Monthly Archives: March 2021

Old-Time Depots (and Where to Find Some!)

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“Millions of people in this country still couldn’t find the airport, Lyndon. But they sure as hell know where the depot is.” – Harry S. Truman, 1964.

Harry Truman’s long-ago advice to President Johnson is, well, long ago. For almost a hundred years this country’s economy rose or fell with the railroad, just as it rose or fell with the car for most of OUR lifetimes. Nowadays, though, the railroad doesn’t mean what it used to.

But the train still runs, and even where it doesn’t, our region is still dotted with the stations and depots where travelers once huddled from the rain, checked their ticket for the dozenth time, bought a magazine to read along the way. For many military personnel, the depot was the last sight of home. For far too many families, the depot was the last place they ever hugged their son or dad or husband, the last place his voice was ever heard, in the town that heard his very first cry.

For most soldiers, they knew their war was finally over when they jumped off the train and raced back into the oh-so-familiar hometown station, not even pausing in their rush to the street beyond.

Some depots are pretty uninspiring, but others are worth a little trip. The DL&W depot in PAINTED POST (277 Steuben Street) is in the pagoda style – a very early example of company branding, with the roof flared out on both long sides, and braced by elegant external buttresses. This depot was actually prefabricated, shopped out by rail in sections, and assembled on site! It was a makeshift morgue after the 1972 flood, and it’s Now home to the Painted Post-Erwin Museum at the Depot. All three metal “Indian” figures that preceded the current Chief Montour statue are on exhibit here.

The Erie Depot in HORNELL (111 Loder Street) is now creatively called the Hornell Erie Depot Museum. “Hornellsville” was a modest unincorporated settlement when Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster came through on the ceremonial first Erie Railroad train, connecting Lake Erie with New York City. The company decided that Hornell (as we know it) would be a great spot for their main repair and maintenance shop. The Maple City started to boom as an industrial center. Railroads are still big business in Hornell, and the historic depot reflects that.

As far as I can tell, the B&H depot on the waterfront in HAMMONDSPORT (7 Water Street) was a pretty routine piece of work until World War I or later, when it took on the railroad gothic form that’s now been the beloved village symbol for decades. The swooping spire, weathervane, deep overhang, and rows of buttresses seize the memory, along with the background of Keuka Lake and the Depot Park. Glenn Curtiss and Alexander Graham Bell knew this place, which helped make feasible their early experiments in airplanes and motorcycles. This was the northern terminus of the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad – the entrance to the Lake, or the portal to the world. (It’s now the Village offices.)

The 1905 Lehigh Valley station in ROCHESTER (99 Court Street) is now home to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que! The squat tower, and its position above the falls of the Genesee River, make it unmistakable. Both the station and the 1892 Court Street Bridge are on the National Register of Historic Places… as is the Painted Post depot.

While you’re in ROCHESTER, stop by at Amtrak’s Louise K. Slaughter Rochester Station (320 Central Avenue). This modern 2017 intermodal facility is a reminder that trains… indeed, PASSENGER trains… are still a part of our life and our economy. Long may they wave!

“Many Mansions” (and Where to Find Them!)

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For the last month or more in this space we’ve looked at where you can drive to find interesting architecture… octagon houses, cobblestone buildings, manufactured diners, geodesic domes, roadside architecture, and more. This week we take a look at mansions.

So… what qualifies as a mansion? For my purposes, it’s a notably large and well-appointed house, and we’ll start with the one I visit almost every day… the JOHN MAGEE HOUSE in Bath.

Mr. Magee built his new home probably in 1831, when he left Congress and married his second wife. Since Bath wasn’t even 40 years old at the time, this edifice must have been breathtaking, if not staggering. The first depiction of it, in 1857, shows an Italianate style with two fountains.

It was altered a fair amount between 1893 and 1999, when it served as Bath’s library… now it’s the Steuben County History Center, still sitting in its parklike green space (1 Conhocton Street) stretching toward the center of town. Besides its research, office, and artifact storage facilities, Magee House is also home to the Elm Cottage Museum, covering Bath and Steuben County – it will be open again once the pandemic is better under control. I ESPECIALLY LIKE: the post office delivery bike,

Canandaigua’s 1887 SONNENBERG MANSION (remodeled 1902) is justly famed for Mrs. F. F. Thompson’s gardens, but the 40-room Queen Anne-style house itself is stunning on its little rise. The entrance area has hunt trophies, high windows, and dark woodwork – I keep expecting Frederic Remington or Theodore Roosevelt to walk in. There’s a wide veranda, and wide-spreading trees. You can visit several period outbuildings, such as the greenhouse and carriage house, and the gardens are glorious in season. (151 Charlotte Street) I ESPECIALLY LIKE: the portrait that Mrs. Thompson paid for, but wouldn’t take home – you may need to ask the docents!

Down at 295 Main Street, Canandaigua also rejoices in GRANGER HOMESTEAD, an 1816 Federal style mansion built by Gideon Granger, America’s longest-serving postmaster general (1801 to 1814, in the Jefferson and Madison administrations; his son Francis held the job for nine months in 1841.) After leaving the post office, Gideon declared that he would build a mansion “unrivaled in all the nation.” The grounds also include a carriage museum, and the office where Stephen A. Douglas studied law, after graduating from Canandaigua Academy. I ESPECIALLY LIKE: the Festival of Trees at Christmastime.

George Eastman (founder of Eastman Kodak, in case you were wondering), made a fortune in Rochester. In 1902-1905 he spent a fair amount of that pile by building another impressive pile… the GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE, now Eastman Museum (900 East Avenue).

The “colonial revival” mansion looks period, but it had all the modern conveniences available at the time. The 50-room house had its own generator, its own telephone system, built-in vacuum cleaning, and an elevator, not to mention the greenhouse and extensive outbuildings, and a sprawl of gardens. I ESPECIALLY LIKE: daily concerts on Mr. Eastman’s pipe organ – honest!

Binghamton’s contemporary 1904-1907 ROBERSON MANSION is now home to Roberson Museum and Science Center (30 Front Street). Building in the Italian Renaissance style, Alonzo Roberson included a grand staircase, a third-floor ballroom, private baths for each bedroom, and a three-story servant’s wing. (Even with all the “modern” conveniences of 1907, an awful lot still needed to be done by hand in a house this size.) I ESPECIALLY LIKE: the HUGE model train layout, suggesting the whole Binghamton region!

Curious Constructions (and Where to Find Them!)

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Over the past month or so we’ve talked about where you can take a drive to find octagon houses (2/8), Quonset huts and geodesic domes (2/15), manufactured diners (2/22 and 3/1), and cobblestone buildings (3/8), all here in western New York. This week we’re looking at oddities and curios.

*Fieldstone Buildings*

We start with the lovely early 20th-century Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, in Savona… which I have often mistakenly described as cobblestone. Its chalet roof and dramatic shingled front are striking in their own right. But the foundation, buttresses, and lower walls are a MIX of cobblestones (which can be held in the palm of one hand) and fieldstones (requiring both hands to pick up). Good Shepherd Church is a jewel-box treasure.

Bath has a single-story fieldstone commercial block at 6-8 Buell Street. Many of Bath’s 19th-century commercial buildings are partially fieldstone (often mortared over), with brick fronts. The Buell Street site is outspoken and uncompromising, all fieldstone, and all unhidden.

While that’s a “warts and all” presentation, Garrett Chapel on Keuka Bluff has a kinder, gentler fieldstone fabric, as befits a memorial to a beloved only child, who died having scarcely entered into adulthood. It’s well worth the drive, but don’t do it when the roads are snowy or icy.

Many drivers between Hammondsport and Watkins Glen are puzzled by a small fieldstone structure on County Road 114. This is an 1852 berry evaporator, built to dry black raspberries, which were a cash crop for local folks at the time. The evaporator now belongs to Wayne History Group, which arranged for its recent restoration.

*Roadside Architecture*

In the early days of auto travel, businesspeople wanting to pull in the traffic sometimes created attractive, if occasionally bizarre, structures that served not only as unmistakable (even unavoidable) markers, but as attractions themselves. “The Wigwams” still pops eyes on State Route 417 in Jasper, even though it’s only rarely open to the public. It was once a free museum of Indian artifacts, plus lunch counter, gift shop, service station, et cetera, et cetera.

On the more-traveled routes 5 and 20, travelers still enjoy a “Dutch” windmill, originally anchor for a set of tourist cabins and tea room.

*Others*

Ganondagan State Historic Site, near Victor, has a walk-in longhouse, as would have been on the site during Haudeonosaunnee (Iroquois) days. It’s outfitted as would have been the case long ago, and it’s a memorable experience, besides being educational – you might like it. Amusingly, it’s a state building, so needs to meet fire codes and the like, which leads, if you look closely, to some compromises in materials.

Geneva is home to a two-story 1888 astronomical observatory, now privately owned but occasionally opened to the public. Dr. William R. Brooks of Hobart College built the dome and telescope, with which he spent many a night and discovered many a comet. The 19th-century form of the Smith Observatory will ring a bell with anyone who’s enjoyed old movies and comic strips.

Go out onto State Route 53 near the unincorporated settlement of Wheeler (or Wheeler center), look off to the east side of the road, and you may spot an elderly tobacco barn. These long low structures are vaguely reminiscent of the Haudenosaunnee longhouses. They point back to the day when southeastern Steuben County, and much of Chemung County, were significant tobacco growers. Once the leaves were harvested, they’d hang in these specialized barns to dry. Happy driving!

Cobblestone Houses (and Where to Find Some!)

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Over the past month we’ve looked at where you can go to find octagon houses (2/8), Quonset huts and geodesic domes (2/15), and manufactured diners (2/22/ and 3/1). This week we’re looking for that delightful feature of western New York, the cobblestone house. In reading up a little, I was startled to learn that 75 per cent of cobblestone houses are found within 75 miles of Rochester. A glut of stonemasons, idled on the 1825 completion of the Erie Canal, drove this riot of construction, which had pretty much run its course by the start of the Civil War.

So what are we talking about? Simply put, a cobblestone can be held in the palm of one hand. Sometimes they’re placed randomly, but usually they’re set in courses (horizontal rows), with masonry between each course and between each stone within the course. If they’re set well, a first glance might give you the impression that you’re looking at brick.

Bath features a fine, large, well-maintained cobblestone house (a private home) on 120 West Washington Street, listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a lovely home, and it’s said to be the southernmost cobblestone masonry building in New York state, which I can’t vouch for. But it makes a fine, impressive sight… a pleasure to walk by.

Livingston County Historical Society’s building, on Center Street in Geneseo, started out as a school in the 1830s. The (very) wealthy Wadsworths donated the land, and reportedly wanted a good solid building, and got what they asked for – it was the local school into the NINETEEN-thirties, and it’s been the Historical Society ever since. It’s unusual in having two cobblestone wings. Some structures have the stones set more or less randomly. LCHS, like the Washington Street house in Bath, is of stones precisely set in perfect rows, or courses. The front of LCHS is of multicolored stones, making an enjoyable dull dazzle.

For background I read up in Rich and Sue Freeman’s book Cobblestone Quest, but while they describe numerous buildings and 17 driving routes, Bellona and Rushville are the closest they come to the Bath-Corning area. They note two places in Steuben and 11 in Yates, but 101 in Ontario, 106 in Monroe and 170 (!) in Wayne County! Plus another 250 scattered over ten more WNY counties!

Yates County’s 11 houses are at 11 different sites, each on the National Register of Historic Places. The private homes are scattered across Benton, Middlesex, Torrey, and Starkey. The Jephtha Earl farmhouse on Old State Road is an unusual cobblestone house in the Italianate style.

Rich and Sue point to several cobblestone museums, such as Babcock House Museum in Appleton. The Cobblestone Society in Albion rejoices in THREE cobblestone buildings: the Ward House (c. 1840), the District 5 Schoolhouse (1849, used for 103 years), and the 1834 Universalist Church – a neat collection of three divergent uses. Cobblestone Society also has half a dozen other period buildings, making a nice walk-around outdoor museum, the Cobblestone District. Not only is this location on the National Register, it’s further designated a National Historic Landmark. Nearby, and also on the National Register, are the 1830s Cobblestone Inn (a stagecoach stop), the 1832 District 2 Cobblestone School, and the 1830s John Shlep House.

A little closer to home, we should point out the Cobblestone Restaurant, on Pre-Emption Road in Geneva. Interestingly it’s on the site of an 18th-century tavern and stagecoach stop, but the current building was erected in 1838. The Tuttle-Fordon House, as it’s also known, has been added to over the years, but in such a way as to make it even more impressive, while still preserving the cobblestone charm and dignity. This list doesn’t scratch the surface! The cobblestone Victor School 7 has a cobblestone four-hole outhouse! And there’s plenty more out there!

Old-Time Diners (and Where to Find Some) — Part 2!

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Over the past three weeks we’ve looked at some quirky, even goofy, forms of American architecture, and where we can drive to see some locally – octagon houses (2/8), Quonset huts and geodesic domes (2/15), and manufactured diners (2/22). This week, we find a few more diners!

As we mentioned last week, anyplace can call itself a diner. But we’re looking here specifically at long, low historic diners, built in a factory and delivered on wheels, and still showing enough of their original construction for us to spot them.

In Rochester you can double-dip for diners, starting with the Skyliner, which is actually an attraction AND an eating place at the Strong National Museum of Play. And why not? If a diner isn’t exactly play, it certainly falls under the category of fun! This is perhaps the largest historic “artifact” in the museum collection, and it was built in 1956 by Fodero, which emphasized modernistic chrome and stainless steel. By the way, it used to be that you could walk in, eat at the diner, and walk out. Nowadays you need to pay museum admission to get a seat.

A few miles away is the Highland Park Diner (960 South Clinton), still on its original 1948 spot but formerly called Dauphin’s Superior Diner. It’s the only survivor of a handful of diners made by the Orleans Company of Albion. Given its location, Highland Park Diner is proud of serving customers “from college students to mature couples.”

Hunter (or Hunter’s) Dinerant in Auburn was closed for a few months last year, but as far as I can tell it’s open again. It’s a 1951 chrome-and-steel diner and it was installed at 18 Genesee Street that same year, on a platform built out over the Owasco River. In addition to traditional diner fare, they’ve recently added the French Canadian poutine (french fries, gravy, and cheese curds).

Back in 1989 Connie Cartolozzo, a chef at Hobart, was having a coffee at Chick’s Diner in Waterloo and decided to make an offer for the place. Before long the 1960s diner hands and became Connie’s Diner. Patrons speak highly of the milkshakes!

Smokin’ Little Diner in DePew is a 1950s chrome-and-steel model, proud of its barbecue sauce. It’s not very big, but it’s DARNED popular.

We mentioned last week that this series is an architecture feature, so we can’t really make recommendations, let alone guarantees, about the food or menus at any given place. Also, of course, the pandemic has wreaked havoc with hours, menus, seating, and ambience. Still, if you’re touring around you might think about getting something “to go,” even if it’s only a cup of coffee (or a milkshake)… or, you could buy a bottle of barbecue sauce. The owners and workers will surely appreciate it.


As we wrap up our diner dive, let’s bare our heads for several local eateries that have passed from the scene. Avoca Diner, as we mentioned last week, fulfilled its destiny by being put on wheels and hauled away to Washington, D.C. The Post Diner in Painted Post was a diner of the spaceship, chrome-and-steel persuasion, plus a substantial expansion. It was ENTIRELY under water in the 1972 flood, and I imagine that that’s why we have it no more.

Randy’s Stanton Diner, on Bridge Street in Corning’s Northside, was in the “railway car” style. It too would have been flooded in 1972, which may be why it’s gone. In either case, the Post and the Stanton are each fondly remembered. Take a drive. Make some of your own memories.