Living in Greece Stories

Stories and recollections from the people, places, and publications that document life in the Town of Greece.

These articles offer perspectives on what it was like to live in the Town of Greece in the past. Many are from the archives or newsletters of the Greece Historical Society. If you would be interested in learning more about the Town of Greece’s history, please feel free to contact us at (585) 225-7221.

(These stories are the property of the Greece Historical Society, which retains all right thereto. The contributors to these stories provide them for non-commercial, personal, educational, and/or research use only. Prior written permission from the Greece Historical Society and the individual authors must be obtained for any other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publications, or any reproductions or redistribution of any kind.)

Share Your Stories and Memories

We love to read stories and memories by you or your organization. Submit a local history story or memory of growing up in the Town of Greece by emailing a zip file with your story and photos to greecehistoricalsociety@yahoo.com. Use the subject line: Share My Story of Local History or Memories Of Greece N.Y. plus your story title. Include a brief bio and one photo for publication.

Your story should be no more than 500 words. We can edit for continuity, grammar, and punctuation. Stories may cover one span or multiple spans: 1800-1850, 1900-1950, 1950-2000, and 2000-Present.

30 stories
Reset
Sort stories by:
Published date Title Last updated Random Comments

Christmas Greetings Cards 1875-1900

December 1, 2017 |
Greeting cards for the Christmas season were very slow to gather popularity in the United States prior to the Civil War ( 1861-1865). The first commercial Christmas card was introduced for the season of 1843 in London, England. It wasn't a success for several reasons. In the early 1870s, a...
Categories: 1850-1900 From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories
Tags: Boston Christmas Christmas Eve Civil War England Facebook Greeting Cards Holidays Instagram Linkedin London Mass Pinterest Saint Nicholas Santa Snapchat Tumblr Twitter Whatsapp YouTube
Read Story

A Tale of Two General Stores: “From Apples to Zithers”

October 1, 2017 |
Our History... by Alan Mueller Small general stores (as they were often called) were in the Charlotte area from the earliest days. In the 1850s general merchandise businesses were established along Ridge Road West. Henry C. Phelps built his store on North Greece Road in about 1870. The area was...
Categories: 1850-1900 From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories Uncategorized
Tags: General Stores Gilbert (Burt) J Wagg's H.C. Phelps Kodak Park Lake Ave Lake Avenue North Greece Pullman Ave Wagg's General Store
Read Story

Truck Farming on Stone Road – The Thomas Farm

December 1, 2016 |
Seventeen-year-old WIi­liam J. Thomas immi­grated to Greece from Cheddar, Somerset County, England, in 1882. The following year, he purchased 11 acres of farmland on Stone Road, not far west of the intersection of Eddy Road (now Mt. Read. Boulevard). At that time, the average size of a Greece farm was...
Categories: 1850-1900 1900-1950 1950-2000 From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories Uncategorized
Tags: 1882 1930s 1938 1950s 1960s 1963 19th Century 2½-story farmhouse beets car­rots Cheddar coal-fired boiler Eddy Road England horse-drawn wagon Mount Read Blvd non-growing season parsnips root vegetables Somerset County Stone Road turnips William J. Thomas
Read Story

“From tractors to tracts!” – From The Historian’s Desk

October 1, 2016 |
It is not quite a century since rural Greece slowly and sometimes not so slowly started to turn from an almost com­pletely agricultural community to street after street of home developments. After World War II the pace quickened so fast that the DPW couldn't keep up with all the new...
Categories: 1800-1850 1850-1900 1900-1950 From The Historian's Files Pioneer Families
Tags: DeConinck Kirk Road Latta Road Mitchell Pioneer Families Preston World War II Yarker
Read Story

Marketing to Farmers From the 1850s to the 1900s

March 1, 2016 |
Cover of the Genesee Farmer Hiram Sibley & Co. Seed Box, Used in the C.W. Barnes Store, 1882-1888, Located in the General Store at Greenfield Village, in Dearborn, Michigan Prior to the Civil War (1861-65) the farmers in Greece got the latest information concerning all aspects of farming from fellow...
Categories: 1850-1900 Living in Greece Stories
Tags: Bavaria C.W. Barnes Store Chicago Chromolithograph Civil War Colored lithography Cracker's Buffalo Phosphate Dearborn Genesee Farmer Germany Greece Grange Greenfield Village H. C. Phelps Hiram Sibley Hiram Sibley & Co. Seed Box Karle Lithographic Co. Keystone Mensing-Stecher Co. Michigan Monroe County Horticultural Society Montgomery Ward Moore's Rural New Yorker Sears-Roebuck The Patrons of Husbandry United States W.H. Rowerdink Co
Read Story

Manitou Beach Hotel – “From the Historian’s Files”

May 5, 2015 |
By far the largest and the most elegant of all the late 19th and early 20th century hotels along Lake Ontario in Greece was the Odenbach Manitou Beach Hotel. It was located at the far western end of the Manitou Beach Trolley. Built in 1888 by the Matthew and Servis...
Categories: 1850-1900 Corinthian From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories
Tags: Braddock Bay Charles P. Odenbach Charlotte Charlotte Beach Damon's Orchestra Fred J. Odenbach Fred Odenbach Frederick S. Odenbach John H Odenbach Manitou Beach Hotel Manitou Road Manitou Trolley Marie Villone Poinan Matthew P Odenbach Olcott Beach Sax Smith Tommy Tucker Vincent Lopez World War II
Read Story

Post Mark North Greece, N.Y. – From The Historians Desk

March 1, 2013 |
After turning the corner at Latta Road to go south on North Greece Road, one might quickly pass a plain red brick building at the rear of a small parking lot. Across the right front of the building are the letters, United States Post Office. If you aren't from the...
Categories: 1850-1900 From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories North Greece
Tags: 14515 1880 1900s 1945 1963 New Construction of North Greece Station 1 1964 1967 Alfred Phelps Ann Piazza Cracker Barrels Doris Cutter Florence Germeroth George Germeroth Jr. Greece H. C. Phelps Kerosene Latta Road Melinda Germeroth Molasses North Greece North Greece Fire Department North Greece Road Phelps General Store Pickles Post Office Trailer United States Post Office William Aeberli William T. Filer World War II zip code
Read Story

Ice Harvesting in the Long Ago – From the Historian’s Desk

January 1, 2013 |
When some local farmers saw the thermometer dipping colder and colder below freezing for a few days they knew that it would be time to get the ice harvesting equipment ready for use on the ponds and a few temporarily dammed creeks in Greece. Long Pond and Cranberry Pond were...
Categories: 1850-1900 From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 100lbs 1910 1920s 1930s 25lbs 300lbs 400lbs 50lbs Buck Pond Cranberry Pond electric ice box Electric Refrigerator GE General Electric HoJack Ice Ice Box Ice breaking-off bar Ice Harvesting Ice Hooks ice house Ice Multi-Toothed Plow Ice Planner Ice Poles Hooks Ice Saw Ice Scorer Ice Scraper Ice Swing Guide ice-making machines Kathie Firkins Long Pond Pond Manitou Beach Manitou Beach Hotel Manitou Road mid-1920s Mrs. Happy Housewife's Skinner Skinner Family Sleds Sleighs Walt Goulding
Read Story
Trolleys passing on the line

The Manitou Trolley – Charlotte to Grand View Beach – “From The Historian’s Desk”

September 1, 2012 |
By the mid-1880s a steam railroad was planned to run from Charlotte to Grand View Beach. This plan never went beyond being chartered and was soon abandoned. The electric trolleys that began to appear on the streets of large cities seemed a more practical solution for this short line, which...
Categories: 1850-1900 From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1895 1907 1908 1917-18 1924 1925 Beach Avenue Braddocks Bay Buck Pond Charlotte Children's Ticket Cranberry Pond East Manitou Hotel Edgemere Drive Edgewater Hotel Elmheart Hotel Grand View Beach Grand View Beach Hotel Island Cottage Hotel Little Round Pond Long Pond Pond Manitou Manitou Beach Hotel Manitou Line Odenbach Ontario Beach Park Rail Spikes World War I
Read Story

Why was it called the Elmheart – “From The Historian’s Files”

November 1, 2011 |
Back in the early 1890s, Frederick Odenbach, a Rochester liquor dealer, bought land on Manitou Beach and started to build a hotel. The newly built Manitou Trolley from Charlotte had finally been extended over a trestle across Braddock Bay to just beyond the Odenbach property. The Skinner family that owned...
Categories: 1850-1900 Corinthian From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories
Tags: "The Elmheart Hotel" Alan Mueller Archives Corinthian Faulding W. Skinner Fred Odenbach George Wiedman Hick's Point Manitou Beach Mathews and Servis Company Michael O'Laughlin Mr. Johnson Odenbach Sheriff Albert Skinner William "Bill" Carroll William Carroll
Read Story
1879 photo at 1777 Ridge Road West.

“An Italianate Beauty in Greece” – FROM THE HISTORIAN’S FILE

March 1, 2011 |
The Colby-Shearman home was moved (due to the construction of I-390) in April 1968, in two sections about one-half mile from its original location at 1777 Ridge Road West to 550 Latona Road. The imposing, early Victorian house is in the Italianate style. It belongs to the picturesque movement in...
Categories: 1850-1900 From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories
Tags: Abner Shearman Colby-Shearman home Jeanette Rhoda Wegman Companies Inc. Zaccheus Colby
Read Story
South side of 1066 Long Pond circa 1904- The Brittons standing on a stone wall.

1066 Long Pond Road- THE BRITTON FAMILY HOMESTEAD – “FROM THE HISTORIAN’S FILE”

November 1, 2010 |  and 
Coming to Monroe County in the early 1800s, the Britton Family were early settlers in what was then called Rochesterville. Alanson Phizarro Britton, the ninth child of thirteen, was born in the tiny village in 1820. While in his teens he ran a line boat on the Erie Canal and...
Categories: 1850-1900 1872 Common School Districts Living in Greece Stories
Tags: Alanson Phizarro Britton Beals Brighton Britton Farmstead Civil War East Avenue Erie Canal Falls Cemetery Greece Common School District #9 Hubbard Squash Laura Lewis Supervisor Toll Gate
Read Story
1 2