New owners for historic Medina building that was used for auto parts business for nearly a century
Photo by Ginny Kropf: From left, Samantha Rae Hughes and Matt Martin of Lockport pose with Craig Lacy in front of the former NAPA building at 345 Main St., Medina. Martin and Hughes have recently purchased the historic building which dates back to 1834. The new owners plan to capitalize on the building’s proximity to the canal.
MEDINA – Believed to be the oldest and one of the most historic buildings in Medina, the former home of Medina Parts/ NAPA is about to make new history under new owners.
Owned since 1925 by the Lacy family, Craig Lacy has sold the building at 345 Main St. to Matt Martin and Samantha Rae Hughes, life partners and real estate investors from Lockport.
Except for Medina’s Canal Village Farmers’ Market using the space free of charge during winter months for the last three years, the building has been unused since NAPA unexpectedly sold the business name out from under Lacy in 2022, resulting in his closing the doors in May that year.
Martin and Hughes came to Medina last summer due to an interest in the Medina Cold Storage. Hughes had lived with her parents in Medina for several years as a child, so she has special feelings for the village, she said.
Photos courtesy of Samantha Rae Hughes: Samantha Hughes, who recently purchased the former Medina Parts building with her partner Matt Martin, stands in the planned events space, which overlooks the canal.
While in Medina last year, they walked down Main Street, ending up in the Canal Basin.
“I’m in love with buildings that have history,” Hughes said. “I saw this building and I kept walking back and looking at it again.”
“The first time we walked this far, Craig was working in the basement and I asked if he was the owner,” Martin said.
“He took us on a tour and we fell in love with it – the look of it, the history, the potential it has,” Hughes said.
“I saw them overlooking the canal and I thought they were boaters,” Lacy said. “Two weeks later, Matt called and said, ‘We’d like to make you an offer on your building.’”
“Working with Craig has been awesome,” Martin said. “We’ve purchased a number of buildings in recent years, but Craig has been the most wonderful to work with.”
Lacy said he hadn’t been thinking seriously of selling the building, but it was nice to meet someone who had a vision for it.
Martin and Hughes shared their tentative plans for the building.
“We have an agreement with the Canal Corporation for the next 16 months to rent the building out as an art gallery for ‘Art Along the Canal,’ beginning July 1,” Hughes said. “Artists from all over will be invited to come and showcase their works. It will be nice to bring people back into the building.”
(Left) This is the view from one of the windows in the event space being developed in the former Medina Parts building on Medina’s Main Street. (Right) A view of the canal basin will greet people on the rooftop lounge the new owners are planning for the former Medina Parts building at 345 Main St.
Hughes did say the Canal Village Farmer’s Market will be allowed to finish their winter season in the building, and use the space until the end of this month, when they will move back to West Center and West Avenue.
The back space of the building will become an event space, suitable for celebrations and parties, Hughes said. Creation of a rooftop lounge overlooking the canal is in the plans, to be rented for showers or for the public just to come and enjoying one’s lunch. Preliminary plans include a brewery after the art show ends and an Airbnb on the second floor.
This article by former county historian Bill Lattin in Sept. 28, 1984 in The Journal-Register shows the building in three different eras and describes one of two devastating fires which occurred during its existence.
“We will try to figure something out for the basement (which houses a historic jail) so people can go down there and take pictures,” Hughes said.
Immediate work will include making the restrooms handicap accessible and other cosmetic (temporary) changes to spruce up the area for the art show. Renovations to the back room will start as soon as possible, with the intention of keeping that space for use by the community.
“Lockport used to have such a nice Main Street, until Urban Renewal came along,” Hughes said. “Coming here and seeing Medina’s Main Street is kind of sweet.”
For Lacy, the situation is bittersweet.
“We came within a month of celebrating our 100th year in business here, and that got swiped right out from under us,” he said. “But I feel very good about the building’s sale. I didn’t have a vision for this place and I’m real happy with what these people have planned.”
The Lacy family has claimed ownership of the sandstone building since Craig’s grandfather M. Cady Lacy and his partner Charles Haak started the Medina Cylinder Regrinding Co. in 1921.
“They had both lost their jobs when the Central Foundry closed in 1921,” Lacy said.
Botsford Fairman originally built the structure in 1834, which housed a grocery, bank and insurance office on the first floor; the Masonic fraternity on the second floor; and the Odd Fellows on the third floor. On April 15, 1861, the building was destroyed by fire.
Lacy noted that because it was built of Medina sandstone, which does not burn, only the interior was gutted, and Fairman rebuilt the arcade using the original foundation. In 1869 the property was sold to Jonathan A. Johnson of Yates, who converted the arcade into a hotel called the Johnson House.
Only the walls remained of the building at 345 Main St. after a fire in 1923. The walls survived because Medina sandstone doesn’t burn.
In April 1872, the hotel was bought by a real estate man from Jefferson, Ohio, named Henry S. Bancroft, who remodeled the hotel, adding the 60-foot tower and a fourth floor. While the addition of a gas-illuminated clock in the tower was spectacular, its financial success was another story. Ownership changed several times before Albert H. White purchased it in 1886, renaming it White’s Hotel.
White owned the landmark for 25 years, but soon leased it to others. In 1914, a local brewer from Orient Street, George F. Stein, bought the hotel, naming it Steinhof. The Salvation Army acquired the property in 1917 to use as a residence for the homeless and destitute.
According to Ed Grinnell’s Medina – Here’s to Our Heritage, the building burned again on Jan 4, 1923, leaving it almost in total ruin. “Forty-eight years after the tower was built, Medina’s most visible and best-known landmark was no more,” Grinnell wrote.
Enter M. Cady Lacy and Charles Haak in 1925, who bought the ruins, reduced the walls to two stories, added a section to the canal side for their machine shop and started selling auto parts.
According to Grinnell, “If longevity means anything, this building which saw so many heartbreaking failures, was now a success.”
As automobiles became more popular, the auto parts business took over, Lacy said.
“In 1941, we leased the machine shop to Phinney Tool & Die, who moved to West Center Street after World War II when they needed more room,” he said.
Haak died in 1947, ending the partnership with his grandfather, and the business was incorporated as Medina Parts Co., Inc. Craig’s dad John joined the business after the war, retiring in 1980.
Craig had started working there in 1962, while still in high school.
“All I ever did every holiday and vacation was hang out here,” he said. “I never considered it a job. My son Nicholas joined the business in 2010, taking over until we closed in May 2022, when NAPA bought him out.”
The parts counter of Medina Parts and Machine Shop is shown in this 1910 photo provided by Craig Lacy, grandson of one of the company’s founders.
In spite of its use throughout the decades, 345 Main St. has become famous for an interesting incident, believed to have occurred in the mid 1870s.
Grover Cleveland, who would become mayor of Buffalo, New York state governor and the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, had a ward named Frances Folsom, who lived with her mother at her aunt’s home at 300 North Main St.
While visiting the Folsoms one day, Cleveland borrowed a horse and buggy from a friend, Don Bent, in Medina. As he rode down Main Street, Medina police officer Henrie Fuller recognized the horse and carriage, but not the driver and assumed they were stolen. He took Cleveland into custody, and it is speculated he would have been taken to the jail in Lacy’s building, where he was detained until it was proven he was not a thief.
The jail, which was Medina’s first lockup, was used until 1908, when the village built City Hall. It is believed to be the oldest existing jail in Orleans County.
Hughes said she and Martin will do everything possible to keep the Lacy legend alive and incorporate the building’s history into any future plans.
Farmers’ Market will need new home during winter months
Photo courtesy of Chris Busch: Gail Miller, manager of the Canal Village Farmers’ Market, talks with vendors in January 2024 inside the former NAPA Auto Parts building. The vendor in front is from Human Farms and Greenhouse in Appleton.
With the sale and new uses planned for the former Medina Parts/NAPA building at 345 Main St., the Canal Village Farmers’ Market will have to make other plans for the winter months. The market has been using the front part of the former store free of charge for the past three winters.
“We’ve been incredibly fortunate these past few winters to be able to relocate the Canal Village Farmers’ Market indoors at 345 Main St.,” said Chris Busch, president of Orleans Renaissance Group, which sponsors the market. “The market wouldn’t exist without the generous support in so many ways of people throughout the community. We are very grateful to Craig Lacy for his kind generosity in allowing the market to use his building. It’s been a true lifesaver and has allowed us to operate a great winter market.”
Busch said the new building owner, Samantha Rae Hughes, “has also been tremendously kind to us.” ORG is very excited for the future at 345 Main St.
“As for what the market will do for winter 2025 – that is to be determined,” Busch said. “Our new facility at 127 West Center St. planned from the NY Forward Grant award will not likely be completed by then. Hopefully, an opportunity of some sort will present itself. We’ll have to wait and see. That said lots of cool things will be happening with the market in the next year or two.”