Sandstone Society brings back bus tour to see Hall of Famers

By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 3 April 2023 at 9:47 am

‘Sedimental Journey’ goes to Medina Sandstone sites in Orleans, Rochester, Palmyra, Canandaigua and Clifton Springs

Photo by Tom Rivers: Michael Miano of Middleport takes a photo of the First Presbyterian Church of Albion on April 29, 2018 as part of the first bus tour of local sites that are in the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame. The Medina Sandstone Society organized the tour and had a sell-out with 30 people riding the bus.

The Medina Sandstone Society is excited to announce the return of its Medina Sandstone bus tour, an event that had been discontinued due to the Covid pandemic.

The Sonnenberg Manor in Canandaigua was inducted in to the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame in 2016 and will be featured in an upcoming bus tour on May 16.

For the first time since 2019, the Medina Sandstone Society will sponsor a bus tour May 16 to visit some of the magnificent structures in Orleans County, Rochester, Wayne County and Ontario County that made of Medina Sandstone. All of the sites on the tour have been inducted into the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame, which was established in 2013.

A 47-passenger bus will leave the Medina City Hall at 8:30 a.m. and return at 4 p.m. Stops will include Holy Family Parish in Albion’s Courthouse Square, Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, the former St. Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester, Zion Episcopal Church in Palmyra, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Clifton Springs and Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua.

A stop for lunch will be at Warfield’s Restaurant in Clifton Springs, a restaurant and event center with beautiful gardens for guests to enjoy, according to Kathy Blackburn, a member of the Sandstone Society. There will also be time to tour the mansion at Sonnenberg in Canandaigua, she said.

Cost is $90 per person or $85 for stonecutters (who are members of the Sandstone Society) and includes lunch.

Reservations are due by May 5 by sending a check to the Medina Sandstone Society, P.O. Box 25, Medina; or by Paypal at Sandstonesociety.org. Include e-mail and contact information with reservation.

Commentary along the way will be provided by Bill Lattin, former Orleans County historian, and Dave Miller, a member of the Medina Sandstone Society’s Hall of Fame committee.

There are 35 sites included in the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame. For more information on the Hall, click here.