New class of honorees to be inducted on Thursday

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – The Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame has expanded to a second wall in the council chambers of City Hall.

Some of the Hall of Fame Committee members worked on moving some of the plaques and historic photos of quarry workers to the second wall on Thursday.

Reinhard Rogowski, right, on chair and Dave Miller are both committee members working on the display on the second wall with some assistance from Barb Hancock, wife of committee member Jim Hancock.

Jim Hancock shifts some of the plaques on the main wall of the Hall of Fame to make room for the Class of 2024, which will be announced on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. during a ceremony at City Hall. 600 Main St. Takeform in Medina makes the plaques and donates them to the Hall of Fame and also to the inductees to display.

There have been 39 inductees into the Hall of Fame since the first class in 2013.

The Hall of Fame also recently added a touch-screen kiosk, featuring videos, slideshows, maps, and a comprehensive building database with photos. Much of the information on the kiosk is available of the Medina Sandstone Society website. Click here for more information.

The committee members work on rearranging the plaques on the main wall for the new class to be inducted on Thursday. Four new members will be added to the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame.

Dave Miller, Jim and Barb Hancock do the meticulous work of relocating the plaques of inductees from previous years.

Ed Evans has now given 239 presentations about Hamlin Beach State Park, POW Camp

Photos by Tom Rivers: Ed Evans is shown last August at one of the shelters made of Medina Sandstone at Hamlin Beach State Park. The park was indicted into the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame in 2023.

Dave Miller describes a kiosk on Medina sandstone which will be placed in the Hall of Fame for visitors to use.

MEDINA – Ed Evans, a retired teacher from Hamlin, has become a passionate speaker about Medina Sandstone and he gave a stirring address last week to the Medina Sandstone Society during its annual meeting at the Comfort Inn.

Evans, 82, has now given 239 presentations about Hamlin Beach State Park, how its many Medina Sandstone buildings were built  by the Civilian Conservation Corps which was established there in 1935. The park’s buildings, headwalls, culverts, drinking fountains and fireplaces are made of Medina Sandstone.

Evans intended to retire from given the presentation. But he made an exception last week for the Sandstone Society. The group last October honored him with an inaugural “Heritage Award” for his 32 years of work in uncovering the sandstone legacy at Hamlin Beach.

Evans’ interest piqued about the park after he became the liaison to Hamlin historian Mary Smith in 1985. At that time she was planning a reunion for 40 CCC guys who were still alive. Evans taped the event. He spent every year after that trying to be allowed to get on CCC site, but the park fought him all the way, he said. Finally, a new park manager was interested in the site and the clearing began.

Guest speaker at the Medina Sandstone Society’s annual meeting Wednesday night was Ed Evans of Hamlin, who talked about the Civilian Conservation Corps which existed at Hamlin Beach State Park in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Much Medina Sandstone was used throughout the park. Evans was honored with a “Medina Sandstone Heritage Award” last October by the Medina Sandstone Society for his efforts to chronicle the history of Hamlin Beach.

“Ed remains proud of the work the CCC accomplished – about 80 years after they did the work,” said Dave Miller, a board member and former president of the Sandstone Society. “Starting in 2008, Evans and his wife Sue and friends began clearing away decades of thick underbrush and fallen trees on the eight-acre site which was used as a POW camp after the CCC closed. Over the next 10 years, they carefully mapped the camp buildings and pieced together much of the camp’s history.”

Photo by Dave Miller: Ed Evans marvels at the accomplishments of the CCC crews who built an everlasting state park in Hamlin. He gave a 40-minute presentation to the Medina Sandstone Society. He said he could talk for hours about the CCC workers and the POW camp in Hamlin.

The CCC camp constructed at the park in 1935 was part of a program by President Roosevelt to provide poverty relief from the Great Depression. Evans said the Hamlin CCC camp was the second largest in Western New York, down to the Pennsylvania line. He said there were more than 4,500 CCC camps in the United States and its territories. If there remain four sites in each state as well preserved as Hamlin’s site, Hamlin’s camp would be rated one in 200 of the most unique CCC camp sites in the country, Evans said.

He added Hamlin’s camp was also one of only 377 WWII prisoner of war branch camp sites in the United States. Most of them are now only marks on maps or roadside historical markers. Very few have spawned museums or a reconstructed building, Evans said. If each of the 46 states that had POW branch camp sites still had one site that had not been contaminated by urban sprawl, that would make Hamlin’s site rank one in 46. But only a few of those were also former CCC camps, which would place Hamlin uniquely in the top 10 historical sites of its kind in the country.

Young men who worked at the CCC camp were paid $30 a month. Many were not yet 18 and got to keep $5, while $25 went to their families, Evans said. The young men were fed, clothed and provided with educational and recreational opportunities. The camp was closed when the war was over.

Evans said when the CCC program was discontinued in 1941, most of those more than 4,000 camps were completely dismantled.

“Ours survived,” Evans said.

Early in 1944, the camp was modified to accommodate German prisoners of war. An eight-foot high barbed wire fence was erected, guard towers were put in place and the enclosed area was lighted. CCC cots were replaced with bunk beds so 400 prisoners could be housed.

The first German POWs arrived June 30, 1944 and stayed until the camp closed Jan. 11, 1946.

Unlike most other similar historical sites, Evans said the footprint of this camp and buried artifacts remained intact, untouched by post-war construction projects. Dense vegetation protected the site for 65 years, until volunteers began slowly turning it into a history trail.

In 2014, the history trail at the former CCC POW camp was opened.

Evans shared a slide show of photos of CCC workers he has accumulated and pictures of POWs. Most of them were from Mary Smith’s collection, which she left him when she died.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Ed Evans gives a tour of Hamlin Beach State park last August and notes some of the fine workmanship in one of the shelters. Evans is hoping to train his successor to give tours of the park and detail the history of the CCC.

He also located 90+ year-old Hazel Lake who has visited and walked around the entire Hamlin CCC site on three different occasions, clutching a 1937 photo of her late husband George posing in from of a CCC barracks. On each visit, she experienced a little more of what George must have felt when he lived in that camp. This was important to her because every weekend George walked from Hamlin to Medina and back to visit her, his 17-year-old sweetheart. He wore out a pair of shoes in the process and more than once got assigned extra KP for getting back to camp after Sunday night curfew.

Evans talked about Medina Sandstone that was used to build all areas of the park. A huge pile of sandstone was found while cleaning up the area for the history trail. He said every scrap of sandstone was used for something. Nothing was wasted.

“Letchworth, which also had a CCC camp and sandstone buildings, and Hamlin don’t realize what they have,” Evans said. “The history of Medina Sandstone should be made into a documentary which would run for two or three days.”

The Medina Sandstone Society last year inducted Hamlin Beach Satte park into the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame.

Dave Miller, who serves on the Hall of Fame Committee, said Sandstone Society created a new Heritage Award last year to recognize a community act or individual who contributed to our understanding of local history and preserving it. Evans was the first recipient. (Jennifer Wells-Dickerson also was honored with the award. She has documented the efforts of her great-grandfather, Pasquale DiLaura, who was a stone cutter, business owner and promoter of Medina Sandstone. He operated a quarry in Clarendon and the stone from that site was used for Hamlin Beach and the Lake Ontario State Parkway bridges and culverts.)

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Dave Miller describes a kiosk on Medina Sandstone which will be placed in the Hall of Fame for visitors to use.

Sandstone Society vice president Matt Holland conducted the annual business meeting, and introduced two new members to the board. Jesse Cudzilo serves as director of the YMCA in Medina. Michael Lepkyj is a technology teacher in the Medina school district.

Holland asked for reports from the various committees within the Sandstone Society.

Peggy Schreck reported she had received a letter from a company in Buffalo hired by the Erie Canalway Heritage Fund, who is organizing the 2025 World Canals Conference in September 2025. They are planning a day of field sessions and want Medina to be one of their sessions.

Miller announced the Hall of Fame nomination period had begun and names may be submitted online. He said he and Jim Hancock will begin visiting sites in June. Hub editor Tom Rivers will be the next chair of the Hall of Fame Committee, he said.

Miller also showed a new kiosk which will be installed in the Hall of Fame. Visitors only have to touch the screen to read about sandstone buildings in the area or watch a video. Miller hopes they will be able to place others in libraries and other public buildings.

The Sandstone Society is now on Instagram, Miller said.

Sue Holland, Kathy Blackburn and Gabrielle Barone are on the Events Committee and would welcome help from the community with special events, such as mailing newsletters and organizing the Hall of Fame luncheon at Bent’s Opera House. It is hoped volunteers would consider helping with special projects and/or joining the Sandstone Society by logging on to their website.

Holland recalled events they have done in the past, going back to 2008 to remember the late Bob Waters, a founder of the Sandstone Society who thought tours were meant to  promote sandstone, not be a fundraiser.

She said they thought of ways to put information on the Medina Sandstone Society out in the public, and decided on walking tours.

“They were very successful, but we exhausted our locations,” Holland said. “So then we went to Boxwood Cemetery, which has a lot of sandstone markers and a sandstone chapel. We were fortunate to have Bill Lattin, former Orleans County historian, lead these informative tours.”

In 2018, the Sandstone Society decided to do a bus tour, and hired a small 30-passenger bus to tour Medina, Clarendon, Holley, Albion, Mount Albion Cemetery and St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

“We got brave the next year and rented a real bus,” Holland said. “We went to Buffalo and toured the Richardson complex which had recently opened. We also saw some of the Hall of Fame buildings in Buffalo. In 2023, we decided to go east, and visited Rochester and Sonnenberg Gardens. This year, we are going back to Buffalo and the Richardson complex.”

Holland said the winner of the John Ryan Scholarship will be announced by Medina High School this Friday. This year the students were asked to make brochures advertising Medina Sandstone or talk about cathedrals made of the local sandstone.

The next meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. July 17 at the Walsh Hotel.

Sites include First Baptist Church in Medina, Hamlin Beach State Park, Robin Hill Manor in Lyndonville and Mundion home in Ridgeway

The new inductees in the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame include from left going clockwise: First Baptist Church of Medina, the Masten/Mundion home in Ridgeway, Robin Hill Manor in Lyndonville, and Hamlin Beach State Park.

MEDINA – The Medina Sandstone Society inducted four more sites into the Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Thursday.

The 10^th anniversary class includes the First Baptist Church of Medina, Hamlin Beach State Park, Robin Hill Manor in Lyndonville and the Masten/Mundion home in Ridgeway. There have now been 39 sites inducted since the Hall of Fame was established in 2013. The plaques and photographs are on display in the main meeting room of City Hall.

Hall of Fame Committee member David Miller, left, and Jim Hancock remove the curtain to unveil this year’s inductees. The committee also includes Reinhard Rogowski, Rollin Hellner and Tom Rivers. The sites are nominated and the committee visits and researches the sites. More than 70 locations have been nominated for the Hall of Fame. The Medina Sandstone Society board of directors gives a final OK for the sites included in the Hall of Fame.

Takeform in Medina has donated the plaques and display for the Hall of Fame each year.

Mindy Cogovan, a long-time parishioner at First Baptist Church in Medina, and Rev. Randy LeBaron of the church hold the plaque after the ceremony at City Hall.

First Baptist Church of Medina

The plaque for the church states:

“For 150 years, the First Baptist Church of Medina has been a landmark, one of the most iconic sites in the village. The steeple, peaking at about 150 feet high, is one of the first sights approaching the downtown, especially from Route 31 to the east.

The church was constructed between 1870 and 1873 at 203 West Center St. It is made of locally quarried gray Medina Sandstone and was built in an example of Gothic Revivalism tempered with influences from the then-even more popular Romanesque Revival style.

The Medina Tribune on Jan. 16, 1873, made the church’s dedication front page news, saying the Medina community could pride itself for having “one of the most elegant and substantial church buildings in all of Western New York.”

A congregation of 140 people contributed the $45,000 to have the church built on one of the best sites in the village, the Tribune noted.

The church’s members through a century and half have proven devoted caretakers of the building, ensuring its longevity and lofty presence for the community.”

Matt and Heather Mundion hold the plaque recognizing their home is now in the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame.

Ephraim Masten Homestead – Telegraph Road in Medina, New York

The plaque states:

“In 1819, Ephraim Masten and his wife Nancy came to Ridgeway and purchased 130 acres of land two miles east from what would become the village of Medina. They built and lived in a log cabin until 1831 when the family had done well enough to be able to construct a house of locally quarried sandstone to replace the log cabin.

Ephraim died in 1840 and his wife in 1872, but the home remained in the family for many succeeding generations of Masten descendants.

In more recent years, the home was occupied by attorney Vincent Cardone, who did considerable restoration work on the historic building, then industrialist Milford L. Phinney and family.

Most recently, Matt and Heather Mundion have further expanded and beautified the home using repurposed Medina Sandstone for new porch and patio areas and other interior and exterior improvements.

With its long history of restoration and stewardship, this historic home will soon be 200 years old!”

Robin Hill Manor is an not only an impressive Medina Sandstone home, the site includes an arboretum with about 250 varieties of trees.

Robin Hill Manor – Platten Road, Lyndonvillle, NY

“This beautiful home was built in the late 1940-1950 by Lyndonville residents William and Mary Smith and their children George and Marion Smith.

William and Mary Smith designed the Manor House and had drawings done by a professional architect from Rochester. It took them five years to quarry and cut the Medina Sandstone and build the house. George did most of the stone work and all of the interior wood and cabinetry while Marion and Mary finished the kitchen, hauling materials for the floors and staining the cedar shakes for the roof.

The house was finished in 1952. The family lived there until Marion’s passing in 2013, when Doug Pratt inherited the estate. He lives there and has set up the non-profit he Robin Hill Nature Preserve for the public to enjoy the 45 acres and more than 250 varieties of trees.

“Smith Pond” has been a beloved landmark for decades in Lyndonville, with many people stopping to admire swans and other wildlife. Pratt continues to make this “jewel” available to the community.”

Hamlin had a contingent representing the state park at the hall of Fame ceremony. In front, from left, include Ed Evans, winner of a Heritage Award for his efforts at the park and the former CCC/POW camp; Ross Lovell, park manager; and John Snyder, assistant regional director for NYS Parks. Back row: Members of the Friends of Hamlin Beach State Park: Sue Evans, Nick Kramer, Kim Walter, Jim Lugert, Patti Sullivan and Tom Dabrowski.

Hamlin Beach State Park – Hamlin, NY

“At Hamlin Beach State Park in Monroe County, the Medina Sandstone is everywhere – the shelters, bathrooms, culverts, fireplaces, fire pits, drinking fountains, retaining walls and a concessions building.

The entire park, which draws about 300,000 people a year, is a tremendous showcase of Medina Sandstone.

Hamlin Beach State Park was largely developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941, with state contractors then working on the park until 1952.

Operating from a camp on Moscow Road, the CCC employed local stone masons, carpenters, forestry crews, auto mechanics, truck drivers, rock crusher operators and road crews to build the park during the latter years of the Depression.

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has made recent investments in the park’s upkeep, and the Friends of Hamlin State Beach have pushed to make the park more accessible and its history more fully understood.”

Hamlin Beach includes many drinking fountains, fire pits and retaining walls, as well as the larger shelters and a bathhouse.

The honorees at the Hall of Fame induction include, from left: Jennifer Wells-Dickerson with a Heritage Award for her efforts preserving the story of her great-grandfather, Pasquale DiLaura, a quarry owner who was influential in the stone work on the Parkway and at Hamlin Beach; Matt and Heather Mundion, owner of the Masten-Mundion home on Telegraph Road in Ridgeway; Mindy Cogovan and Rev. Randy LeBaron of the First Baptist Church of Medina; John Snyder, assistant regional director for New York State Parks and Ross Lovell, Hamlin Beach State Park manager; and Ed Evans, Heritage Award honoree for his efforts to preserve the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp/POW camp at Hamlin Beach State Park. Missing from photo: Doug Pratt, owner of the Robin Hill Manor in Lyndonville.

St. Joseph’s in Albion, Canal Culvert in Ridgeway and Ryan Quarry House in Clarendon recognized by Medina Sandstone Society

Photos by Tom Rivers: The Medina Sandstone Society added three sites to its Hall of Fame at Medina City Hall. There are now 35 sites in the Hall of Fame which was established in 2013. Pictured from left include: Brandan Simon, west region canal engineer for Canal Corporation (representing the Canal Culvert); Maureen and Robert Christian, owners of the Ryan Quarry home on South Holley Road in Clarendon; and the Rev. Richard Csizmar, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Albion which was recognized for St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, its lyceum on Main Street and the chapel at St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Route 31.

MEDINA – The Medina Sandstone Society inducted three members into the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame on Thursday, bringing the total to 35 sites that have now been recognized since the Hall of Fame was established in 2013.

The three new inductees are all in Orleans County and include the Erie Canal Culvert in the Town of Ridgeway, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Albion (including the parish’s lyceum and cemetery chapel), and the Ryan Quarry home owned by Robert and Maureen Christian on South Holley Road in Clarendon.

The Hall of Fame includes churches, mansions, civic buildings, monuments and public works projects from Erie, Pa., to Buffalo, Batavia and Orleans County, Rochester and the Finger Lakes region.

Dave Miller welcomes about 30 people to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday in the main meeting room at Medina City Hall. The Hall of Fame plaques are all made and donated by Takeform.

David Miller, Hall of Fame Committee chairman, said the Sandstone Society wants to showcase how the local quarried stone was used to build so many magnificent sites.

“What a wealth of beautiful buildings that have come out of the ground in Orleans County,” he said during Thursday afternoon’s Hall of Fame ceremony at Medina City Hall. “We need to appreciate them.”

About 70 sites have now been nominated for the hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame Committee wants to recognize Medina Sandstone sites with exceptional beauty, architectural uniqueness and longevity, or as Miller said, sites “that have the wow effect.”

Miller said the Sandstone Society welcomes more nominations. (Click here for more information.)

The Canal Culvert on Culvert Road in Ridgeway was initially built in 1823 for the Erie Canal. The current culvert was built in 1911 when the canal was enlarged. This is the only spot where traffic can go under the Erie Canal.

While the Hall of Fame features many ornate churches, mansions and civic structures, the Canal Culvert is the first inductee that served a more utilitarian purpose as a public infrastructure project.

The culvert has a 7 foot, 6 inch clearance, with a peak height of 11 feet inside the tunnel.

The stone tunnel is 200 feet long, 11 feet high at its peak and 19 feet wide. It is an iconic site in Orleans County, and is one of a kind on the 524-mile-long canal system – the only place where you can drive under the canal. The site has been featured on Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

The culvert was originally built in 1823 and was enlarged when the canal was expanded. The current culvert was built in 1911 as part of the Barge Canal enlargement.

The stone arch structure has a reinforced concrete prism liner directly above it, said Brendan Simon, west region canal engineer for the Canal Corp.

“The structure is near and dear to the canals,” Simon said. “I don’t know of any other structure like it on the canal system. Our staff is passionate about maintaining key pieces of infrastructure like the stone arch culvert.”

Simon said the Canal Corp. is gearing up for the 200^th anniversary celebration of the Erie Canal in 2025. That year Buffalo will host the World Canals Conference.

Photos by David Miller: The Ryan Quarry House has been lovingly restored and cared for by Maureen and Robert Christian. The home was built in 1863 from stone likely obtained from the nearby banks of Sandy Creek. A former quarry on the property is now a 2-acre pond. This farmhouse became the office building for the Ryan Company quarry beginning in 1920.

The induction of the Ryan Quarry House at 4160 South Holley Rd. in Clarendon is the first Hall of Fame inductee that has a direct link to a Medina Sandstone quarry operation.

The house was likely built from sandstone from the banks of the east branch of Sandy Creek. This was in 1863 when there weren’t any commercial quarries in Clarendon.

This part of Clarendon and Holley would later have three quarries – Down’s and Gorman’s quarry in 1881, Gleason Place quarry in 1890 and the large Ryan Company quarry in 1920.

The Ryan quarry was adjacent to the house at 4160 South Holley Rd. and the building was used as an office building for the Ryan Company in the 1920s and much of the ’30s. Writing from Civilian Conservation Corps workers were found inside on the walls of the house during a later restoration.

Dave Miller of the Sandstone Society praised Maureen and Robert Christian for an extensive renovation and upkeep since they bought it in 1977. They credited their aunt Flo Johnson for saving the site when she bought it in 1950. At that point the site had been abandoned with a collapsed roof and trees growing up inside the house.

“She was told it was too far gone,” Mr. Christian said. “But she always wanted a stone house in the country.”

The Christians bought the house from her in 1977 and raised their three children at the house. Mrs. Christian said the sound of the nearby creek and waterfalls is peaceful and relaxing.

“We just love the history of it,” she said. “It’s built like a fortress.”

Her husband said the family has tried to maintain a part of the county’s sandstone legacy.

“That’s what it’s all about – being a steward of it,” he said.

Miller said the Hall of Fame would like to include more history of local quarrying families. The group welcomes biographies of families that were prominent in the local quarrying industry.

Photos by Tom Rivers: St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Albion is a new member of the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame. The First Baptist Church, right, is St. Joseph’s neighbor on West Park Street.

The induction of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church is long overdue, said Jim Hancock, a member of Hall of Fame Committee. The site was nominated this year by former County Historian Bill Lattin. It joins other Albion sites in the Hall of Fame including the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church, First Presbyterian Church of Albion, and the Civil War Monument at Mount Albion Cemetery.

St. Joseph’s Church was dedicated in 1897, built of locally quarried sandstone in a Gothic Revival style on West Park Street. The parish also dedicated St. Joseph’s School and Lyceum on Main Street in 1905 and then a new chapel at St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Route 31 in 1920. The lyceum is the first school to be included in the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame Committee praised Holy Family Parish for its care of the three sites for more than a century.

The Rev. Richard Csizmar, pastor of the parish since 1994, said many people over the years have given resources, time and talent to keep up the sites. The lyceum recently completed a $100,000 renovation, he noted.

“They’re so valuable, so beautiful, and so memorable” he said about the buildings. “They are gifts from God.”

The Medina Sandstone Society also highlighted the lyceum and chapel in the Hall of Fame induction for St. Joseph’s, which is in the Holy Family Parish.

Editor’s Note: Orleans Hub editor Tom Rivers is a member of the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame Committee.

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Brockport, St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Canandaigua also recognized

Photos courtesy of David Miller: Bent’s Opera House in Medina looks stunning after a three-year restoration effort.

MEDINA – Three new sandstone structures were inducted into the Sandstone Hall of Fame on Thursday, in a ceremony which also included recognition of five sandstone homes built by architect William Jackson between the 1820s and 1860s.

Inductees include the Bent’s Opera House in Medina, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Brockport and St. Mary’s RC Church in Canandaigua.

Jim Hancock, chairman of the Hall of Fame committee, said the first sandstone induction took place in 2013. Since then, including this year’s inductees, 32 buildings and monuments have been named to the Hall of Fame.

“Purpose of the Hall of Fame was to recognize beautiful structures made of our stone,” Hancock said. “Medina Sandstone can be found in buildings and roads across the United States, and from Cuba to Buckingham Palace.”

Hancock explained to be selected to the Sandstone Hall of Fame a nominee must fall into one of several classes – church, private residence, public building or any architecturally unique structure.

Criteria considered include its age, if it is still in use, it’s beauty and architectural uniqueness.

The 2021 class of inductees into the Sandstone Hall of Fame hold their plaques after the ceremony Thursday at City Hall. From left are Anthony DiPrima, director of finance and administration at St. Mary’s Church in Canandaigua, Karen Baase from Luke’s Harvest Kitchen at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Brockport and Justin Bruce, general manager of Bent’s Opera House in Medina.

Bent’s Opera House is one of the oldest surviving theaters in the entire nation, having been built at the height of the Civil War. From 1865 to the early 1920s, it was the cultural center of the Medina area. Its construction is of native Medina Sandstone, laid in a random ashlar pattern with a hammered finish.

The opera house was built by Don Carlos Bent, a wealthy local farmer, who secured the services of local sandstone builder Patrick O’Grady.

St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Canandaigua

The building was in danger of collapse in the early 21st century when it was donated by Bank of America to the Orleans Renaissance Group. They then sold it to Talis Equity, who took on one of the community’s most ambitious renovation projects in history, working more than three years to fortify the building and redesign it to include a restaurant, hotel and entertainment/lecture hall in the former opera house.

In accepting the plaque for Bent’s, Justin Bruce, general manager, said owners Roger and Heather Hungerford appreciated the honor, although they were unable to attend.

Anthony DiPrima, finance director at St. Mary’s Church, said the Sandstone Hall of Fame committee visited his church two years ago, but the church didn’t make the list for induction. Then the committee returned this year, and viewed extensive renovations which had been done to the interior of the building.

“We felt pretty confident our church would be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year,” DiPrima said. “This is the first honor I’m aware of that our church has received for its architecture, and with all our interior renovations, this is the cherry on the ice cream.”

St. Mary’s RC Church at 59 North Main St., Canandaigua, traces its parish back to 1843, when a small group of Catholic families began meeting. The first St. Mary’s Church was built in 1846, but by 1865 membership had grown, and a new church was needed. The old J. Albert Granger property was purchased in 1873, but construction was delayed to pay off the debt.

Construction of the current church was started in 1903. Architects were Gordon & Madden of Rochester. The building was dedicated Dec. 17, 1905.

The Building Committee was pleased with the use of pink Medina Sandstone and they got good terms for the sandstone and favorable railroad rates for the delivery of this beautiful stone.

In 2007, St. Benedict’s Parish was established when St. Mary’s in Canandaigua and St. Benedict’s in Bloomfield became clustered.

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Brockport

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 14 State St., Brockport, has been a dominant, soaring presence on Brockport’s Main Street since 1855.

The congregation paid $6,897 to have the church constructed of Medina Sandstone from 1854 to 1855 in a Gothic Revival style. In 1903, a parish hall was added in Medina sandstone with a Romanesque style. It has been used as a church school, meeting space, gymnasium in the basement, stage on the third floor and was even set up as a hospital at one time for a week-long clinic for tonsillectomies.

St. Luke’s continues to be used for many outreach programs, such as food, clothing, music and ministry. The church has hosted the Brockport Ecumenical Food Shelf since 1972.

The church features several Tiffany windows, including two groupings of three windows. Tiffany created a scene of “The Nativity” at the narthex. St. Luke’s was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 and was declared a “Historic Landmark” by the Brockport Historic Preservation Board in 2000.

Several people attended the ceremony from St. Luke’s in Brockport, including the Rev. Elizabeth Harden and members Bill Henderson and Karen Baase.

The Rev. Harden said she is from Utah, so Medina Sandstone was all new to her.

“This is an honor, for sure,” she said. “St. Luke’s has been so well cared for. The building has been repurposed several times to meet the needs of the community, so this is a fitting tribute.”

“Getting this recognition is amazing considering the number of places to be considered,” Henderson said. “I knew the church was made of Medina Sandstone, but I didn’t know about the Hall of Fame and Sandstone Society.”

Baase, who lives near Barre, said she was part of the group which gave the Hall of Fame committee the grand tour when they visited.

“We are pleased and honored to be recognized, and are so fortunate to learn more about sandstone,” she said.

Dave Miller, president of the Sandstone Society, shared the history of sandstone in the Medina area.

He explained sandstone was first discovered when the canal was dug in 1825.

“If it wasn’t for the canal, Medina wouldn’t be here, and we wouldn’t know so much about Medina Sandstone,” he said.

At least 30 quarries existed at one time, and a few lasted until the 1950s, Miller said. Most of Medina’s sandstone was used for roads.

Homes built by William Jackson are, clockwise from top left, 10598 Ridge Rd., 10923 West Center St. Ext., 11986 Telegraph Rd. and 3531 Fruit Ave. In the center is the original Jackson homestead at 3669 Fruit Ave., which was stuccoed over about 75 years ago.

Following induction of these three structures, Miller explained their reason for including the five sandstone homes designed by Jackson.

“This is a departure from what we’ve done in the past,” Miller said. “It goes back to last year when we couldn’t travel due to the pandemic. We wondered if there wasn’t something we could do to recognize the two dozen sandstone homes in Medina and vicinity. They are simple, but have a beauty of their own.”

Miller explained many farmers came to Medina from Central New York in the

1800s, built log cabins and then brought their families here. William Jackson was one of these settlers, who came to the town of Ridgeway in 1826 and purchased 100 acres of land. One of the earliest settlers in the town, he was also one of the first to build homes from what would later become known as Medina sandstone.

Pioneer History of Orleans County reports that “In a short time, he purchased more land which he fitted and cultivated into one of the finest farms in the area.”

This was before any commercial sandstone quarry had been established, but the Erie Canal construction had revealed readily accessible sandstone in Medina, some of it very close to the ground.

The five homes acknowledged by the Sandstone Hall of Fame include the original Jackson homestead at 3669 Fruit Avenue, which was stuccoed over about 75 years ago; 10598 Ridge Rd., 10923 West Center St., 11986 Telegraph Rd., and 3531 Fruit Ave.

Miller noted the similarity in the homes Jackson built – all have a center door with two windows on each side and five windows in the second story.

The Sandstone Hall of Fame is located at City Hall on the corner of Main Street and Park Avenue.