainers.

The boat approaches the lift bridge in Eagle Harbor. The boat rides on Saturday were for about 40 minutes, from Gaines Basin to Eagle Harbor and then back.

Graham Kirby sounds a horn, which hoggees did to let the lift bridge operator know a boat was approaching. The horn is in the schoolhouse’s collection of artifacts.

Photos by Tom Rivers

GAINES – Leo LeBerth, left, and Matt Holland work in the blacksmith shop on Saturday during the annual open house at the Cobblestone Museum.

This was the first time both men volunteered in the blacksmith shop at the museum. LeBerth has his own setup in Ridgeway. Holland is a member of the Cobbelstone Museum’s board of directors. He has been a blacksmith demonstrator before at another museum.

The blacksmith shop used to be operated by Joseph Vagg. The original shop burned down in 1921 but was rebuilt in 1922 with the help of many local farmers who were served by Vagg.

Eliya Cooper of Hamlin gave tours of the Vagg House, which is next door to the blacksmith shop. The Vagg house was added to the museum in 2019. It is decorated to be a typical of a middle class 1930s home when electricity became more common.

Joseph Vagg and his with Nellie lived in the house. Nellie was very active in the temperance movement. She died in 1975 and donated the blacksmith shop and its tools to the Cobblestone Society.

Cooper has been volunteering at the museum as a docent for eight seasons.

LeRoy Neeper of Medina demonstrates equipment in the wood shop next to the blacksmith. The wood shop includes a band saw, wood saws, drill press lathe and an International Harvester engine from 1922.

Jan Brauer of Lewiston weaves a basket outside the Ward House. Brauer has been a basket weaver since 2002.

“It’s very meditative,” she said. “And it’s a useful craft that you can put your stuff in.”

Cat Holland of Medina, left, and Sylvia Goodstine of Kent gave turs of the Ward House which was constructed in about 1840 in the Federal style.

Holland said her favorite artifact in the house is a horsehair couch. Goodstine said she most enjoys a Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine from 1863.

Reuben Rivers chats with Georgia Thomas and Maarit Vaga. Rivers gave tours of the Farmer’s Hall, while Thomas did a butter-making demonstration and Vaga showed the harness shop next door.

The Farmer’s Hall was built in 1855 as a Universalist Church. It was then used by German Lutherans as a church beginning in the 1870s. It later became Kendall’s Town Hall. The building was given to the Cobblestone Museum in 1978. It was dismantled in Kendall and brought to the museum where it was rebuilt and now functions as an exhibition hall for 19th and early 20th century farming implements.

The museum’s entire campus was open for tours on Saturday. The event concluded with a concert in the Cobblestone Church by the Fiddlers of the Genesee.