Kent resident takes pride in cobblestone house, sandstone step

Photos by Tom Rivers – Pete Consler bought two hitching posts and a carriage step about three decades from a Hulberton man who didn’t want them. Consler keeps them in immaculate shape in front of his historic cobblestone home on Kent Road.

KENT – Pete Consler was driving through Hulberton about three decades ago when he saw buckled sandstone sidewalk panels. He thought they would be a nice complement to his home, a cobblestone house built in 1843.

Consler has just moved into his parents’ former cobblestone cottage home on Kent Road more than 30 years ago. Consler and his wife Joan would raise two sons in the historic house.

Consler’s father Art added sandstone steps a few years before Consler noticed the sidewalk panels. He stopped in Hulberton and the owner said he would sell them – if Consler took all the pieces.

Consler also noticed a carriage step and two hitching posts. He asked if they were for sale and the owner threw them in the deal. The owner was glad to be rid of them.

Consler had a friend help him move the heavy stone to his home, where Consler established two sandstone walkways and put the hitching posts and carriage step near the road, trying to recreate a setup from the horse-and-buggy days.

I was on Kent Road last evening to do a story on Chet Wheelock and his family’s hot air balloon ride. I drove past Wheelock’s farm and ended up at Consler’s. His property is a showcase of our cobblestone and sandstone heritage.

The house has been in his family since 1949, when his parents Art and Rose Consler bought it as a cottage. Consler remembers spending the summers in Kent, and working for a dairy farmer down the road – “Boy did I get an education.”

Consler worked as a union plumber and as a pipefitter for General Motors. He has used his skills and hard work ethic to keep up an immaculate property. He repointed all the mortar on the house and has kept many of the house’s interior pieces, including a cast-iron potbelly stove and pre-rotary phone. His wife has developed a garden that could be featured in a magazine. Pete’s mother secured the tops of two old Rochester street lights that her son fixed up and mounted in the front lawn with toned-down lights.

The hitching posts include Italian lettering. Consler would like to know the story behind the symbols.

Pete Consler is a proud owner of a cobblestone home, and a sandstone carriange step.

Consler has battled cancer five times in the past 22 years. He is thankful for each day, he said.

“I’ve been blessed to have the best doctors in the world,” he said.

Consler also traveled to Rome, and met the Pope. Consler even shook his hand. He thinks that experience has helped him survive cancer.

I told Consler about my hitching post obsession, how I’m trying to build a database of all these relics from the horse-and-buggy era. I think Orleans County may be home to more of these than anywhere else, and could be part of a draw for tourists, especially if the hitching posts and carriage steps are part of a bigger sandstone and cobblestone story.

Consler’s two posts have lettering in Italian. If anyone reads this and knows what it means, please send me a note. These are two of the most ornate posts that I’ve seen. I’d guess they were owned by a well-to-do resident of Hulberton.

Consler feels such pride in his home, he had his name etched in the carriage step, just like many families did more than a century ago.

I told him he has done a great job with the place.

(If you have a hitching post story to tell, send me an email at tom@orleanshub.com.)

Dobbins Lane in Erie, Pa., remains a Medina sandstone street. The city considers the street a historical treasure. Medina native A.G. Irons posted these photos on Facebook earlier today.

Medina sandstone was used to build massive churches, government buildings and beautiful homes in the mid-1800s and early 1900s.

The local stone had other more pedestrian purposes. It was heavily quarried in that era for streets. Most of those thoroughfares were long paved over.

But a few remain. Medina native A.G. Irons, a 1994 Medina graduate, posted photos on Facebook today of a sandstone street that has been preserved in Erie, Pa. A historical marker notes the prominence of Medina sandstone for Erie streets more than a century ago.

Locally, I know of only one sandstone street: Beaver Alley in Albion. This street was recreated nearly a decade ago when routes 98 and 31 were dug up and rebuilt. Some of the sandstone blocks that were unearthed from that project were reset in Beaver Alley.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Beaver Alley in Albion is pictured after a dusting of snow earlier this spring.

I hear complaints from some folks about this street, that it’s bumpy and hard to drive on. But kudos to then-Mayor Ed Salvatore and the village officials at that time for working to promote our sandstone heritage.

I think we should put in some sandstone crosswalks and utilize this stone in other public places, perhaps swapping out some concrete sidewalks with sandstone ones in our historic districts.

It was a nice surprise to see an out-of-state city – Erie, Pa. – keep one of their old sandstone streets intact.

Episcopalians built massive church with stone from Hulberton

Photos by Tom Rivers – St. Paul’s Cathedral, built in Buffalo by the Episcopal Church in 1851, was built from Medina sandstone that came from the first quarry in Hulberton.

The building is located on Pearl Street in the heart of downtown Buffalo.

BUFFALO – In 1849, the congregation of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was told by prominent church architect Richard Upjohn to build its new church out of limestone.

The church was wealthy and had 1,000 members. But it wasn’t that wealthy. Limestone was costly because the stone is so difficult to quarry.

“The church vestry didn’t think we could afford limestone,” said Martha Neri, the church archivist.

A church member swayed Upjohn to use Medina sandstone in designing the building. Sandstone is softer, easier to quarry and the stone was prolific about 50 miles down on the canal in Orleans County. Upjohn agreed.

St. Paul’s would need a lot of stone for the cavernous Gothic revival church in the heart of Buffalo. Henry Streater represented the church and went looking for sandstone. He found it in Hulberton.

Streater bought about 3.5 acres at $80 an acre from Samuel Copeland, according to St. Paul’s church records. It was the first quarry in Hulberton.

The curved columns in the sanctuary also are made of Medina sandstone.

The stone was quarried and sent by the canal to Buffalo. It would be used to build a church that is listed as a National Historic Landmark.

I walked into St. Paul’s on Sunday for the first time. I nearly fell over walking into the sanctuary.

This place is overwhelming with its high ceiling, stained glass and curved columns made of sandstone.

Upjohn earned fame for the Gothic revival style with his design of New York’s Trinity Episcopal Church in 1846. That style has windows that are shaped to look like praying hands.

“You see those windows and you know it’s a church,” Neri told me.

The church has numerous stained-glass windows that are framed by sandstone. The window over the altar, which shows Christ’s ascension, was made by the Henry Holliday and Company of London. The 11 disciples are also depicted.

The Gothic revival style also is mysterious and romantic – “There’s something unpredictable around the corner,” she said.

The church opened at 128 Pearl St. in 1851, but wasn’t quite done. The 300-foot-high spire was finished in 1870, and used stone from a different Hulberton quarry owned by Alfred Squire. (The carriage step owned by the Squire family is in front of a house on East State Street in Albion, now owned by Joe and Debbie Martillotta. Mr. Martillotta rescued the carriage step a few years ago.)

St. Paul’s is a tremendous showcase for Medina sandstone. Even the pulpit is made of sandstone.

The pulpit was carved from Medina sandstone.

I’ve been trying to build a database of Medina sandstone sites on the National Register of Historic Places. St. Paul’s made the list in 1973. But that designation was upgraded in 1987, when St. Paul’s was named a National Historic Landmark. (There is one National Historic Landmark in Orleans County – The Cobblestone Society Museum.)

I showed up unannounced at St. Paul’s on Sunday. I just ran the half marathon in Buffalo. I smelled. I was disheveled, wearing jeans and an old green sweater from Dale’s Market in Albion.

St. Paul’s parishioners are a well-dressed group, but they didn’t seem put off by my appearance. I asked about the church’s history, and was directed to Neri, who then gave me an hour-long recount about Medina sandstone and its use in the church.

Neri has been coming to St. Paul’s for 25 years. The Williamsville resident loves the cathedral atmosphere inside St. Paul’s.

“Here I find refuge and renewal,” she said. “It’s quiet and sophisticated. It’s elegant and majestic. It says, ‘God is awesome.’”

The church is part of a cluster of buildings that are gaining national prominence, drawing tourists to Buffalo. The Guaranty Building, designed by Louis Sullivan, is next door and is also a National Historic Landmark. It’s one of the first steel-supported, curtain-walled buildings in the world. When it was built in 1895-96, it was the tallest building in Buffalo.

The Guaranty Building, a National Historic Landmark next to St. Paul’s, is part of a cluster of architecturally significant buildings that are drawing tourists to Buffalo.

Just last month the Society of Architectural Historians held its conference in Buffalo and a tour of St. Paul’s was on the must-see list for the 600 attendees.

Although Upjohn, the church designer, initially favored limestone, Neri said the Medina sandstone has proven remarkably durable and was an excellent choice for the cathedral. On May 10, 1888, the church was nearly destroyed by fire. Only the outer Medina sandstone walls and spires remained.

The church today has about 150 members. There are Sunday services at 9 and 11:15 a.m. Boys and girls choirs draw families to St. Paul’s, giving the church a new generation to continue its mission in the future.

The church proudly displays a marker about its designation as a National Historic Landmark.

Neri believes the church is on an upswing, and will appeal to more people as part of Buffalo’s heritage movement, where several historic buildings have been renovated in recent years. More people are moving to the downtown loft apartments, Neri said.

I told Neri about the plans for a Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame, and my dream to have quarrymen memorial sites in Medina, Albion and Holley – communities where the immigrants worked in quarries to unearth and shape the stone that is so prominent in some of the region’s finest buildings. Neri said we should be proud of the quarrying heritage in Orleans County.

“You guys are important,” Neri told me. “Where would we be without you?”

Iconic sandstone building stays vibrant as a YMCA

Photos by Tom Rivers – The 90,000-square-foot former Medina Armory dominates Pearl Street in Medina.

The YMCA proudly displays a sign near the front entrance, noting the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment of a series featuring buildings made of Medina sandstone that are on the National Register of Historic Places.

MEDINA – Retired Medina teacher Maryellen Dale is a regular inside the Medina Armory, taking yoga, Zumba and Silver Sneakers exercise classes.

Dale’s children grew up playing youth sports at the Armory, which has been used as a YMCA for more than three decades.

When she ascends the sandstone steps of the front entrance, she walks past a sign that notes the building from 1901 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Dale said the community should be proud of the Armory’s role in Medina’s history, and the site’s continued prominence as a Y.

“It’s a beautiful old building and we saved it,” Dale said at the Pearl Street location. “It has a wonderful history for our town.”

The Armory was repurposed as a YMCA about 30 years, a move that has allowed the building to remain widely used as a community asset.

The state built the Armory in Medina for the 29^th Separate Company of the New York Army National Guard, which formed in 1891. The 29^th saw its first action in the Spanish-American War, before the Armory was built. In 1913 the unit was called up to help suppress the Buffalo streetcar strike. The 29^th by then was known as Company F of the National Guard’s Third Regiment.

Company F would be deployed in World War I. It fought in World War II. In 1977, the state announced it was closing the Medina Armory. Company F was moved to other units. (In 2008, the community dedicated a monument in honor of the 29^th and Company F next to the Armory.)

Courtesy Medina Sandstone Society – Company F prepares to leave Medina Oct. 24, 1940 for training at Fort McClellan and active duty in WWII.

The community dedicated this monument in front of the Y in 2008

When the building was closed, the Armory Action Committee formed to find a use for the 90,000-square-foot site.

“We were very much afraid if it was left empty nature would ruin the building,” said Bob Waters, a member of the committee and the retired owner of The Journal-Register in Medina. “It was too nice a building to turn your back on.”

The community formed the Lake Plains YMCA, which has been using the site for more than 30 years. That organization, now known as the Orleans County YMCA, recently spent about $225,000 for a new roof, new lighting and new exercise equipment.

The Y launched a $400,000 capital campaign last month to modernize the facility. The project will include a handicapped accessibility ramp to the side of the structure, a vestibule, two unisex bathrooms and shower areas inside. The lobby will be expanded for social areas for coffee and conversation. A “Child Watch” room and group exercise room will also be added, as well as other improvements.

Jeff Winters, the Y’s executive director, said the organization wants to make the 112-year-old building as functional as possible for a modern-day Y. The Y has grown 42 percent in the past 2.5 years to 2,400 members.

An Armory meeting room, which preserves many of the original features from 1901, is now used for exercise classes.

“The building is an absolute monster to heat and cool,” he said. “In many ways it’s not ideal for a Y, but we’ve made this work for us.”

Most Ys have sites that were designed for exercise, sports and other Y programming. Winters said the Orleans County Y has looked at other venues outside the Armory site, but the group has decided to commit to the Pearl Street location, and work to upgrade that site. Winters knows the building, despite its age and challenges for a Y program, is a tremendous asset for the community.

“Anytime I give a tour, I watch for people’s reaction,” Winters said. “As soon as they walk in, they love it.”

The Medina Armory was designed by state architect George Heins, who used many features of medieval military architecture, including the towers at the front of Pearl Street building.

The Medina Armory and many others in New York resemble castles or imposing fortresses with towers.

In 1995, the U.S. Department of the Interior put many of the surviving and intact Armories in NY on the National Register of Historic Places.

Waters said other nearby closed Armories never found another use, and have been left as dilapidating empty shells. Many of those Armories were built with Medina sandstone. Waters hates to see them fall into ruin.

“Some of these Armories just sit there and rot,” Waters said. “When the YMCA came to Medina, God bless them. That was a big move. It has made for a century of great use at the Armory.”

The Armory at Niagara Falls is largely underutilized. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

Ted Pietrzak says Orleans needs to tell its sandstone story

Photos by Tom Rivers – Ted Pietrzak, a consultant working on a plan to develop the Bent’s Opera House, believes the site in Medina should tell the story of the region’s sandstone treasures, including the Canal Culvert in Ridgeway, where he is pictured on Wednesday.

MEDINA Ted Pietrzak wants to tie it all together, Orleans County’s Erie Canal heritage, the community’s sandstone legacy, and stories of the thousands of immigrants who were drawn to Orleans because of the canal and the quarries.

Pietrzak has been hired by the Orleans Renaissance Group to develop a plan to best utilize the three-story Bent’s Opera House building on Main Street in Medina. He sees at least the first floor of the mostly vacant building as a welcome center that would showcase the county’s sandstone history.

He is pleased the Medina Sandstone Society is going to establish a Sandstone Hall of Fame. A site for the HOF hasn’t been determined, but Pietrzak sees the opera house – a Medina sandstone building – as an excellent home for the Hall of Fame.

“The sandstone is the connecting thread to these communities beyond the Erie Canal,” Pietrzak said Wednesday, after we spent 2 ½ hours driving around the county. “You have all of these monuments to the sandstone industry.”

The former opera house also is eyed for a restaurant on the second floor and a performing arts venue on the top floor. Pietrzak sees it as a cultural hub that could showcase the history of the community, including its dominant industries of sandstone and agriculture. He thinks locally grown produce and farm products should be sold at the building.

Pietrzak has been interviewing community leaders the past two months, soliciting ideas for a reuse plan for the opera house and a greater vision for Medina. I knew he was working on a plan for Medina, and I suggested to Medina and Orleans County officials that the plan be strongly sandstone-based, and include a sandstone trail that would stretch from Medina to Albion, Hulberton and Holley. We once had more than 100 quarries along the canal in these communities.

This photo from about a century ago shows quarry workers in Hulberton.

Medina sandstone is a well-known brand, and is prominently featured in some of the finest buildings in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany and other villages and cities in the state. We should be using this famous stone to help build the community today.

Pietrzak, the former director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, was willing to listen to me, and here is a snapshot of what I told him, how I think we show claim our sandstone heritage and use it to promote community pride and attract tourists:

The first sandstone quarry opened in Medina in1837, just north of the lift bridge near Route 63. I think this site should be clearly marked, cleaned out, and turned into a park with a sandstone walking trail. A massive historic sandstone building is nearby, a relic of Medina’s industrial heyday in the late 1800s.

Medina and Orleans County should petition the state and federal government to turn this quarry and old building into a National Historic Landmark, a park-like setting that could explored and experienced. This could be the start of a sandstone trail that would run countywide along Route 31.

The Sandstone Trail would have roadside markers along 31, stretching from Medina to Holley. We should use directional arrows to point to sandstone attractions that are down some side roads, such as the Canal Culvert in Ridgeway and the tower in Mount Albion Cemetery.

The trail would link the canal communities, which don’t often work together. I’d suggest using the top of the Mount Albion tower as the iconic logo for the roadside signs. The tower is a county Civil War memorial, built in 1876 of Medina sandstone.

Both the tower and the Canal Culvert could be experienced, rather than merely observed. You can drive or walk through the Culvert, an engineering marvel that goes under the Erie Canal. The tower at Mount Albion has an 84-step spiral staircase that allows people to ascend to the top, 68 feet high.

The tower at Mount Albion Cemetery is a top-notch sandstone structure that could be a bigger attraction with better marketing.

We have cavernous churches that tell community and religious stories, reflecting the wealth and fervor of the community between about 1850 and 1900. We need interpretive panels – those mounted explanatory signs you see at state parks – that share the history of the buildings, explain the architectural features, and highlight some of the wonders inside, including 150-year-old pipe organs and Tiffany stained-glass windows.

We should develop walking tours, so local residents and visitors can learn about a great American story that took place here from about 1850 to 1920. That is when most of our landmark buildings – the courthouse, the churches and downtown commercial buildings – were constructed.

I think the Sandstone Hall of Fame should highlight some of the great buildings and structures made from Medina sandstone. I would like to see another site that told the immigrant story of the thousands of quarrymen who came to our community.

Albion and Holley had more quarries and more people working in them than Medina. I would like to see the old Swan Library turn one of its three floors into center that tells that immigrant story, how people came from Ireland, Poland, Italy and Great Britain to work here. Their descendants could provide photos of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, first-generation Americans who worked here. Those pictures would make for an emotional gallery.

I have been pushing the Albion Village Board for about six months to allow a vacant piece of land on Main Street to be used as a quarrymen memorial site, featuring an 8-foot-high bronze statue of a quarrymen. The site should also have interpretive panels, giving a brief overview of the immigrants who worked in the county, while another display highlighted the sandstone trail and some of the impressive buildings made of the local stone.

Bill Koch of Buffalo submitted this design of a bronze statue of a quarryman for a memorial in Albion.

The Village Board has instead chosen to make that space part of a larger parking lot on Main Street, which I think is a horrible mistake. We would stand a good chance of getting a state grant to help pay for a well-done quarrymen’s memorial site on Main Street. It would provide a focal point, explaining why Albion and the canal villages are blessed with so many awesome structures.

When the village showed its reluctance for the quarrymen memorial, County Legislature Chairman David Callard suggested a piece of the courthouse lawn could be the home for the statue. But historic preservationists and other community members think the statue wouldn’t be prominent on the corner of the lawn, and it would compete with the courthouse. Most people I talk with agree the downtown site on Main Street, with the Presbyterian Church as a sandstone backdrop, would be perfect.

The village hasn’t paved the site yet, so there is still time to pursue the memorial site. We have a rendering of the statue, and could still meet the deadline to apply for a state grant. If you support the quarrymen project, please tell the Village Board.

Photos by Tom Rivers – The Genesee County Jail, built in 1902-03, is part of a historic district in Batavia that was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Editor’s Note: Orleans Hub will be featuring buildings made of Medina sandstone that are included on the National Register of Historic Places.

BATAVIA – It looks like fortress. The Genesee County Jail is one of Batavia’s architectural gems. The building on Main Street has five turrets, a raised foundation and quoins made of rusticated sandstone.

Genesee County Historian Sue Conklin suspects there was a friendly rivalry among counties more than a century ago when they built courthouses, jails and other public buildings. Genesee wanted to out-do its neighbors with the jail, and I believe the county succeeded.

The jail is part of the Genesee County Courthouse Historic District that was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The district represents the civic core of the city and includes buildings from the 1840s to 1920s.

The architect who designed the Genesee County Jail also designed the Attica State Prison.

The collection of historic structures includes the old county courthouse, former city hall, U.S. Post Office, The Holland Land Office Museum, a county office building and a Civil War monument. The jail is the only Medina sandstone building in the disitrict. St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which is close by, also is a striking sandstone structure.

I think the jail is the most impressive of all the buildings in Batavia’s historic district. The building was constructed in 1902-03. It was designed by Poughkeepsie architect William J. Beardsley in a Victorian Gothic style. Beardsley also was the architect for the Attica State Prison and many county courthouses.

The county sheriff and his family used to live in the front portion of the jail building at 14 West Main St. The jail had 10 to 15 cells. There were living quarters for the sheriff and a kitchen in the building until the early 1970s, said Gary Maha, the Genesee sheriff.

The sheriff used to live in the front portion of the jail until the 1970s.

Maha started his career in 1967 as a road patrol deputy. He remembers when the sheriff, deputies and jail were all squeezed into the building.

“It was a house and we were cramped like sardines,” he said.

The county put a brick addition on the jail in 1985. There is now capacity for 97 inmates.

For more than 100 years, the Sheriff’s Office was based out of the building. Maha worked out of the site until 2007, when the county built a new office for the Sheriff’s Department. The county’s back-up dispatch continues to use space in the historic building. The Genesee Justice program also has moved in. The jail takes up most of the space.

Maha marvels at the building, and not just the architecture.

“The woodwork inside there, you just don’t see anymore,” Maha said.

Photo courtesy of Genesee County Historian’s Department.

Photo by Tom Rivers – The Medina Sandstone Society is working to create a Hall of Fame that will recognize significant buildings and landmarks made from the local stone. The site could include St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Medina.

MEDINA – Some of Orleans County’s and Western New York’s cavernous churches, ornate public buildings, stately residences and enduring memorials share a common building block: Medina sandstone.

A local group wants to recognize some of the long-lasting and architecturally significant sites made of sandstone.

The Medina Sandstone Society has announced it is working to establish a Hall of Fame for buildings and sites made of the local stone. The group would like to induct the first class in October.

“A big part of this is we want to build awareness of the architectural beauty that was created from Medina sandstone and this wonderful resource we have in this community,” said David Miller, one of the Sandstone Society members working on the project.

Nearly 200 years ago Medina sandstone was discovered locally when the canal was dug. Some of that stone in early 1820s was used to build the Canal Culvert in Ridgeway and the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse in Rochester.

Photo by Tom Rivers – The Canal Culvert in Ridgeway, built in 1823, is one of area’s most famous sandstone structures. The Medina Sandstone Society hopes to have a list of Hall of Fame nominees by August with the inaugural class to be announced in the fall.

A decade later, the first commercial Medina sandstone quarry opened. In the 100 years that followed, thousands of immigrants were drawn to Orleans County quarries, unearthing the stone and shaping it for some of the region’s most enduring and architecturally significant buildings.

Miller, Jim Hancock and John Slack think it’s long overdue that Medina sandstone is celebrated for its role in some of the area’s most recognizable structures. The trio is leading the effort to create a “Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame.” The society is developing a list of potential HOF nominees. A list of nominees may be presented to the community during Medina’s Canal Fest in August with an induction program possibly in October.

Miller and Hancock were asked by the Sandstone Society earlier this year to investigate the feasibility of establishing a Hall of Fame. The small committee said the project can be done and the full society board backed the project last month.

Miller said the HOF may be a modest effort in the beginning. The society may decide to just enshrine one site from Medina and another one from Western New York for the first class, and then add more in the following years. Or the first class could include several sites from around the state.

“We don’t have to start out with a big bang,” Miller said. “We’re going to feel our way through this. It can definitely grow.”

The size of the class, and the location for the HOF, will be determined in the coming months. Miller said the HOF will likely include framed photographs of the sites with plaques describing their significance. The owners of the buildings will be invited to Medina for the HOF induction.

“We may not limit it to one location,” he said about the Hall of Fame display. “We will put it on the Web. We could have it in the visitor’s center and maybe have a traveling show.”

Photo by Tom Rivers – The Medina Sandstone Society wants to honor sandstone sites in Orleans County, the region and elsewhere. The Richardson Olmsted Complex in Buffalo, which includes twin copper-roofed towers, is one of many Buffalo buildings made from Medina sandstone.

The group’s immediate task is to identify “a list of exceptional structures locally and farther away.” He wants to catalog Medina sandstone sites. He hopes the Hall of Fame encourages more sandstone appreciation projects in Orleans County. He supports the creation of a Sandstone Trail that would link Medina, Albion, Hulberton and Holley – which were all home to sandstone quarries. Many sandstone buildings remain in those communities. A trail with roadside markers would raise more public recognition for the county’s sandstone heritage, he said.

He also would like to see each community develop walking tours of their sandstone buildings.

“The Hall of Fame is only one aspect of this,” he said. “We should develop a trail and build momentum around our sandstone. We want to give people more to do when they come to Medina and Orleans County.”

Contributed photo – James Hancock, left, discusses a planned Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame with fellow committee members David Miller, center, and John Slack.

Press release

MEDINA – The Medina Sandstone Society announced a plan to organize a “Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame” for formally recognizing outstanding structures made of the famous local stone.

A standing committee has been created to choose a number of structures annually such as churches, homes and public buildings.

Those selected for special honor in the Hall of Fame will be promoted and publicized as notable examples of the use of the stone which made Orleans County known over much of the world.  Beginning in the 1830s the stone was in great demand for a century and some great examples remain today.

“Each year we plan to accept nominations from both our board of

directors and our large list of supporters known as Stone Cutters and selection will be made by the Hall of Fame committee,” said HOF committee member James Hancock. He is joined on the committee by David Miller and John Slack.

Hancock expects the first class will be inducted later this year. Inductees will receive a plaque with an appropriate picture and narrative which they can display at their home site.  Similar pictures and narratives will be displayed at a location in Medina. The committee is working to identify a site for the Hall of Fame.

“This plan gives our society another opportunity to promote and recognize the use of our Medina stone,” Hancock said. “It is also intended to give the general public deeper knowledge of how that beautiful sandstone has been used around the county, the state and the world.”

Related article:

Medina will establish Sandstone Hall of Fame

Photos by Tom Rivers – St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Olean was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The building was constructed in 1890 from Medina sandstone.

OLEAN – Pat Piccirillo admired the building for decades before he ever set foot inside St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Olean.

When he finally went inside, at the coaxing of a woman he was dating, Piccirillo said he was awestruck. The long-time Catholic has since married that woman and has become a devoted Episcopalian, and caretaker for the church built in 1890 at 109 South Barry St.

“It’s just a beautiful church,” he told me by phone. “The whole church is just amazing to me with the way they sculpted the stone and put the windows inside. They had people working on the church who knew what they were doing.”

In 2001, the church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A sign on St. Stephens proudly notes that designation. St. Stephen’s is one of many buildings across the state constructed of Medina sandstone that have endured as architectural and community treasures.

Many of these buildings have been added to the National Register, a list of about 88,000 properties in the country that have significant local, state or national significance, and deemed worthy of preservation.

Piccirillo is thankful St. Stephen’s is so well constructed.

“You couldn’t possibly build a church like that today,” he said. “You couldn’t afford it. There isn’t enough money in the U.S. Mint.”

The church was built in a Gothic Revival style. It was designed by upstate architect Robert W. Gibson. St. Stephen’s also has stained-glass windows from Germany and an impressive pipe organ.

“People go inside and they stand in awe,” said Piccirillo, 75.

A member of the church vestry, Piccirillo has been going to St. Stephen’s for 14 years. His biggest worry for St. Stephen’s: a small congregation of about 20 to 40 people. He hopes more people join the church to help keep the building up for years to come.
“We do the best we can,” he said.

Editor’s note: I was in Olean for the first time last month. St. Bonaventure University invited to give a presentation about my experiences working with farmworkers in 2008. Back then, I wrote a first-person series for The Daily News of Batavia. I planted onions, milked cows, harvested cabbage, and picked cucumbers and apples. I get asked to share my experiences, and these “talks” take me all over western and central New York.

I love going to these small towns, looking for sandstone buildings and signs of community pride. St. Stephen’s is next to Lincoln Park, one of Olean’s most prominent public places.

Before I spotted St. Stephen’s, I noticed 4-foot-high fiber-glass squirrels sprinkled around the city. The squirrels were painted in a variety of themes, from Starry Night to McDonalds.

The city of Olean launched a public art project in 2007 featuring 4-foot-high painted fiberglass squirrels. There are 28 of them around the city.

The city launched the “Woodland in the City” public art project in 2007 when 28 of the squirrels were painted and displayed around Olean. They remain outside, even in the winter.

Piccirillo said the public art project has been a big success.

“I see people out taking pictures of the squirrels all the time,” he said. “It gets people coming to Olean.”

The city has lots of black squirrels and visitors often comment about them. The fluffy-tailed rodents are also chubbier in Olean than most places, Piccirillo said.

Project organizers also have a sense of humor, he said, and didn’t mind poking fun at the city in Cattaraugus County.

“We’re a little nutty,” he said.