Gary is the Historical Asset Coordinator for Wegmans. Our discussion will cover Wegmans Food Markets’ origins in Rochester, New York. We will also discuss its growth through the early 20th century. Additionally, we’ll cover its expansion beyond Rochester, the greater Rochester area, and beyond Upstate New York. Garry Harris worked as a trainer and was an employee at Chase-Pikten. He participated in the Chase-Pikten Home Show With Mike Horne when Chase-Pikten was the sponsor.
The annual report from the Greece Historical Society is out for the 2024 Year
Below is a summary of our social media performance, highlighting key insights:
Facebook Page
YouTube Channel
Top 10 Videos
| Video Title | Total Views |
|---|---|
| Bicentennial Snapshot No. 31 – Iconic Homes in Greece, NY | 297 |
| Bicentennial Snapshot No. 37: Unsolved Arson Case – The Holiday Inn Fire of 1978 | 249 |
| Bicentennial Snapshot No. 35 – “Lafayette, We Are Here!” – World War I | 235 |
| John “Jack” Foy – Sunday Talk at Greece Historical Society | 195 |
| Thomas W. Boyde Jr. | 146 |
| Bicentennial Snapshot No. 41 – Northgate Plaza | 104 |
| ROC 2024 Solar Eclipse: Preparing for Totality | 102 |
| Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Western NY – Recorded Live | 101 |
| The Kannewischer Family: From Berlin to Rochester to Arlidge Drive | 89 |
| Bicentennial Snapshot No. 49 – Dewey Stone Area | 82 |
Website Statistics
These metrics provide a comprehensive overview of our current social media and website performance.
Hope everyone who is a member has received their copy of the Corinthian in the mail. Some of the things in this issue of the January Corinthian are the following:
Just a quick reminder our museum for visits is closed until March 6th at 1:30 PM.
We will still maintain office hours, Mondays 10:00 a.m. until noon.
To make an appointment send an email to greecehistoricalsociety@yahoo.com
Please check our Facebook page prior to any event for unanticipated changes.
Our Tuesday Program for January will be on A Brief History of Wegmans Presented by Gary Harris. Reservations are recommended. Because of the anticipated attendance, the program will be held at Arcadia High School auditorium, 120 Island Cottage Road.
Thursday, January 16, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
GCSD Transportation Center, 1790 Latta Road
At our annual meeting, you can receive a copy of our 2024 Annual Report. You can also view a photo montage of our activities from 2024. Additionally, you can hear about our future plans. Our treasurer Bill Peeck will give a financial report and an election of trustees will be conducted. Trustees serve a term
of three years. Those currently seeking re-election are Bill Peeck, Deborah Whitt and Bridget
O’Toole. Deborah Cole Myers will be seeking election to fill the position currently held by Ruth
Curchoe. All GHS members are invited to attend.
This month’s message is about the impact of social media and the web. They have changed how we engage with our members. They have also changed how we interact with the community. Also, this coming year we will look at replacing our 35-year-old furnace in the collections storage area. As well as other upgrades to improve the Museum experience for future generations.
Maureen Whalen wrote a piece on The Fight Against Polio
Volunteer of the Year 2024
2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Erie Canal.
Watch for events throughout the area commemorating this event. These include the Seneca Chief reproduction boat. It was built by the Buffalo Maritime Center. The boat will make stops in Monroe County in September. If you want more information on the Seneca Chief and its trip, visit their Erie Canal Boat Seneca Chief page. Check out the Buffalo Maritime Center website for more details.
Our Tuesday evening program on February 11, will feature Chandra McKenzi and Ann Coon. They will tell stories about a unique set of diverse women. These women made a commitment to others and produced a legacy of influence and leadership in the community. Their contributions have since become “unsung.”
Each year we select one individual as “Volunteer of the Year.” This year we recognize a long-time member and volunteer Sandy Peck.
Sandy Peck is a member of the Board of Trustees, is on the Society’s Finance and Audit Committees, and she also volunteers in the Gift Shop. As she is the second volunteer on the finance team, it allows us to maintain separation of duties between the person recording the deposits in the finance system and the person counting money received by GHS and depositing it in the bank. As a member of the Audit Committee, she greatly assisted that committee in conducting the 2023 internal audit in February of 2024. Sandy is the main person processing bank deposits on a periodic basis.
Always responsive in getting the deposits in quickly at the end of the month and monitoring any
buildup in volume of financial transactions, she facilitates mid-month or weekly deposits during the membership drive to keep cash on hand to a minimum and to maximize the interest income on our accounts. She volunteers in the gift shop at least once a month or more if necessary and contributes ideas on items to sell with the gift shop manager. Sandy also regularly volunteers to head up ticket sales for the Strawberry Festival and other fundraising events.
On January 14th at 7 p.m., the Greece Historical Society will host its Second Tuesday of the Month History Talks at the Greece Arcadia Auditorium. This one will cover Wegmans Food Markets’ origins in Rochester, New York. It will also discuss its growth through the early 20th century. Additionally, it will cover its expansion beyond Rochester, the greater Rochester area, and Upstate New York. The Speaker will be Gary Harris, the Historical Asset Coordinator for Wegmans. Due to the possibility of this program’s large turnout, we ask that you reserve your seats early. The cut-off for reserving your tickets to the event will be at noon on January 14th.
This is the map of where to park, enter, and attend the program. A Section V game is set to tip off at 7:15 pm in the gym at the school. Please plan on arriving early to get a parking spot closest to the building. Note the Green Box is the Auditorium. Red Arrows indicate the two doors you will be able to enter. The Blue Information symbol marks where our registration table will be for the event.
Please reserve your tickets. The ticket reservation is live. Click the Read More button on the embedded post to reserve your tickets via the ticket engine. You can also call 585-225-7221 or email greecehistoricalsociety@yahoo.com
Elsa Von Blumen was a Rochesterian who, in the 1880s, raced high-wheeled bikes against horses, skaters, and male cyclists. She overcame challenges in a sport dominated by men. She helped inspire other women to find the courage to break social taboos. Her first professional bike race was against a horse in Rochester’s Driving Park. From Rochester, she went on to race throughout the entire Eastern United States for a decade. She was a force to be reckoned with in the cycling world. This presentation will introduce you to an Upstate New York athlete who should not be forgotten. Karen Lankeshofer is a long-time Henrietta, NY resident. She is an avid bike rider and advocates for safe cycling infrastructure. She enjoys studying history, especially if it pertains to Upstate New York. Her presentation is a tribute to a pioneering female professional athlete.
Are you ready to make a difference? As a volunteer with the Greece Historical Society, you have the power to influence how we connect our community with the rich tapestry of our shared history. This is your moment to step up and unleash your potential! We are excited to announce a series of regular meetings designed to reinvigorate our Society, discuss what has been lost, and brainstorm new, innovative ideas that can propel us into the future. It’s time to rally together, share our voices, and cultivate a space where history thrives!
On July 10 we lost one of our long-time members and volunteer, Betty Fetter. Betty passed away peacefully at the age of 102. She was born in Rochester, graduated from Charlotte High School, and was a
proud resident of the Town of Greece for decades. Betty was a longtime employee of Eastman Kodak who also volunteered at the Greece Historical Society, the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse, and the
Greece Public Library. She was a life member and former officer of the Rochester Lapidary Society and was a member of Greece Baptist Church. Throughout her life Betty touched many lives with her kindness, zest for life, and love of local history. We agree with her obituary “Betty was a marvel, living independently to age 100, and she served as a wonderful example of a life well-lived.” She enjoyed traveling, especially to the Adirondack Mountains with family.
Here at GHS, Betty was our volunteer registrar, coming every Monday to sort through and catalog our collection. Before the days of computers that meant handwritten entries in the registry and typing catalogue cards. She also attended training seminars on collection care and the duties of a registrar. She would be seen attending nearly every program and event held by us and would join a group of fellow volunteers every Monday for lunch.
Betty was at the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse almost every Tuesday reviewing many documents and filing them and then met others at a restaurant where she shared local history. In later years a bus would drive her to and take her home from her volunteer duties and lunch outings.
When Secondhand Prose, operated by the Friends of the Greece Public Library, opened in a small room just inside the library entrance, Betty was a volunteer almost from the beginning. She helped sort donated books twice a month. She participated in their twice-yearly sales at the Greece Town Mall, on location at the library, or at sorting areas. She was always a cheerful and willing helper whether sorting or selling books.
Because of her community volunteerism, she received the Greece Historical Society Volunteer of the Year award in 2011 and a certificate of Merit from Senator Joe Robach in 2012.
However, with her tendency to downplay her own accomplishments, Betty had another highly significant volunteer “career,” about which few apparently knew. For nearly 25 years she was on the Race Communications Committee at Watkins Glen, performing vital services for the race organizers, in those glorious years of Formula One1 racing at Watkins Glen. She was much appreciated for her devotion and skill and probably knew many of the drivers and race organizers.
Betty was the sole grandchild of Rochester residents John Kannewischer, a German-born tailor, and his wife, whose six children continued to live in Rochester/Greece their entire lives (1880s-1980s). A remarkable and extensive archive of Kannewischer family memorabilia was preserved by Betty and will be donated to the University of Rochester’s Rush Rhees Library Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation. Our April 2024 program by Cynthia Howk on the family was based on these
materials.
Thank you, Betty, for your service to the community.
We will all miss you.
An illustrated talk on four generations of a remarkable local family, whose lives, work, recreation, and experiences are chronicled by an extensive archive of historic photographs and documents that span 150 years and have never before been seen outside their family. Historian Cynthia Howk’s talk is in honor of Greece resident, Betty Fetter, now 102 years old, whose care of this unique archive, preserves an important American story.
Historian Cynthia Howk presents an illustrated talk about the remarkable local Fetter family, covering 150 years of their life, work, and experiences through an extensive archive of historical photographs and documents previously unseen outside the family. This tribute honors 102-year-old Betty Fetter, custodian of this unique American story.
The Stream Will Go Live at this link here https://www.youtube.com/live/scsHuvT0nz4?si=VPrQMBjQO19kdgjM at 6:45 pm to ensure the video and audio settings are working and then the program will start at 7 pm broadcasted from the Greece Central School District Transportation and Student Services building on Latta Road at Mount Read Blvd.
On April 21, 2024, from 2 pm to 4 pm, we will be hosting two of our top researchers and presenters Maureen Whalen and Marie Poinan are often the face of Local History in our town and the broader community. They both have given many informative talks at the Greece Museum, the Charlotte Branch Library, and several other sites around town. Their subjects have covered a wide range of topics from “A to Z” (ancestors to zoo!) Each has published and assisted others in numerous books and articles. Their audiences are always eager to hear their well-researched presentations.
M & M Sunday will honor them, along with other leaders of the Greece Historical Society. Come to thank Maureen and Marie along with other “behind the scenes” folks who make our historical society one of the best in New York State.
While there, enjoy M & M Sundaes, prepared by Jane Grant.
Professor Oberg will discuss Indigenous land rights in western New York, and how state and federal governments, and legal systems, have underappreciated enduring and powerful Native American claims to the land in our part of the state.
Michael Leroy Oberg, the author of Native America, is a Distinguished Professor of History at SUNY-Geneseo and founder of the Geneseo Center for Local and Municipal History, which he directed from 2019 until 2022.
Learn More about Michael Leroy Oberg from his website https://michaelleroyoberg.com/
Today, as we acknowledge all those who helped us produce these Bicentennial Snapshots, please enjoy photos of places and businesses no longer part of the Greece landscape.
First of all, we are tremendously thankful for all the photos provided by Society President Bill Sauers. He has a vast archive of photographs that he generously shared with us.
If he didn’t have a photo we needed, he went out and took one, especially for the snapshots.
We greatly appreciate Greece town historian Keith Suhr giving us permission to use photos from Greece Images.
Thank you also to our other photographers or those who provided photos for various episodes: Alan Mueller, Ben Kerr, Bonnie Stemen Fiser, Carolyn Kerheart, Dick Halsey, Deborah Cole Meyers,
Douglas Worboys, who worked at Chase-Pitkin and helped you find the tools and supplies for that home improvement project you had going on in your home,
Gene Preston(Retired North Greece Fire Department / Kodak Fire) and owner of Preston Fresh Produce on Long Pond Road, Gina DiBella, Gloria LaTragna, Gretchen Howe, Dr. George Sanders, “Booze, Barns, Boats and Brothers” by H. Dwight Bliss III, John Cranch, Jane Grant, Author of Barns of Greece, Kathy Gray who provided pictures of Frank Siebert that were added to the snapshot on Ridge Road Fire District, Jo Ann Ward Snyder co-author of Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece, Joan Winghart Wilcox Sullivan who wrote about her father, Bernie Winghart, Gordon Massecar,
Joe Vitello, Marie Poinan co-author of Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece as well as the co-author of two books with Maureen Whalen, one book with the late Tom Sawnor, and 5 books on her own, RRFD/Greece Ridge FD Historian and District Photographer Matthew Pillsbury, Battalion Chief Brian Gebo for providing Ridge Road/Greece Ridge Fire Districts 100 Years logo for our use,
Patricia Conklin, Paul Pakusch who let us use the personal home video that he recorded on his way to work at News 10 (WHEC) NBC in 1991 during the ice storm, Mike Parker, Robert Bilsky, Ralph DeStephano, Ed Spelman, Tom DiBello, Travis Beaver, Francis Howard Whelehan, Stanley Hwalek, Mason Winfield the Author of “Haunted Rochester”, William Aeberli, Helen Edson Slocum, Virginia Tomkiewicz, Shirley Cox Husted
North Greece Fire Department, Greece Ridge/Ridge Road Fire District, Barnard Fire Department, Barnard Exempts, FDNY(Fire Department of the City of New York), Greece Police, Center for Governmental Research,
Rochester Public Library, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library’s Recording Studio in the Launch Pad Maker Space at the Central Library, The University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology, Wayne State University, Princeton University, University of Iowa, nebraskastudies.org, SUNY School SOAR
Democrat and Chronicle, 13 Wham TV, WHEC, WROC, Spectrum News, Histrotic Detroit, The Hilton Record, Rochester Times-Union, The American Issue, New York Daily News, Global News a Division of Shaw Media, newspapers.com, Rochester Gas & Electric News Publication, Rochester Daily Advertiser,
Our Mother of Sorrows Church, Greece Baptist Church, Greece United Methodist Church,
Greece Central School District, Archive.org, BoxRec.com, US Treasury National Archives, FBI, National Archives, Department of Defense, U.S.C.G.S. ( United States Coast Guard), Library of Congress, USDA, Wikipedia, IMDB, National Weather Services, NOAA, NASA, Canadian Ice Service, US PTO(Patent and Trademark Office), Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), Rochester Baseball Historical Society, Monroe County GIS Map Gallery which contains 11 interactive maps that were used in some of the snapshots as well as the parcels map that was used to verify data on certain properties,
The Landmark Society of Western New York, Rochester Museum and Science Center, Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, mcnygenealogy.com, New York State digital archive, Monroe Historical Society, Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse, Cobblestone Museum, Buffalo Maritime Center, New York State Department of Transportation, Bob Johnson Chevrolet
We relied heavily on past newspaper accounts and are so grateful that the Greece Historical Society secured grants to have the Greece Press, Greater Greece Press, and Greece Post digitized.
History writers of the future will have a more difficult time documenting the past with fewer newspapers available.
The maps digitized by the Rochester Public Library’s Local History and Genealogy Division are a marvelous resource.
If these Snapshots brought back memories or taught you something you didn’t know, then we succeeded in our endeavor. They will remain a resource for future students of local history.
We encourage you to get out and photograph what will be tomorrow’s history. Keep a journal documenting your lives and bequeath them to future generations.
Lastly, we invite you to visit the Greece Historical Society and Museum to learn more about the history of the town of Greece.
This is Maureen Whalen, on behalf of the Greece Historical Society, Pat Worboys, and myself, saying thank you to our loyal viewers and wishing you the best as Greece begins a new century.
Today we turn our attention to one of the most iconic businesses in Greece. We want to thank Jo Ann Ward Snyder and Bonnie Stemen Fiser for their collaboration on this Snapshot. Jo Ann is preparing a profile of the Buckman family for Volume II of Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece. This is just a small expert from the full profile of the Buckman’s not all photos from the profile are in this post you will have to wait for the book to come out.
Buckman’s Dairy, 1950s, from GHS, courtesy of Ralph DeStefano
Many Grecians have sweet memories (pun intended) of Buckman’s Dairy.
Homer Buckman was born in 1889, …
… the eldest child of George Buckman and Lucy Griffin. In this photo, Homer is on the far right.
In 1906 he married Alice Mitchell, daughter of Greece pioneers Thomas and Alice Corby Mitchell. The couple had one daughter Emeroy.
In 1911 Homer Buckman founded his dairy with a dozen cows. It was located on the farm his father purchased from the estate of Erastus and Sarah Walker at the northwest corner of what is today, Ridge and Long Pond Roads. Homer was able to buy the land from his father in 1915.
Homer delivered his milk in a horse-drawn wagon three seasons of the year, and used a horse-drawn sleigh in the winter. In the background of this photo is his home, located on Ridge Road adjacent to the Dairy.
Eventually, deliveries were made by a 1928 Ford Model AA 1-1/2 Ton stake truck and a Reo Truck. Homer constructed a plant to pasteurize the milk and eliminated the competition by buying out the only other dairy in Greece. To meet customer demand Homer began buying raw milk from other local farmers
as well as importing it via railroad; he’d pick up the milk churns like this one on the left arriving at the Hojack railroad station in North Greece, transporting it to his pasteurization plant to ready it for delivery. By 1931, the dairy was bottling 300 quarts of milk a day.
In the late 1920s, Homer remodeled the old barn and opened a small cash and carry store with milk, cream, and in season, ice cream. In 1931 he sold the business to Robert Peters, although he still owned all the property, lived on-site in his home, and helped out in the store.
In 1950 Ralph P. DeStephano, the owner of Bonnybrook Dairy on Lyell Avenue bought both the business and the property. He consolidated the milk processing operations on Ridge Road.
Homer even continued to work in the store for a while. He died in 1972 at the age of 88. He was a Member of Greece Methodist Church on Maiden Lane, and a Member of the Greece Grange.
In 1966, DeStephano described to a reporter the history of the building: “The hayloft at the top of the barn is now three offices, mine and two others. The main floor where the hay was carried in is the main store. The ridge drops about 20 feet and cows came into the barn from a ramp in the back. They used the pasture out there. In the basement where the cattle were fed, is our ice cream room.”
Circa 1976, the shop was renovated, and an old-fashioned ice cream parlor was added. The name changed to Buckman’s Ice Cream Village. Donuts had been sold at the shop beginning in the late 1950s, now snack items and soup and sandwiches were on the menu, and of course, ice cream. Twenty-five flavors!
They had fun inventing ice cream delights such as “the “Kitchen Sink” which had 8 scoops of ice cream (2 scoops each of vanilla, banana, chocolate, and strawberry), 4 bananas, 4 toppings, 8 shots of whip cream and 8 cherries. If you ate it all, you would get a free sundae certificate.”
DeStephano was also a community activist and was “instrumental in bringing ambulance services, a Rotary Club, a Chamber of Commerce, and Park Ridge Hospital to Greece.” It was Ralph DeStephano and Ray DeMay that started Greece Volunteer Ambulance. Greece Volunteer Ambulance Corps. (GVAC), which has since been disbanded in the last few years due to the four fire companies changing providers to Monroe Ambulance and the rising cost of Emergency services which the volunteer corp could not afford anymore.
The sign here on the left is from the Holiday Inn a few years before the tragic Holiday Inn Fire of 1978 which took the lives of ten people who were staying at that hotel.
You can learn more about Park Ave to Park Ridge from the May 2021 program that was recorded from Zoom and can be viewed by clicking the link below.
Ralph DeStephano sold the business to his son also named Ralph DeStephano Jr, in 1987.
Buckman Enterprise also included a laundry
and a car wash.
Those were the days in 1981—six car washes for $15.00!
During the 1980s through the mid-2000s the dairy, ice cream, and donut businesses were leased to several different operators. It closed in 2006.
The DeStephano family continues to own the property and today there are a variety of businesses in Buckman’s plaza.
Walgreens took a long-term lease to erect a drugstore on the site of the old dairy and barn, torn down in 2009; the pharmacy closed in 2018. Today the former Homer Buckman dairy is the site of Orville’s Home Appliances.
More on Homer Buckman and his family will be printed in the upcoming release of The Pioneer Families of Greece, New York Volume 2 coming later this year.
Also, you can view the program titled Buckman’s Dairy and Bakery History, that Ralph Destephano put on that was recorded on July 16, 2017
and check out this article that Alan Mueller, wrote for the newsletter in 2014 called Homer J. Buckman – Sold Milk, Cream, and Lollipops!!!
Thank you for joining us today; next week we say our farewells.
This week we look at the Greece Performing Arts Society.
Between 1930 and 1950, people in the town of Greece had many opportunities to join in performing arts centered activities. Amateur theatrics were popular; not only was there the Paddy Hill Players troupe, but a number of churches, including St. John the Evangelist Church and Bethany Presbyterian Church staged annual plays.
By 1960 whereas students could join drama club or the school chorus or band, the opportunities for adults were fewer.
So, in 1969, the Greece Performing Arts Society was formed for just that purpose—as an outlet for adults who didn’t want to give up performing just because they were no longer in school. GPAS became the “umbrella organization to pull together and coordinate all the various community performing organizations.”
Initially there were four groups, the Community Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra, the Choral Society, and a Summer theatre group. That first performance year, 1970-71, 165 people were in the various groups; they performed 20 concerts with an estimated total audience of 5,400 people.
GPAS was born from the adult continuing ed experience of Robert Holtz who founded the community orchestra. Dr. David Felter founded the Symphony Orchestra.
Ralph Zecchino founded the choral society and was its director for 44 years from 1970-2014.
Over the years, the theatre group usually presented two musicals a summer with a mystery or comedy play or two until 2013. Now GPAS co-sponsors a student summer production.
In 1992 Greece Performing Arts Society put on Nunsense which was an off-Broadway Production that ran for 35 weeks in 1985 and it is a musical comedy with a book, music, and lyrics by Dan Goggin, who is an American writer, composer, and lyricist. The musical Nunsense is a hilarious spoof about the misadventures of five nuns trying to manage a fundraiser. Sadly, the rest of the sisterhood died from botulism after eating vichyssoise prepared by Sister Julia Child of God. It was based on Dan’s early life experiences, including schooling by the Marywood Dominican Sisters. The musical of Nunsense did have six sequels but Greece Performing Arts Society only put on the original Nunsense the musical.
The society had a regular schedule of annual events, such as
Some of Different Concerts GPAS puts on
Christmas Concert
Winter Blah Concert
The spring concert
Concerts at the Shore
And the Supervisor’s Concert.
And they were there for special occasions such as: The 150th anniversary of the founding of Our Mother of Sorrows Church
And a solemn ceremony for healing after September 11, 2001.
They regularly perform at the Eastman theatre.
A highlight in the history of the Choral Society was performing in France for the 50th anniversary of the D-day invasion at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Many Greece residents looked forward every summer between 1997 and 2016 to the GPAS annual garden tour fundraiser.
Today, GPAS is composed of three groups, the community orchestra, choral society, and concert band. As they have for more than 50 years, the Greece Performing Arts Society continues to offer musical enrichment to the Greece community.
Learn More about Greece Performing Arts Society and it history starting with The Prelude written by Bill Coons at www.greeceperformingarts.org/i-the-prelude. If you have any General Questions about GPAS then email them at info@greeceperfomingarts.org. Interested in becoming a member of GPAS then check out their membership page https://www.greeceperformingarts.org/membership. You can subscribe to their monthly newsletter to stay up to date on upcoming concerts, events and more. The Greece Concert Band, Choral Society, and Community Orchestra are pleased to be rehearsing at 75 Stutson Street.
Thank you for joining us today.
Next week we look at one of Greece’s most iconic businesses,
Buckman’s Dairy.
