Bicentennial Snapshot # 33: Extreme Weather Part 1

November 1, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

Today we will be talking about some historic weather events.

1816 and the effects of Mount Tambora eruption in Greece New York

In 1815, the largest eruption of a volcano in recorded history occurred; Mount Tambora, in Indonesia erupted spewing so much ash into the atmosphere that global temperatures dropped dramatically in the summer of 1816 causing unusual cold and food shortages. 1816 became known as the year without a summer or “eighteen hundred and froze to death.”

**Mount Tambora can be seen via space using satellite imagery, by NASA**

The volcanic dust carried around the globe on the jet stream covered the earth like a great cosmic umbrella, dimming the Sun’s effectiveness during the whole cold year. The eastern United States, Europe, and China were hugely affected. It caused widespread crop failures, famine, and 90,000 deaths, many from starvation.

The 1815-1816 winter in the northeastern United States was milder and dryer than usual. However, just when it should have been getting warmer, at the beginning of spring, the weather turned colder and frosts were widespread. Farmers held off planting through April and May. By the first week of June, milder weather had returned and farmers rushed to get their crops sown. On June 6th a storm brought freezing temperatures and snow. Crops planted only a week earlier were lost to frost. Throughout the summer the temperatures swung back and forth; no sooner had farmers planted a crop than a frost would wipe out most of the plantings.

**Illustration from Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York by Orasmus Turner 1849**

**Dead corn photo by G. Houston** **from** **Wikimedia Commons**

Cold weather and frost returned again in July. With temperatures in the 40s during the day, people began to worry about famine. On August 6th, another round of winter weather arrived. What vegetation had survived the previous episodes were now destroyed. Once again, another warm period followed but it was too little, too late. A killing frost came in late September, two weeks earlier than usual. Then the winter started again. Many families left New England and migrated west, including to the Genesee Valley.

Our area was still pretty much a wilderness in 1816 and accounts of that summer’s impact are sketchy. MacIntosh in his history of Monroe County says that “the cold season produced a partial famine.” Wheat couldn’t be cut until September and the corn crop was a failure. Henry O’Reilly in his Sketches said about wheat: “The “cold summer” of 1816 was not injurious to our crop.”

**First Settlement in Rochester 1812, engraving by Alexander Anderson, 1838**

Sunset at Braddock Bay Marina by Douglas Worboys

Q: What was our mitigating factor?

A: Lake Ontario of course. Then as now, the Lake impacts our weather.

The modifying effects of the lake on temperatures were particularly conducive to fruit farming and Greece had numerous orchards where farmers grew apples, peaches, and cherries.

**Orchard on Payne Farm, Elmgrove Road, 1910, from the Office of the Town Historian**

**Ice covering the Great Lakes on March 4, 2014 (second highest coverage since record-keeping began in 1970) from NASA**

Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes in surface area, but the second deepest and so is the least likely of the five to freeze over completely. The Canadian Ice Service (CIS) has been keeping statistics since the 1970s and has calculated the likelihood of the lakes freezing to the point where 90 percent of their surface is covered in ice. Lake Erie is the most likely to freeze with a chance of 69%; Huron comes next at a 22-per-cent probability, followed by Superior at 17 percent and Michigan at 11 percent. Astoundingly, the CIS estimates that Lake Ontario has a mere 1% chance of having 90% ice coverage.

**The Great Lakes as seen from space by NASA, April 2000**

1934 Cold Snap Hits the Orchards Businesses

**Headline from Hilton Record, February 15, 1934**

This brings us to the winter of 1934. Temperatures in February of that year were icy. On February 9 the thermometer dipped to minus 22 or lower; the high temp that day was minus 3. That is still the official record low for the Rochester area.

They did not keep records of ice coverage back then, but anecdotal evidence from both sides of the lake, says that Lake Ontario froze over completely that month.

Blue is the Highs in 1934 the Green Line is the Lows

Called the Big Freeze by local farmers, it destroyed most of the fruit trees. Apple trees split in half. Never again would there be so many orchards in the town of Greece.

1934, of course, was the height of the Great Depression. Men on work relief earned 25 cents an hour chopping the dead fruit trees into firewood. They also got to keep some of the wood for themselves.

**Damaged fruit trees in Greece, 1934, from GHS**

**Firewood cut from former orchards, 1934, from GHS**

**Lake Ontario after March 13-14, 1993 snowstorm**

Surprisingly the winter of 1933-34 was not particularly snowy. We have certainly had some memorable snowstorms in this town by the lake. This photo was taken after the March 13-14,1993 blizzard which dumped more than 24 inches of snow on Greece. It was part of the larger so-called “Storm of the Century” which pummeled states all along the east coast from the Carolinas to New England with not only huge amounts of snow but hurricane-force winds. Let’s take a closer look at the Blizzard of ’66, which occurred in the days before modern snow removal equipment such as snowblowers.

Blizzard of 1966

The green line is the Snowfall in inches. The blue line is the Precip that is not Snow

The Blizzard of 1966 was a historic storm for Greece and all of western New York. Nearly 27 inches of snow fell on the last two days of January.

This was on top of about 18 inches of snow from the week before.

***Dewey Stone area Blizzard of ’66, 1966, photo by Bill Sauers***

**Snow on the roof meets snow on the ground, Blizzard of ’66, 1966, photo by Bill Sauers**

**“Snowhere” to go! Blizzard of ’66, 1966, photo by Bill Sauers**
“Snowhere” = Snow and nowhere put together as a pun meaning with the amount of snow non of the Town’s citizens could get anywhere in the town due to the amount of snow that was dropped on the city.

Winds whipped wickedly making for poor traveling conditions. Not only the schools but businesses and government offices were shut down for a week.

Town officials set up and operated storm headquarters at the Greece Memorial Hall at 2595 Ridge Rd. W. Ham Radio operators, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), Civil Defense Radio operators, as well as town officials, which included Supervisor George Badgerow, Milton Carter the Chief of Police, Civil Defense Administrator Walter Whelehan, as well as a representative from each of the four fire companies in the town.

Fun Fact the Monroe County 9-1-1 center did not begin operating until February of 1986 and Greece did not hook up to the system till years later, and on a side note in snapshot 37 the Holiday Inn Fire could have been prevented with an automated system that dialed 9-1-1 and sent the alert to first responders that topic is for another day, now back to the Blizzard of 1666.

Without the invention of Morse Code and Ham Radio, there would have been more widespread communication problems to get information in and out of the town of Greece to other parts of the region. For those that are interested in learning about what it takes to earn a ham radio license and become a member of your local ARES group check out the ARRL.org and ARRL.org/public-service, also check out the local club in Rochester, The Rochester Hams https://rochesterham.org/

***Greece Town Hall on Ridge Road, 1998, from the Office of the Town Historian***

**Cars buried in snow, Blizzard of ’66, 1966, photo by Bill Sauers**

The Greater Greece Post reported that “Snowmobiles were stationed at the Town Hall and Highway Department Garage to transport physicians on emergency calls. Two ambulances also were stationed at the Town Hall. A supply of milk and bread was kept available for delivery.” Some milk trucks and bakeries started selling their products to customers right from their delivery vans stopped at partially cleared street corners.

Toboggans were kept in readiness so that sick or injured persons could be removed over the deep snow. Standby snow-clearing crews were stationed near all firehouses to accompany fire trucks answering alarms.

**Snow clogged parking lot at Nick and Erwin Dry Cleaners, Blizzard of ’66, 1966, photo by Bill Sauers**

**Dewey Avenue near Barnard Fire Station, Blizzard of ’66, 1966, photo by Bill Sauers**

“Three drug stores were alerted so that medicine could be obtained and taken where needed. Fifty prescriptions for insulin alone were delivered by town personnel and volunteers.”

Some residents used an alternative mode of transportation.

**Horses on Dewey Avenue, Blizzard of ’66, 1966, photo by Bill Sauers**

This Cat is sick of the snow and wants to get farther than the edge of the driveway
Photo by Bill Sauers — **This Cat is sick of the snow and wants to get farther than the edge of the driveway**
Photo by Bill Sauers

**Mountains of snow, Blizzard of ’66, 1966, photo by Bill Sauers**

This person does not realize he is walking on top of a car
Photo by Bill Sauers

Fun Fact: The plow that is sitting in front of the DPW is from the Truck that plowed Long Pond Road during the blizzard of ’66.

On its 40^th anniversary, local meteorologist Scott Hesko still ranked the Blizzard of ‘66 in the top three worst storms of all time.

Thank you for joining us today. Next week we turn our attention to ice and wind events. Especially the 1991 Ice Storm and the Wind Storm of 2017.

Bicentennial Snapshot # 31 – Notable homes in Greece, NY

October 18, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

Today we will take a virtual tour of some of the other notable homes in Greece, New York.

Larkin-Beattie-Howe House – 595 Long Pond Rd

This beautiful vernacular 19^th-century farmhouse is home to the Greece Historical Society. Many of us have moved from one home to another, but this is a house that has moved twice. Circa 1924, when it was located at the southwest corner of Latta and Long Pond Roads, the Beatties didn’t like the noise from the neighboring tavern. So, they transferred the house onto oak timbers and rolled it back from the road to a new foundation. The house is significant because of its association with pioneer families in Greece, but more so for its connection to Gordon A. Howe. He lived in the house with his family from 1941 to 1965. This political legend was the supervisor of the town for 30 years before becoming the Monroe County Manager for eleven years. The Monroe County Office Building is named for him.

**595 Long Pond Road Larkin-Beattie-Howe home photo by Bill Sauers**

In 1966, Wegmans Food Markets purchased the property. They were going to demolish the house; however, in 1988, under the initiative of Town Supervisor Don Riley, Wegmans sold the house to the Society for $1.00 and generously funded moving it to what is now the Greece Town Campus. The cupola on the front lawn once sat atop the Ridge Road town hall. The Historical Society was founded in 1969 and when it was less than a year old, the society organized a historic house tour. There were four homes on the tour, but the beauty of a virtual tour is we can escort you to a few more homes all from the comfort of your own home.

Covert-Brodie-Pollock House, 978 North Greece Road

As stated in Snapshot 30, in October 1998, three years after being added to the National Register of Historic Places, the Covert-Brodie-Pollock House was the first designated landmark in the Town of Greece. There are three other homes that are also designated town landmarks. Also, you can check out our Landmark Page as well on the Covert-Brodie-Pollock House.

The Joseph Fleming House, 981 Latta Road

***981 Latta Road, Joseph Fleming House from GHS***

The house of Joseph Fleming, a town pioneer, is located at 981 Latta Road; it became a designated town landmark in October 2012. Fleming, who was a master stone mason before he turned to farming, built the house circa 1854. This beautiful Italianate-style home was the centerpiece of Fleming’s 300-acre farm. The main block is two stories high with a hipped roofed and is flanked on both sides by a one-and-a-half-story wing. Atop the roof is a widow’s walk with “a fanciful balustrade and pointed finals above each corner pedestal.” Did the residents climb to the roof to see Lake Ontario just 2 miles to the north? Joseph Fleming’s descendants resided here until 2008.

The Rigney-Feeney House, 1885 Latta Road

The Rigney-Feenney house at 1885 Latta Road stands on the western slope of Paddy Hill and is another designated town landmark, achieving that distinction in 2000. It was the home of the pioneer Rigney Family. Built around 1850, it is “a late example of the Federal style of residential architecture,” characterized by the beautiful front entrance, symmetrical windows, and louvered shutters. The house was built to last and endure fierce weather with “nine-inch square beams of oak set into a foundation two feet thick.” Patrick Rigney was a farmer and fruit grower with 250 acres surrounding the house. His children occupied the house until the early 1940s. In the 1950s, parts of the old farm to the west and south were developed into the Picturesque Acres and North Point housing tracts and the Greece School District purchased about 35 acres of the property for Paddy Hill Elementary School. The fourth owners of the house, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Feeney undertook to restore the interior of the house to its original floor plan updating amenities for themselves and their seven children. It was Mr. Feeney’s home for more than 60 years from 1952 until he died in 2014.

web History Page Buildings1885_Latta_Road-Rigney-Feeney-House — **1885 Latta Road The Rigney-Feeney House from GHS**

William A. Payne House, 505 Elmgrove Road

**505 Elmgrove Road William Payne House photo by Bill Sauers**

The William A. Payne House became a designated town landmark in October 2012 shortly after being listed in the National Register of Historic Places in June.

The home was built circa 1905 for William A. Payne who as Monroe County Sealer of Weights and Measures impacted local and state commercial practices. He was one of the founders of the statewide association that established fair and uniform methods of weighing and measuring products benefitting both merchants and consumers. He also developed education programs for fellow sealers.

**505 Elmgrove Road William Payne House from GHS**

This house, typical of several along Elmgrove Road, has aspects of both Queen Anne and Colonial Revival architecture, a trend at the turn of the last century. Queen Anne-inspired features include the asymmetrical floor plan, the complicated roof design, fish-scale shingles, and bay windows. Colonial Revival aspects are the cornice returns at the gable ends and the square posts of the front porch. The former carriage barn is now a garage.

Colby-Shearman House, 1777 Ridge Road West to 550 Latona Road

Just like the Larkin-Beattie-Howe house this house also moved from one location to another but this one move was shorter than the Larkin-Beattie-Howe House.

Zaccheus Colby, a prominent Greece farmer, built this 10-room, pink Dutch brick, Italianate-style farmhouse in 1855. In 1872 he sold it to his brother-in-law, Abner Shearman. The Shearman family continued to reside in the house until 1970. Construction of 390 threatened the house, so Miss Suzanne Shearman spent 75,000 dollars to move the house from its original location at 1777 Ridge Road West to 550 Latona Road.

**550 Latona Road, Colby-Shearman House, 2022, photo by Bill Sauers**

**550 Latona Road, Colby-Shearman House, 1968 from GHS**

That was quite an undertaking. The house had to be cut in half, moved on a flatbed truck, and set on a new foundation. Upon Suzanne’s death in 1970, the house was sold to the Bierworth family.

In 1979 the Wegman Companies, Inc. headed by Philip Wegman purchased the house for their headquarters. They realized the importance of this beautiful historic structure and have made every effort to preserve and maintain the building’s architectural integrity.

Yates-Thayer House Now called Holiday Fleming Point, 710 Latta Road

**710 Latta Road Yates-Thayer House, 1998, photo Greece Historical Society**

When the Western New York Landmark Society surveyed buildings in the town of Greece in 1994, it lamented that this home was in such derelict condition; indeed, it had been condemned by the town. When a developer planned a senior living facility on the property, he was going to demolish the barn and convert the house into apartments.

Fortunately, the Town’s Historic Preservation Commission, along with the New York State Historic Preservation Office (New York SHPO), stepped up and helped to save it. The developer of Fleming Point Senior Living Center, at the time when the building was being rehabbed the exterior of the house and the barn using recommendations from the New York SHPO (pronounced “ship-o”).

Gina DiBella, former chairperson, and the late Gloria Latragna, a former member of the Greece Historic Preservation Commission pose in front of the Yates-Thayer House to celebrate Historic Preservation Month.

**710 Latta Road Yates-Thayer House, 2006, photo Greece Historical Society**

This house was built for the coal and railroad industrialist Arthur Yates circa 1902 probably as a summer home. The site is the former Patrick Fleming farm; he was the younger brother of Joseph Fleming. The property became known as Elmtree Farm. The house is “an outstanding example of Neo-classical style” identified by the front façade dominated by a full-height portico with details such as carved wood ornamentation, both Doric and Corinthian columns and pilasters, and windows with six panes on the top and a single pane on the bottom. Although Neo-classical was a dominant style at the turn of the last century for public and institutional buildings it was not common for private residences.

A bonus is the gambrel-roofed barn with its large round-arch loft opening and twin louvered, cross-gabled cupolas.

**710 Latta Road Yates-Thayer House, 2006, photo Bill Sauers**

In 1914, the home was purchased by Samuel Thayer and remained in the Thayer family for 80 years. Over the years the house and barn were converted into several apartments. In 1994, it was purchased by Joseph Coco, who later sold the property to the developer of Fleming Point Apartments in the early 2000s. In 2007, the house and barn were purchased by Greece businessman David Wegman of the Wegman Group. Dave and his family rehabbed the interior into offices for their business and rented out space to other businesses.

FYI … The Thayers sold the property to Joseph Coco, who stripped the interior of all its details. (Joe Coco also purchased the Hotel DeMay and his wife Kim was one of the owners of the DeMay when it was demolished.)

FYI … The Wegman Group and WCI are NOT the same businesses. Gina DiBella believes WCI is owned by Dave’s brother Phil.

There is also a publication written by Marie Villone Poinan which is a 22-page book with illustrations and photos chronicling the history of the Yates-Thayer property.

A Gentleman’s Country Estate

Carpenter-Toal-Latragna-Stauffer House, 3490 Latta Road

**3490 Latta Road photo by Bill Sauers**

We’ve already told you about the Carpenter and Toal families that lived in this home. The house started as a simple one-and-a-half story home when it was constructed circa 1840; it was expanded into its present-day late Greek Revival style about 1860. It has a porticoed temple front. Notice the elongated facade and narrow pillars and there is some unusual carved woodwork, such as the small diamonds at the top of the Doric columns. The Landmark Society survey said that the craftsmanship was outstanding. Lou and Gloria Latragna purchased the home from the Toal family and strived for many years to maintain the building’s integrity and share its history. After their deaths, it was sold to Fieldstone Capital in August of 2015 and then Fieldstone Capital sold it to Mark Stauffer on 09/08/2020 at the cost of $115,000.

According to Monroe county, property tax records the property had two new updates done to the property one was a machine shed in 1980, and in 1990 a ramp was added to the porch for access into the first-floor area of the house.

This photo is of the home’s living room, one of the few interior shots we have, to see some other interior pictures see the Democrat and Chronicle article for some other pictures.

**3490 Latta Road Living Room, date unknown, from GHS**

Here is an article written by Ernst Lamothe Jr. on the Democrat and Chronicle website on April 17, 2014, called Latta Road Home hosted lots of fun you read more by clicking the link below

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/rocroots/2014/04/16/latta-road-home-hosted-lots-fun/7704273/

Thomas W Boyde, Jr. Designed House, 442 Edgemere Drive

Thomas Boyde 1930 NY Architects Office cropped to headshot

Not all notable homes in Greece are more than a hundred years old. The Greece Historical Society is sponsoring a historic resource study of the work of Thomas W. Boyde, Jr., Rochester’s first African American architect. This mid-twentieth-century house is on Edgemere Drive. Mr. Boyde designed at least three other homes in the town. You can learn more about Thomas W. Boyde, Jr and the research project we are sponsoring by clicking on the Boyde Project at the top of the page.

These are just a few of the beautiful, interesting, historic homes and buildings in our neighborhoods. Drive around the streets of Greece and see what you can find. Please comment on Facebook if you know of other Iconic Homes in the Town.

Thank you for joining us today; next week in our Halloween special we will tell you about some of the town’s ghostly inhabitants.

Bicentennial Snapshot No. 30: Cobblestone houses, Part 2

October 11, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

Today we continue our look at cobblestone structures in Greece.

Three Cobblestone Houses Featured are

Covert-Brodie-Pollock House, 978 North Greece Road
Westfall-Mercier House, 4350 West Ridge Road
Hartman-Foos Cobblestone House, 543 Mill Road

Covert-Brodie-Pollock House, 978 North Greece Road

The Covert-Brodie-Pollok House is located on a 14.95-acre site on the east side of North Greece Road in the southwest quadrant of the town. The designation area incorporates the main house (1832), an attached garage at the rear of the house (the early 1940s), a contributing well, a non-contributing shed, and a non-contributing storage barn. A 14-acre expanse of lawn surrounds the house on the north, east, and south. The property is historically significant for its long association with the Covert and Brodie families. The Coverts were early 19th-century settlers/farmers in the North Greece area and the builders of this house. The Brodie family and its descendants, also farmers, have owned the property since 1914. The Covert-Brodie-Pollok House is architecturally significant as an outstanding example of an early-19th-century, Greek Revival cobblestone farmhouse retaining a high degree of integrity of design, materials, and craftsmanship. Cobblestone architecture is unique to the Central and Western New York areas of the country. It developed in the late 1820s when settlers who were clearing land and preparing fields for planting collected cobblestones as building materials. It is one of four existing cobblestone buildings in the town of Greece.

The Covert-Brodie-Pollock House at 978 North Greece Road is a sterling example of cobblestone architecture. It was constructed in 1832 for William H. Covert and except for the years 1840-1850 when it was owned by Amos Trowell was occupied by members of the Covert family until 1892.

**Gillette’s map of Monroe County, 1858, from the Rochester Public Library Local History and Genealogy Division**

The 1858 county map indicates that the home belonged to J. B. Covert, that is Joshua Covert, and

**F. W. Beers, Map of Monroe County, 1872, from the Rochester Public Library Local History and Genealogy Division**

The 1872 map shows William R. Covert as the owner.

The home’s ownership passed through several other owners between 1892 and 1914, including Elmer Burlington, George Harris who maintained a 125-acre stock farm surrounding it, George Emerson who lost the house betting on a horse race, and Louis Zagata.

**Pencil Drawing of 958 North Greece Road from Cobblestone Architecture by Carl Schmidt, 1944**

**Illustration of Cobblestone pattern of 978 North Greece Road from Cobblestone Architecture by Carl Schmidt, 1944, p. 82**

The cobblestones for 978 North Greece Road were meticulously chosen: only a few are round, and the majority are oblong in style ranging from 1.5 inches to 3 and 4.5 inches long. They are primarily brown, yellow, or gray with very few rose-colored stones. The builder emphasized the horizontal in the rows and the quoins which are the masonry blocks at the corner of the walls. The cobblestones cover just the façade of the walls which are 18 inches thick.

The front façade features a wide frieze band (1) with four windows with decorative iron grilles (2), cornice returns (3), windows with limestone lintels and sills (4), and a front entrance with a gable-roof porch and Doric columns (5).

**Covert-Brodie-Pollock House from Office of the Town Historian**

Example of a Keeping Room: interior view, first floor, west wall of kitchen showing fireplace and doorway into keeping room Naylor House, Swift & Silver Lake Roads (Middletown Township), Langhorne, Bucks County, PA, from Library of Congress

The house at one time included a living room, dining room, bedrooms, a borning room (where mothers gave birth), a kitchen, and off the kitchen a keeping room. A keeping room was usually the warmest room in the house being next to the kitchen and its heat source whether a fireplace or a stove. While the cook prepared the meal, others would sit in the keeping room, close enough to talk to the people preparing a meal, but at the same time, out of the cook’s way. The Keeping room also served as a borning room where there wasn’t a separate room for that purpose and was also frequently used as the last resting place for the dying. Recently, having a keeping room became a trend in new homes being built.

In 1914, Walter and Katheryn Brodowszynski (whose name is horribly misspelled on this map) purchased the property. They changed their last name to Brodie in the 1920s.

**Environs of Rochester Maps by G. M. Emerson, 1931 from the Rochester Public Library Local History and Genealogy Division**

**Covert-Brodie-Pollock house, photo by Bill Sauers**

**Covert-Brodie-Pollock house from GHS**

After Walter’s death in 1946, Katheryn sold the house to their eldest daughter Helen (who went by the name of Kay), and her first husband, Robert Zielinski. Kay acquired sole ownership of the house in 1959.

**Headline from Greece Post, November 27, 1969**

Kay Brodie lived in this house all her life, and with her second husband William Pollock, was its loving caretaker. Many of the changes to the interior, including installing plumbing and mechanical upgrades and combining rooms, Kay did herself. It was always her desire to get the home listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

That dream was realized in 1995; in October 1998 it became the first in the Town of Greece to be designated a landmark. According to the Landmark Society of Western New York, “The Covert-Brodie-Pollok House is architecturally significant as an outstanding example of an early-19th-century, Greek Revival cobblestone farmhouse retaining a high degree of integrity of design, materials, and craftsmanship.”

Westfall-Mercier House at 4350 West Ridge Road

In contrast to the well-maintained beauty of the Covert-Brodie-Pollock home is this house located on West Ridge Road, not far from the West Greece intersection of Ridge and Manitou Roads.

Known as the Westfall-Mercier House, when it was evaluated by the Landmark Society in 1994, it was described as “a lovely, charming cottage on a beautiful site.” It is a fine representation of a Federal-style farmhouse and may have been constructed as early as the 1830s, but no later than 1852.

The earliest owner for whom there is the documentation for a J. Westfall; he’s named on an 1852 map. From the late 1940s to approximately 2000 the owner was Raymond W. Mercier.

**Westfall-Mercier House, 4350 West Ridge Road, 2007, photo by Bill Sauers**

**Westfall-Mercier House, 4350 West Ridge Road, 1980s, photo from the Office of the Town Historian**

Margot and Ralph Gram

***Headshot of Margot Gram from Hilton Record, November 11, 1943***

Margot and Ralph Gram owned the house for a brief interlude, the years 1946 and 1947 approximately. She was an interesting woman. As a vaudeville performer, she toured all over Europe collecting antiques. She transitioned to being a cabaret singer before becoming the first female radio announcer in New York City. Her husband, Ralph, was the voice of the Hearst-Metrotone newsreels that once were part of every movie showing. They came to this area, taking radio jobs with WHEC. She was the first person to sing George Gershwin’s Swanee; when she was working at a music store, the legendary composer came in and handed her the sheet music and asked her to sing it for him.

**Ad for Margot Gram’s antique business from Greece Press, July 17, 1947**

That old cobblestone house was the perfect venue for setting up an antique business. Although she didn’t live in Greece very long, Margot became a staple appraiser of antiques for many of the Greece churches when they hosted antique shows, including Our Mother of Sorrows, Aldersgate Methodist, and Bethany Presbyterian. This, of course, was considerably before the time of eBay.

**Pen and ink drawing of toy Manchester terrier by Paul Brown, 1950**

Margot also raised toy Manchester terriers.

Raymond Mercier

Mrs. Scott’s English Tabby “Coppa.”, First Prize at the Crystal Palace Show, 1886.
CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS. by W.H. LARRABEE,
The Popular science monthly
VOL. XXXVII. MAY TO OCTOBER, 1890. pg 90

Years later the last owner of the home, Raymond Mercier, operated Cat Nap on the premises, boarding up to 30 felines at a time. Mercier died in 2001.

Since then, the house has stood vacant. The 600-square-foot house sits in the middle of prime commercial property. The developer has tried his best to care for the house, but it has been subject to graffiti vandalism. He even offered it to anyone who would be willing to move it off the property, but there were no takers. So, for the time being, the fate of this little house is undecided. If you have the money and the skills to move this cobblestone house it could be yours.

**Westfall-Mercier House, 4350 West Ridge Road, 2016, photo by Bill Sauers**

Hartman-Foos Cobblestone House

The cobblestone house on Mill Road was home to the Hartman and Foos families for decades. It too was built between 1830 and 1852. From at least 1852 until the early 1900s, members of the Hartman family resided here. The Foos family occupied it from at least 1930 until 2016.

But on that August 11th day of 2016 at 15:23, it would be its last day as a cobblestone house.

On August 11, 2016, this historic home caught fire. According to an account written by Gene Preston of the North Greece Fire Department,

A person wearing a hat Description automatically generated with medium confidence

“Firefighters worked in 94-degree temperature August 11 to save the pre-civil war house. Said a neighbor: “In no time the road and lawns were covered with fire hoses as 7 engines, a rescue truck and an aerial ladder strategically positioned themselves on Mill Road.” The fire did significant damage to the structure. Firefighters had to deal with the fire and the extreme heat and humidity of the day. I took another walk through it before we firefighters left the scene nearly three hours after we were dispatched. Hopefully it can be restored, but it has some serious issues.”
Eugene Preston, North Greece Fire Department

Unfortunately, it could not be saved. The Foos rebuilt a house on that spot but it was not a cobblestone house. The new structure is a wood-built house

**Hartman-Foos cobblestone house photo courtesy, 2016, photo by Bill Sauers**

Building Style	Ext. Wall Type	Heat Type	Basement	Living Area	# Stories	Year Built
Ranch	Alum/vinyl	Hot air	R4-Full	1,252 Sqft	1.0	2017

So, now there are only three cobblestone homes left in the Town of Greece. There are other stone-based houses and brick buildings but as for cobblestones there are 3 remaining structures left and hopefully, the lessons learned from the Hartman-Foos fire could be used to preserve the remaining three buildings.

Thank you for joining us this week. Next week we will take you on a virtual tour of some of the other notable homes in the town.

Bicentennial Snapshot # 29 – Cobblestone Houses Part 1

October 4, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

This week and next we explore some of the cobblestones houses in the town of Greece. Did you know that when the mile-thick glaciers of the Ice Age melted and receded north thousands of years ago, they left unique marks on the terrain and interesting mountains, lakes, rivers, streams, valleys, and some rich and fertile land for growing crops, as well as boulders, cobbles, pebbles, field stones, gravel and sand deposits in different areas that make up different regions in the world? The glaciers left 5 big freshwater lakes behind, how many of the big lakes can you name?

Satellite image of Lake Ontario -November 2009 NASA Earth Observatory

We will go from the west to east starting with Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan, flowing into Lake Huron with Georgian Bay, a small lake between Huron and Eire called Lake St. Clair, then Lake Erie, at the Buffalo end of Lake Erie is the Niagara River which brings the water over the falls at Niagara Falls and in then into Lake Ontario after the water travels out to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. But for this snapshot, we will be focusing on New York State. In New York State and more especially within minutes you could be at Lake Ontario from anywhere in the town or a 40-to-50-minute drive from Greece you could be in the finger lakes looking at the beauty that the glaciers left on this region. Remember when we explained in snapshot 11 The Ridge Part 1 about Lake Iroquois? Those who may not remember earth science class or other science classes and parts of some history classes when they talked about the Ice Age and how most of the region was covered in ice and glacial valley, also called glacial trough as seen in this map. Almost 13,000 years ago a large glacial lake, Lake Iroquois, as it is called by geologists, lapped the far eastern portion of what became the Niagara escarpment. When the waters of Lake Iroquois receded, it left a ridge of land 400 feet above sea level. You can see on this map, the dimensions of the prehistoric lake in relation to Lake Ontario today.

Notice the red line that is the Ridge Road portion from the Genesee River to Lewiston., the /// lines going from lower left to upper right that is the outline of Lake Iroquois, the cross lines ### in the pen are the ice sheet as the ice continued to recede north as the time when on from the ice age.

And in Bicentennial Snapshot # 19 – Henpeck, Hoosick, and Hojack, what’s in a name, part 2 we looked at some of the elevations in the town from its highest point to the lowest point the town and how the town has two natural ridges.

But that wasn’t all; hundreds of thousands of cobblestones, fieldstones, and gravel pits were deposited in the glaciers’ melting wake. Cobblestones have a round shape. Over the years water made boulders become cobbles, cobbles become pebbles, and pebbles become sand. According to the Cobblestone Museum, “Geologists classify cobblestones as being 2.5 inches to 10.1 inches in size. In lay terms, cobblestone is a stone that can be held in one hand.” This differentiates them from fieldstones, which were also used to construct houses.

During the Program “Set In Stone”: The History Of Cobblestone Masonry, on September 13, 2022, Douglas Farley mentioned that there was a least one cobblestone structure as far away as Colorado. This is mentioned at 12 minutes and 21seconds in the video. https://youtu.be/eJAgwjKHCcw?t=1286

closeup of cobblestone house photo Bill Sauers

Some of these cobblestones, fieldstones and gravel pits were found while excavating for the Erie Canal, some were found while farmers were prepping the fields to grow crops. The town has a few remaining cobblestone structures left. There are a couple of fieldstones and one other stone-style house in the town. One of the fieldstone houses in the town is on the grounds of Unity Hospital at 1563 Long Pond Road. Some of the cobblestone houses may have had the back walls built with fieldstones because beauty in the front and the so ugly back fieldstone was not seen from the front. Why wasn’t brick used for these buildings? Well, one writer said “In the early days of the western New York frontier, bricks were costly to transport. To make them locally was also costly since clay had to be procured and molded, kilns had to be built, etc.” The farmers and masons used the material they had readily available and that “material did not require painting or maintenance; and most important, was fireproof and weatherproof.”

School District # 9

District School # 9 area from The 1872 Map of Greece, NY
School district 9 school also Greece Methodist Church mid1800s GHS
District School # 9 With a class out site of the school
Cobblestone School in District 9
Another angle of the Cobblestone School in District 9
Old Cobblestone school in front of New District School Number 9
District School Number 9 with a larger class size in front of the school
No Classes out in front of the school
District School 9 Facing Southeast
Facing east
Rear of the School Facing West
This would be when Harold Tebo asked Arthur Korner to convert it into a private home
Front as of 1999 but it still looks like this today.

One out of the 17 district schools and the 2 joint districts in the 1800s were built using cobblestone the rest of the school districts were built with wood. The cobblestone school was in school district 9 on the 1872 map of the town of Greece and it was located at 980 Long Pond Rd. In 1917 it was replaced by a two-room schoolhouse. The cobblestone school was sold for $ 5.00. Arthur Koerner and Willis construction firm were awarded the contract to build the new two-room wooden school at 1048 Long Pond Road. Also, The Greece United Methodist Church formed inside School Number 9 on July 25, 1841, when Reverend William Williams met with a group of people to start the church, and then another group meeting at the Greece Center schoolhouse at district school number 17 on Latta Road and the church grew to 21 members. The current two-room schoolhouse was later sold at a district auction in August of 1949 and was purchased by Harold Tebo. Harold then hired Arthur Koerner to draw up plans to convert the schoolhouse into a private home and one of the features of the old school hidden above the now lowered ceiling is a tin ceiling that was used to reflect the heat and keep it in the building.

First Christian Church

The First Christian Church was a church that was built out of cobblestone, and it was located at 3194 Latta Road, it was close to the Larkin-Beatie-Howe House where that house used to sit where Wegman’s now sits. The Frist Christian Church used the church until 1866, then Greece Methodist Church used it from 1867 to 1874. Then Greece United Methodist Church built a new church with brick on Maiden Lane and has been there ever since. The former church at 3194 Latta Road was torn down around the 1950s.

Davis-Bagley-Hazen House

The first cobblestone house we will look at will be the Davis-Bagley-Hazen House at 149 North Greece Road it was built in 1845 in the Frisbee Hill area, and it was built by Edwin Davis. Lucius Bagley purchased the home from Edwin Davis in 1856 and the 100 acres surrounding the house. The house is a 3 Bedroom, 2 Bathrooms and 1 Half Bath the house has one fireplace. The property now sits on 2.61 acres out of the 100 acres that used to be farmland owned by Lucius Bagley, and the house’s living space is 3,376 square feet. It also has a cobblestone-built smokehouse in the rear of the house.

Davis-Bagley-Hazen home from Town Historian

One of Lucius’ children, Henry Joel, inherited the house and farm; he lived there all his life until he died in 1942, at the age of 90. A Bagley cousin remembered that “it was a standing tradition among the Bagley descendants to celebrate Christmas Day with grandfather Henry Joel at the old cobblestone farmhouse.” Bagley descendants also remembered watching their “grandfather salting and preparing bacon and hams to hang in the cobblestone smokehouse that remains by the driveway today.”

The next longstanding owners of the house were Stanley and Mary Hazen. After purchasing the home in 1958, the Hazens made substantial upgrades and improvements to the old cobblestone farmhouse; nevertheless it “retains its rural, exterior dress, yet tasteful planning has transformed the dwelling into a modern up-to-date home. There is a definite feeling of preservation from within with no sacrificing the conveniences of utility, interior decorations, and livability….” In 1989, the Finegans became owners of this historic house.

The Landmark Society considers this house “architecturally significant,” not only as “an outstanding intact example of cobblestone construction in New York State,” but also as a significant “example of mid-nineteenth century Greek Revival, rural domestic architecture in the Town of Greece.”

District School # 7

District School at 150 Frisbee Hill Road

Children attending District School #7 on located at 168 Frisbee Hill would come down the hill with pails to fetch drinking water from the pump by the front porch of the Bagley house. Their teachers were often boarded there during the school season. The schoolhouse was built for $700 on a quarter-acre plot of land leased by Edward Frisbee, a North Greece pioneer, in September 1833, and stipulated that the land was to be used for school. Mrs. Cancella was a teacher at the one-room schoolhouse. Lou Frisbee was the bus driver. The school had about 15 students and went from K – 10 or 11 grade. In 1899 the original schoolhouse on Frisbee Hill just past North Greece was torn down. District 7 lost its old school by Court rule. Florence Haskins at 150 Frisbee Hill Rd. sued Myron B. Kelly, serving as a trustee of the school district for possession of the schoolhouse and the quarter-acre of land her great-grandfather had turned over for school purposes. Dorothy Frisbee used to serve soup, sandwiches, and cookies to the kids if they didn’t bring any lunch says Ruth a former student. The most difficult time was in the winter on the bus because she said the winters were tough and it was difficult for the bus to get through the snow. The roads weren’t plowed like today and the drifts were quite high. She didn’t remember how they heated the school, but she said it got quite cold inside on occasions in the winter.

Next week

Next Tuesday will look at a few other cobblestone houses but for one it was not able to be saved and that is a tale for next week. Bicentennial Snapshot # 30 – Cobblestone Houses Part 2

For More on Cobblestones buildings from this Snapshot

The Cobblestone Church at the Cobblestone Museum in Albion, NY

Some of the information for this week and next week’s snapshot comes to us from the Douglas Farley and the Cobblestone Museum in Albion, New York you can check out their museum at https:/www.cobblestonemuseum.org/ as well as the program he did at our Tuesday program called “Set In Stone”: The History Of Cobblestone Masonry

Bicentennial Snapshot # 27: “The Cooper” Tom Toal

September 20, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

This week in our bicentennial snapshot for September 20th, 2022 we explore Thomas F Toal a cooperage owner, a barber, and a worker from Kodak who grew up on the Parma Greece border.

Topics Covered in this snapshot

Thomas F Toal
Carrie L Frisbee
What is a Cooper? And What is a Cooper nowadays
H. C. Phelps Connection with Tom Toal
Tom Toal and His other Trade
Tom’s Connection with Doctor Abdiel Bliss Carpenter

Thomas F Toal Bio

Thomas F. Toal was born on August 26, 1866, and grew up in Parma, Monroe County, New York. He was a cooper before going to work at George Eastman’s Kodak where he worked for 12 years and then retired back to the North Greece/Parma area to be back in the country. He died in 1948 and was laid to rest in Our Mother of Sorrows Cemetery at the corner of Latta Road and Mount Read Blvd.

Carrie L. Frisbee

Carrie L. Frisbee was born in 1864 in North Greece, Monroe County, New York she is a niece of Edward Frisbee the owner of the land that was leased to District School # 7 on the family land, the school was located on the north side of Frisbee Road, and east of North Greece Road. (Attach a Map of the location here). Carrie L. (Frisbee) Toal died on 1 January 1957 and she was laid to rest next to her husband Thomas F. Toal in Our Mother of Sorrows Cemetery at the corner of Latta Road and Mount Read Blvd.

This is a map of District 7 from the 1872 Map of Greece, New York you can see all the land that is owned by the Frisbee family

What is a Cooperage? What is it nowadays?

According to Wikipedia: A cooper is a person trained to make wooden casks, barrels, vats, buckets, tubs, troughs, and other similar containers from timber staves that were usually heated or steamed to make them pliable. Journeymen coopers also traditionally made wooden implements, such as rakes and wooden-bladed shovels. In addition to wood, other materials, such as iron, were used in the manufacturing process. The profession is the origin of the surname Cooper. A Cooperage was responsible for making the barrels that were used to store foods, wines, whiskeys, and other drinks or other items that needed to be preserved compared to canning or vacuum sealing or bottling of fruits, vegetables, and drinks in glass jars. A cooperage would make different size barrels depending on what was going in the barrel. Some of these barrels had gunpowder in the barrel, or maybe pickles, flour, crackers, dried beans, wheat, apples, corn, carrots, or other fruits and vegetables. Some were just used to hold umbrellas, tools, and other items to keep them organized.

Some of the barrels that Tom Toal made ended up in New York City to a buyer who either was for a big farm or a business in New York City that shipped products over to Europe and other places that wanted fresh goods from America in the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Depending on what the barrel was going to be used for the cooper would choose the right type of wood the most common wood was oak it depends on where in the world it was made. Modern wooden barrels for wine-making are made of French common oak (Quercus robur), white oak (Quercus petraea), American white oak (Quercus alba), and more exotic Mizunara Oak. All typically have standard sizes. Recently Oregon Oak (Quercus Garryana) has been used. The links next to each type of oak will take you to the Wikipedia page on each of the different oaks.

Cooper Tools

Here is a picture of the tools that a Cooperage would use to make the barrels.

cooper's tools from Pinterest — cooper’s tools from Pinterest

Below is a picture of the different size barrels that a cooperage would make the smallest for dry goods would be a Rundlet which was 1/14 tun, the next size up would be a Barrel at 1/8 tun, and the next size up after a barrel is a Tierce at 1/6 tun, the next size after a Tierce is a Hogshead at 1/4 tun, followed by a Puncheon, Tertian at 1/3 tun, then a Pipe, Butt at 1/2 tun, finally the biggest barrel would be a Tun. But for liquids, there would be a gallon-size barrel that held one gallon of liquid.

Types of barrels revolutionarywarjournal.com

Below are two charts from Wikipedia that explains the English Wine and Brews barrel storage and amounts:

Wine Cask Chart

gallon	rundlet	barrel	tierce	hogshead	puncheon, tertian	pipe, butt	tun
							1	tun
						1	2	pipes, butts
					1	1 1/2	3	puncheon, tertian
				1	1 1/3	2	4	hogshead
			1	1 1/2	2	3	6	tierce
		1	1 1/2	2	2 2/3	4	8	barrel
	1	1 3/4	2 1/3	3 1/2	4 2/3	7	14	rundlet
1	18	31 1/2	42	63	84	126	252	gallons (wine)
3.785	64.14	119.24	158.99	238.48	317.97	476.96	953.92	litres
1	15	26 1/4	35	52 1/2	70	105	210	gallons (imperial)
4.546	68.19	119.3	159.1	238.7	318.2	477.3	954.7	litres

English wine cask units

Brewery casks

English brewery cask units^[4]
gallon	firkin	kilderkin	barrel	hogshead		Year designated
				1	hogsheads
			1	1+1⁄2	barrels
		1	2	3	kilderkins
	1	2	4	6	firkins
1	8	16	32	48	ale gallons	(1454)
= 4.621 L	= 36.97 L	= 73.94 L	= 147.9 L	= 221.8 L	ale gallons
1	9	18	36	54	beer gallons
= 4.621 L	= 41.59 L	= 83.18 L	= 166.4 L	= 249.5 L	beer gallons
1	8+1⁄2	17	34	51	ale gallons	1688
= 4.621 L	= 39.28 L	= 78.56 L	= 157.1 L	= 235.7 L	ale gallons	1688
1	9	18	36	54	ale gallons	1803
= 4.621 L	= 41.59 L	= 83.18 L	= 166.4 L	= 249.5 L	ale gallons	1803
1	9	18	36	54	Imperial gallons	1824
= 4.546 L	= 40.91 L	= 81.83 L	= 163.7 L	= 245.5 L	Imperial gallons	1824

H. C. Phelps Connection with Tom Toal

When Tom Toal was 21 years old, he went to work for H. C. Phelps making barrels; some were used in H.C. Phelps’s General store or sold from Phelps’s Store. This is where Tom learned the trade of making barrels to be used for different types of goods. Within a few years of working for H. C. Phelps, Tom started his own cooper business making barrels and selling them. While Tom ran his own cooperage he had customers from local farms, general stores, breweries, wineries, and other businesses that needed barrels to store items in. In 1972 Frank Toal was interviewed and explained his dad’s cooperage and shared some of the stories with us, below are a few quotes from Frank Toal.

Phelps general store Latta and North Greece Roads sketch William Aeberli 1970 GHS

” … my Dad began making barrels in early, August. He bought his staves in the rough and once a year an agent from New York City came up to take the order for staves, ‘hoops and headings.”

“They were shipped out to North Greece in box cars on the old Hojack Line. We’d go down to the station with racks up on the hay wagons and load the supplies.”

“Dad’s business was spread clear down to the lake and over to the Parma town line. He even had a warehouse down at Braddock Bay…In those days the whole section was apple orchards and Dad would ride his bicycle all around the countryside and take orders from the farmers or collect his money—he never learned to drive a car!”

The most interesting thing that Frank said during the interview was that his dad never learned to drive a car.

Larkin Hotel William Aeberli Greece Post 1971 October 14 — Larkin Hotel William Aeberli, Greece Post 1971 October 14

Tom Toal and His other Trade

One of Tom’s other trades was being a barber; Tom was one of those men who believed in hard work and hardly allowed himself to have an idle moment, so he took up being the village barber. He worked two nights a week in a second-floor room at the Larkin Hotel charging the proverbial two bits (25 cents) for a shave and a haircut.

Tom’s Connection with Doctor Abdiel Bliss Carpenter

After 18 years as a cooper, Tom bought the old Conway land and became a farmer. His farm was next door to Dr. Abdiel Bliss Carpenter. Years before, when he was a lad in his teens, he would do odd jobs for the old doctor. The Doctor’s beautiful house and estate made a lasting impression on Toal. But you won’t believe this but after twelve years of city living, he decided to move back to the country but not to any house but the estate of Doctor Abdiel Bliss Carpenter and lived there the rest of his life.

Carpenter House sketch by Wm. Aeberli Greece Post 1972 February 17

Bicentennial Snapshot # 23 – The Larkin Hotel

August 23, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

This week and in the next two snapshots we look at the Tavern / Hotel / Inn / Speakeasy that occupied the southeast corner of Latta Road and North Greece Road. The first hotel we will look at will be named after its last owner Joseph Larkin, not its first owner or subsequent owners. Back in the early years of the country and in some really rural communities the hotel, tavern and post offices, and general stores were all in one building or sometimes in separate buildings depending on the size of the community it was located in. But for North Greece, it appears that on the map in 1858 the Post Office was located in the store that belonged to Mary Phelp, and across the street before H.C. Phelps had a store it was A. W. Dickerson General Store.

The Background of the Hotel and its similarities to the H. C. Phelps building

The Larkin hotel was build sometime before the civil war, based on research and architectural details that William Aeberli and Shirley Cox Husted found based on similarities between the design of the H.C. Phelps General Store and the Larkin hotel.

Phelps general store latta and north Greece roads sketch William Aeberli 1970 — Phelps general store Latta and north Greece roads sketch William Aeberli 1970

The owners of the location

From what we can tell there could have been as many as 4 or more owners of the hotel the list of people we have based on available data and records is Mary Phelps, then we have a record of Archaeus Johnson (A. Johnson) buying it from Henry and Melvina Hazen on April 1, 1869, after that its a mystery, and without any other information and the information that children of Joseph B Larkin had with them when they passed away, so we will never know its full past or what made it a thriving spot for stagecoaches to stop and rest for the evening.

Peter Larkin

Born: 1810 in Ireland no date or month available other than based on the year of death and the text on the grave which reads DIED 14 Mar 1884 of 75 years.

Rose Larkin

Born: 1816 in Ireland

Died: April 25, 1881, at 65 years of age

Peter Larkin was a successful farmer, entrepreneur, and three-term supervisor of the Town of Greece, as well as a member of Mother of Sorrows. In the 1870 census, it lists him as owning nearly $ 500,000.00 in real estate. We have a record of him owning a hotel near Latta Road and Long Pond Road, but he was not the proprietor of the hotel. Also in the 1870 census, we learn that his nephew Joseph was living with him and his wife Rose Larkin.

Peter Larkin 1870 census — Peter and Rose Larkin, and Nephew Joseph in the 1870 census

Larkin, Joseph 1880 census — Peter and Rose Larkin, and Nephew Joseph in the 1880 census the year after this entry Rose would pass away.

Joseph B. Larkin

Born: September 1855 in New York

Death: 15 April 1907

Married: Elizabeth Anna Slater

In the 1870s we learn that Joseph moved in with his uncle in North Greece and started out attending what would have been District School Number 6 and then went on to Charlotte or John Marshall for high school or entered the workforce sometime between the 1870 and 1880 census

Children

Rose Mary Larkin
- 1882–1955
Anna G. Larkin
- 1884–1954
Elizabeth M. (Larkin) McKenna
- 1886–1961
- This was the only daughter that got married but had no heirs
- Married Frank J. McKenna
Frances J. Larkin
- 1889–1971

Joseph Larkin, and family entry in the 1900 Census

Based on the Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies and the newspaper report below:

Larkin’s Hotel Burglarized

The hotel of Joseph Larkin at North Greece was entered by burglars last Tuesday Night and Mr. Larkin’s watch was stolen. Money was also taken from the clothing of both Mr. and Mrs. Larkin. No trace of the thieves has been discovered.

In 1891 we learn that Joseph was the proprietor of the hotel and he and Elizabeth were either out or asleep when the Larkin Hotel was burglarized by thieves, and from the records show an undisclosed amount of cash was taken from the clothing of Joseph and Elizabeth Larkin, as well as Joseph’s watch which could have been from his Uncle or another family member or one that he saved up and bought we will never know.

We do know that both He and His Uncle were both Democrats and the hotel was used as a site for Democrat Political Caucuses.

The Larkin Hotel was demolished around 1912, that was probably because the four daughters did not want to take it over or could not take over the hotel.

Bicentennial Snapshot # 19- Henpeck, Hoosick, and Hojack, What’s in a Name? Part 2

July 26, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

This week we explore some of the myths of some of the nicknames of the communities in the town. This week we look at street names, elevations, and finally the Hojack Line. Some have myths about the name, while some are named after a person or where one of the settlers came from and decided to call the Town of Greece their home.

Street Names of Greece

There are more than 1,050 streets and roads in the town. It should be no surprise that more than 80 of the street names in Greece are related to the farm families who lived along them. In 1935, town supervisor Gordon Howe proposed that some streets be renamed to honor early pioneers. The first change voted on by the town board was to rename what had been Sage or Ottaway Road to McGuire Road in honor of Felix McGuire who settled in Greece circa 1805. Here is a little bit from the Article written in the society’s newsletter by Bill Sauers you can read more by the link below the quote:

**Map of Greece, 2022, from monroecounty.gov**

For the trivia aficionados, in the Town of Greece, there are only 25 Streets and 173 Roads but there are approximately 369 Drives, 160 Lanes, 94 Courts, 94 Circles, 40 Avenues, 25 Ways, 7 Boulevards, 21 Trails, and fewer of Commons, Coves, Estates, Landings, Boulevards, etc.*

There are over 80 streets named after the original farm families who lived there. We have some named for the seasons: Spring, Summer, and Autumn, but no Winter. There are animal streets: Fox, Deer, Hawk, Owl, Eagle. Several have female names: Judy Ann, Jackie, Laura, Roseanne, but very few have male names and there are 14 named after saints. There are “state streets”: Kentucky, California, and Florida, but no “State Street” (although one wing of the mall calls its self Main Street but that doesn’t count), and even some named after the pilgrims; (Miles) Standish and (John) Alden. Wood seems to be the most popular with 97 containing the word wood in them, but surprisingly, for a town once known for its orchards, only eight with Apple. Then there are 40 Creeks and 14 Brooks, but no Stream. We even
have one named after a card game, Canasta. Of course, some developers couldn’t resist sneaking in their own names: Willis, Britton, and Alfonso (DeNardo).

*The numbers are approximate and may vary somewhat from what is stated in this story.
June 1, 2018 – Streets and Roads by Bill Sauers | Greece Historical Society and Museum

Scott Road, Eddy Road, Mt. Read Blvd.

Scott Road

Scott Road was the section that ran from Stone Road to Emerson St.

On Mount Read, a famous female pilot, and no it was not Amelia Mary Earhart, but Blanche Stuart Scott, she was a Pilot, Automobile Adventurer, Actress, a museum curator. Blanche Stuart Scott, America’s first female pilot, was born in 1885 on her grandparents’ farm in Greece located on the north side of Lexington Ave, the south side was in Gates. Reading from her unpublished autobiography during a recorded interview, she said.

“My name is Blanche Stuart Scott and I come from a pioneer family, a Rochester pioneer family, who came to Rochester in eighteen hundred and ten. And settled out on what was then the old Scott Road and is now Mt Read Blvd.”
Blanche Stuart Scott

The land that was the Scott Brothers lot is now where Delphi Automotive a division of General Motors is located today and is now located in the city of Rochester.

**1910 Map of Greece from the Rochester Public Library History and Genealogy Division.**

Eddy Road

Eddy Road ran from Stone Road to Latta. The road was named after Thomas Eddy who lived at 3205 Mount Read Blvd.

Mount Read

At the corners of Latta and Mount Read on the Southeast corn where Our Mother of Sorrows Church was the land once owned by Nicholas Read a pioneer family of the town of Greece and the Paddy Hill area which we will cover more in a later snapshot either on Our Mother of Sorrows Church and or Paddy Hill. It wasn’t until sometime in the 1920s that the entire stretch from Buffalo road to Latta Road would become Mount Read Boulevard.

Elevations in the town

Below is the list of different elevations in the town listed from the lowest point to the highest point the town. If you want to explore the elevation where you live you can check out the site topographic-map.com which is a great digital representation of the data from the United States Geological Surveys topographical data with color-coded elevation lines blow is low elevation and very red is higher elevations.

The lowest Elevation in the town is 243 feet and that is along the ponds at the lake which covers all the beach hamlets along the lakefront.
Mt Read at Latta Road Elevation is 345 above sea level.
North Greece Elevation at the intersection of Latta Road and North Greece Road is 338 feet above sea level
The spot where the Native American fort and Hanford Tavern were at Maplewood drive at Bridgeview drive is only 386 feet above sea level.
Barnard / Dewey Stone Area is 400 feet above sea level
King’s Landing Elevation is 415 feet above sea level
Ridge Road at Apollo Drive Elevation is 441 ft above sea level.
West Greece Elevation is 455 feet at the Hoosick Cemetary.
Ridgeway ave right at the entrance to Ridge Road Fire District Station #3 is 525 feet above sea level.
South Greece Elevation at School 12 at Old Ridgeway and Elmgrove Road is 525 feet above sea level.
The highest point in the town is where the BJ’s Wholesale Club is located on Bellwood Drive which is 558 feet above sea level.

Hojack Line / Lake Ontario Shoreline Railroad /
Rome, Watertown, Ogdensburg Rail Road (R.W. & O.) line
and New York Central Railroad

If you are in your 30s or older at least once in your lifetime saw the swing bridge rotate for the trains to cross over the Genesee River at Port of Rochester. The Lake Ontario Shoreline Railroad began operating in 1871. Ownership and the name of the railroad changed hands over the years including the Rome, Watertown, Ogdensburg Rail Road (R.W. & O.) line and New York Central Railroad. But it was colloquially known as the Hojack line. There are to this day speculations of how the line became known as the HoJack Line.’

Hojack Line Myth # 1

“It seems that in the early days of the railroad, a farmer in his mule-drawn buckboard was crossing the tracks when the mule stopped and wouldn’t move. When the farmer saw the fast-approaching train, he began shouting, “Ho-Jack, Ho-Jack.” Amused by the incident, the trainmen began calling their line the “Ho-Jack.”

Hojack Line Myth #2

According to a story published in the Greater Greece Post in 1965, “when it was necessary to hurriedly assemble a train crew in the wee small hours of the night, the call Ho Jack would boom through the halls of the rooming houses where railroad men stayed.”

Hojack Line Myth #3

A farmer, turned train engineer by the name of Jack Welch would yell Whoa, Jack when he stopped the train as if he were still stopping a horse. It was picked up and passed on as Hojack.

The More Plausible answer to the Hojack Line Myth

From a scientific standpoint if you listen to the sound of a train whistle as the sound travels thru the air it sounds more like hojack or Whoa Jack but even this could be seen as a myth to the nickname of the line.

Want to Explore More on Snapshot 19

Consider the following the following books for more information on the information in this snapshot:

The Hojack Line Remembered Oswego to Lewiston by Richard Chait is available in the gift shop at the museum and where ever books are sold just not available in our online store.

Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece – Volume 1

Eight Miles along the Shore

Bicentennial Snapshot # 18 Henpeck, Hoosick, Hojack, What’s in a Name? Part 1

July 19, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

This week we explore some of the myths of some of the nicknames of the communities in the town. This week we look at Henpeck, Hoosick, Braddock, and Barnard Crossing. Some have myths about the name, while some are named after a person or where one of the settlers came from and decided to call the Town of Greece their home.

Ada Ridge

In Snapshot # 16 we know the commercial hub of the town, Ada, was named after Ada, Michigan, the former home of the postmaster, William Anderson.

The Myths of how the area known as “Henpeck”
South Greece got its moniker

We are not sure how South Greece mostly the crossroads at Elmgrove Road, Ridgeway ave, and the Erie Canal got the moniker of Henpeck. We have three myths of that moniker henpeck but there may be more than three for the location but the three listed here are ones we at the Historical society discuss in the video above.

If you have not seen the following snapshots or have seen them and would like to a refresher then here they are before we get into these myths about henpeck.

The first one is Snapshot 15 the Erie Canal and then Snapshot 17 Henpeck, South Greece

Henpeck Myth Number 1

Mr. and Mrs. Henpeck wash the dishes from the Library of Congress

The term, Henpeck, has been around since the 1600s and denotes a meek submissive husband constantly nagged by his wife like a hen constantly pecking at the ground. New York author Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle was a henpecked husband.

That’s the reason given most often for South Greece’s nickname: “Some say [it was called Henpeck] because its residents claimed to be ‘henpecked’ by their spouses.” Would the male inhabitants of a rough and tumble canal port really admit that?

For myth 1 we do not have sufficient evidence to prove that this was the reason for naming the area Henpeck.

Henpeck Myth Number 2

A canal enthusiast, who helped get Henpeck Park developed had another theory; he said in a news account that he knew of stories that the name was linked to a type of hen developed in the vicinity. There were a number of farms in the area some were chicken farms or turkey farms, as well as orchards that grew apples and other produce that was sold in the community. But without enough evidence that the type of hen that was raised in the area and journals or diary entries to prove that this was the reason for naming the area Henpeck.

Chicken by William Baptiste Baird from the Library of Congress

Henpeck Myth Number 3

Henpeck is marked by using the star to pin point the little community of HenpeckHenpeck is marked by using the star to pin point the little community of Henpeck — Henpeck is marked by using the star to pinpoint the little community of Henpeck

This one may be a little more realistic considering there is a small hamlet called Henpeck in Cattaraugus County that could make the naming of the area to be a little bit more solid than the last two myths.

The town of Sandusky in Cattaraugus County was the hometown of longtime journalist and chronicler of local history Arch Merrill; he wrote in several of his columns that Sandusky used to be called Henpeck. Perhaps, like William Anderson and Ada, a former resident from the Southern tier brought the name with him.

But without sufficient evidence to prove that the journalist Arch Merrill was the source of naming the area Henpeck.

Henpeck Myth Conclusion

Overall on the three myths we looked at for Henpeck, we may never know how South Greece came to be called Henpeck, but that’s one of the joys of researching local history, one day you might uncover a document that answers the question.

The Myths of how the area known as “Hoosick”
West Greece got its moniker

Map of West Greece the Dotten Line is the town board the Pink tint is the Town of Parma the yellow tint is the Town of Greece and sitting in the middle of the line is the Church

West Greece is center at the crossroads of Manitou and Ridge Road on the Greece Parma border as you see on the map. West Greece will be featured in Snapshot number 20.

One of the Myths on Hoosick involves the local doctor Dr. Samuel Beach Bradley and will be featured in snapshot number 21.

Hoosick Myth Number 1

Our First myth about Hoosick comes from the neighbor of Doctor Bradley you can see where the Doctor and Mrs. McNeely’s property is right next door to one of the buildings owned by Doctor Samuel Beach Bradley.

A humorous accounting for that name has been handed down through the years. Dr. Samuel Beach Bradley practiced medicine for many years in West Greece. As the legend goes, he had a neighbor, Mrs. Rosa McNeely, who whenever the good Doctor drove by her house, would stand on her porch “flapping her calico apron wildly and crying out: “Dr. Bradley, who’s sick, who’s sick?”

For some people when you say “Hoosick” it could sound like “who’s sick” without the apostrophe s after who which is why it may sound the same but without some documentation to prove that this is the reason why West Greece is named Hoosick and the cemetery is labeled Hoosick Cemetery.

Hoosick Myth Number 2

Hoosick Falls from 1889 by L.R. Burleigh

This myth could be a little bit reasonable as to why the area is named Hoosick, according to historical research, however, it documents a more pedestrian explanation for the name. The people who first settled in West Greece came from the Hoosick Falls area near Albany and the name was used before Doctor Bradley ever lived there. There is also a tiny town named Hoosick, New York, which could be source two but may depend on the records of where the West Greece settlers came from.

The Braddock Bay Myths

HDR picture of Braddock Bay Marina by Doug Worboys

Over the course of time, many Greece residents at one point or another have visited this park because of its views and nature trails or visited the Braddock Bay Raptor Group when they do programs here, or have taken lots of wildlife photos at the park but did you know that Braddock Bay itself has myths of its own but none of them have any documented answers to why the bay is called Braddock near the end of this snapshot.

Braddock Bay Myth Number 1 –
The French and Indian War Connection

The First myth we look at is a General that was stationed at Fort Niagara a British General by the name of John Prideaux. Based on some records and accounts historians theorize that it was named after a British General. During the French and Indian War, most likely near the end of June 1759, General John Prideaux camped on the shores of the bay with two thousand of his troops, and with them were another thousand Haudenosaunee warriors under the command of Sir William Johnson. They were on their way to successfully lay siege to the French-occupied Fort Niagara in July. Alas, Johnson, a prolific journalist, was suffering from a cold when he camped at the bay so there is little detail about it in his journal.

General Prideaux was killed during the battle for Fort Niagara (unfortunately, he stepped in the way of his own army’s mortar and was decapitated). The Bay was subsequently named after him, Prideaux Bay. But over the years in which his name was “barbarously mispronounced” his name disappeared; perhaps Yankees found the name too hard to say and it morphed from Bradloe to finally Braddock. Or maybe people confused him with another major general from the French and Indian War, killed in battle in Pennsylvania, Edward Braddock.

But without that journal entries, we will never know it being named after Edward Braddock is not known either but this is the myth of the French and Indian War Myth for naming the Bay.

Braddock Bay Myth Number 2 –
The Lost Treasure of The Pirate Braddock

Faulding Skinner, known as Doc, frequently recounted a story his father told him about Captain Braddock. According to the story, this Braddock was a notorious pirate chased into the bay by British ships. Depending on who was telling or retelling the story, rather than being caught with the goods, he either dropped his loot into the bay or buried it near the base of a tree on the shore. Whenever Doc told this story, afterward there’d be holes around all the trees near the bay.

Aerial image of the Braddock Bay, NY located on Lake Ontario. — Aerial image of Braddock Bay, NY located on Lake Ontario. – SUNY School SOAR

Barnard Crossing is not a Myth but connected to a real family

We do know for whom Barnard’s Crossing was named. The railroad cut across the property of Mrs. Thomas Barnard and the train station was called Barnard’s Crossing. The United States postal service streamlined the name and eliminated the ‘s and Crossing so the area for the most part is now known simply as Barnard.

When did the United States remove apostrophes
from most places?

The answer will surprise you it was done on September 4, 1890, President Harrison signed Executive Order 28 instructing Congress on the creation of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) later on during a public law session in 1947 the rules that set up a unified naming convention of geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government. It was the creation of the naming convention that help simplify the naming standards because depending on what map you are looking one could have Braddock’s Bay and then 5 years later it could show just Braddock Bay. There are only five locations that have been approved to use the apostrophes in their name for mailing purposes they are

— Martha’s Vineyard in 1933, after an extensive local campaign;

— Ike’s Point in New Jersey in 1944 because the name “would be unrecognizable otherwise”;

— John E’s Pond in Rhode Island in 1963 to prevent it from being mispronounced as John “Ess” Pond;

— Carlos Elmer’s Joshua View in Arizona in 1995 to keep the reference to a Joshua tree forest in Mohave County from sounding like three first names in a row;

— and Clark’s Mountain in Oregon in 2002 to accentuate the tribute to William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame.

To learn more on what the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) does you can check out the resources at the United States Geological Survey – Board on Geographic Names or Board on Geographic Names Resource page https://www.usgs.gov/us-board-on-geographic-names/resources

Bicentennial Snapshot # 16 – ‘ADA’ Ridge Hamlet

July 5, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

Map with each hamlet listed click to view a larger image

In the early years of the town, there were little hamlets or unincorporated villages that people called different sections of Greece, for example, you have ADA Ridge which is the intersection of Mitchell Road Long Pond Road, and Ridge Road, Jekin’s Corner/North Greece is located at Latta Road and North Greece Road, South Greece is at Elmgrove Road at the Erie Canal, Dewey Stone Hamlet is right at where Dewey ave meets Stone Road, Paddy Hill/Read’s Corner is at Mount Read and Latta.

This week we explore the Hamlet of Ada which is at the intersection of Mitchell Road, Long Pond Road, and Ridge Road, this is where the center of town offices was except for the Department of Public Works until 1997 when the complex moved to the Greece Center area just north of Latta on Long Pond. We first told you about how the ridge was a glacial ridge, then the stagecoach route in episode 11, and the toll plank road from Long Pond Road to Elmgrove Road in episode 12, we introduce you to William Anderson General store and that was the post office for Ada in episode 14. You might have learned about the early Rowe family with the settlement at King’s Landing in the 4th snapshot. and we look at Asa Rowes’ Nursery business in snapshot 13.

Anderson’s General Store

In Snapshot 14 we told you that there were many general stores that people would shop at to get items for everyday living and one of these stores was William Anderson general store. William H Anderson was born in October 1849 in a small community called Ada Michigan, and he came to Greece, New York later in life with his wife Lois E. (Hyatt) Anderson. It was in Greece that he became a postmaster and opened his general store on the southeast corner of Ridge Road and Mitchell Road.

Did you know that a portion of Ridge Road was a toll-based planked road?

Note on the map on the left the Y-shaped conjunction of Long Pond Road, then known as Greece Centre Road, on the left, and the road that borders the property of farmer Erastus Walker on the right. In the 1860s there was a section that was planked it was from Long Pond Road to Elmgrove Road (Henpeck Road). It was a 2.5-mile stretch that was plank which means the road was made of wooden planks it was thought to have been 9 1⁄2 miles (15.3 km) and chartered on October 23, 1848, and there was a court case involving Kenyon vs the Seeley over the tolls that were collected on this plank road. Locals didn’t think it was necessary to pay to use the road. Erastus Walker used to cut across his fields to bypass the toll gate. After being used by so many, so often it became a right of way. Just south of the Walker property was land owned by the Mitchells. Eventually, the Mitchells would own the Walker Land and the name of the road changed to Mitchell Road.

Greece Baptist Church

Greece Baptist Church was one of the first churches in the town. The first building for Greece Baptist Church was built in the 1830s at the corner of Ridge Road and Long Pond Road. Picture in the video was its home until 1962 when the new home for Greece Baptist church was built at the end of Walker St a street that runs east-west and parallels just north of the ridge it runs just behind Buckman’s Plaza and now it connects the newly formed Greece Baptist Church Parkway. The Cole and Kenyon families are founding members of the Greece Baptist Church, Cousins Deb Myers and Maureen Murphy are descendants of the families who attended this church and help found Greece Baptist Church. The reason for the Church to move 700 feet was the community was growing by leaps and bounds after world war 2 and Ridge road expanded from one lane in each direction to a four-lane with two lanes going eastbound and two lanes going westbound. It recently turned 190 years and in ten years it will be celebrating its own bicentennial.

The Rowe Tavern

The original Rowe tavern that Asa’s father started in the early 1800s no exact date of the day it opened but we believe it was somewhere around circa 1804 but with no exact records or proof other than on a map showing that shows where it was located. The Rowe Tavern burned down in 1845 while being operated by R.P. Edgarton at that time while Asa was running his Horticultural and Nursery farm. It was later rebuilt.

St. Johns Church, the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church.

1875 Picture of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church

St Johns 1964 Church — 2014 Picture of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church Now photo by Bill Sauers

St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church was founded as a satellite parish of Our Mother of Sorrows Church. The original 20 congregants met in the Rowe tavern building from 1865 until 1876 when they were able to construct a church on the site. The tavern building became the priests’ rectory. Later on, the Church would expand to add a school and then a completely new structure set back further from the road to its new Church which is featured in two separate recordings about the Architect James H. Johnson (May 2012) and the Architecture of James H. Johnson (May 2019) but later on the church would sell the old rectory and school. The St Johns school lot became a Royal Car Wash.

We also had a Tuesday program with one of the families that were part of the original St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church her name is Carolyn Kerhaert a descendant of the VOLKMAR family who came to Greece about 1865 and help found St. John’s Church.

Up Close with Two Greece Pioneer Families – the Volkmar and Cole/Kenyon families May 10, 2022

The Falls Hotel

A little way down no more than 30 feet was the Falls Hotel. It opened under the ownership of William Fall, later it was operated by T. B. Hiett this would explain why the street Hiett Rd runs parallel to the Ridge and ends when you enter into the parking lot of St. Johns Church, the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church.

The Falls hotel also had a fire this was not till 1883 when the hotel was under the management of Willam Gentle who was the proprietor at the time of the fire. The Falls Hotel would later be reborn but it took some skills and lots of logs to basically move the Old Rowe Tavern from where the old Rectory for St. Johns Church stands today and move it across the road to where the entrance to Red Robin at the Mall at Greece Ridge is at today. The deal made to move the Tavern involved the congregants, the Pastor of the church, and the proprietor of the building moving it across the way to build the church.

The Fetzner Family

The Fetzner family ran a Blacksmith and Carriage shop also they were one of the first families that ran a fire company in the hamlet of Ada at the intersection of Ridge, Long Pond, and Mitchell Roads. In 1876, two brothers, Frank and John Fetzner, opened the Fetzner Brothers Blacksmith and Carriage shops on West Ridge Road across the street from the St. John the Evangelist Church and next door to the Falls Hotel. Peter Knipper who was married to the Fetzner’s cousin, Mary Mura, bought the Falls Hotel in 1889.

In this 1960s picture on the Left is Fetzner Garage | Richards on the Ridge to the right

They were one of the groups of merchants who went in on a soda acid chemical to fight fires in the area of Ada in the museum we have a soda acid chemical hand-pulled truck.

Buckman’s

Stay tuned for a snapshot of Buckman’s Dairy and Bakery but in the meantime, we have a program on Buckman’s Dairy History recorded in July 2017, and here is an article from our newsletter titled Homer J. Buckman – Sold Milk, Cream, and Lollipops!!! – From the historian’s Files. Also Homer J. Buckman will be featured in the upcoming Pioneer Families Volume II coming 2024 stay tuned to our Facebook page when the book goes live for orders.

Bicentennial Snapshot # 15 – Erie Canal

June 28, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

We explore the impact that the canal had on the Town of Greece, in the state of New York. In 1817 the idea was formed to create an easy way to get products from Lake Erie, and the other Great Lakes to New York City and back.

According to Wikipedia, The canal was first proposed in the 1780s, then re-proposed in 1807, and the survey was authorized, funded, and executed in 1808. Its construction began in 1817 after proponents of the project gradually wore down its opponents; and it opened on October 26, 1825. The canal has 34 locks with an overall elevation difference of about 565 feet (172 m),^[1] starting upstream with Black Rock Lock and ending downstream with the Troy Federal Lock. Both locks are owned by the United States Federal Government^[2].

The Canal Started at Lockport and ended at the Hudson River.

The Erie canal had received some nicknames for the Erie Canal project because of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, his project received some interesting names, and his political opponents wanted to call the project, here are a few of the names they called the Erie Canal, the first name it was derided as was “Clinton’s Folly”, another one was “Clinton’s Big Ditch”, and “Clinton’s Ditch”. Over time the folks realized that the Erie canal helped bolster the port at New York City with a strong advantage over other port cities on the eastern seaboard and helped make it easier to travel by water than it was to portage the goods to stagecoaches or other modes of early transportation in the interior of the United States.

The Erie Canal was one of the great civil engineering projects of its time, and the cost to build it was $7,143,789. The total length of the Canal is 363 Feet(584 km) and 50 Locks made up the canal to traverse the change in elevations of sea levels to get it from the Hudson River elevation to the elevation of Lake Erie.

Asa Rowe Ad in the Genesee Farmer Monroe Horticultural Garden

If you remember when we told you about Asa Rowe and his Monroe Horticulture Garden and Nursery he took full advantage of the Erie canal for shipping all his plants and seeds to other states, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconson, featured in Bicentennial Snapshot # 13.

As the canal was dug by hand it required an army of laborers. Some of those laborers, such as Terry Burns, one of the pioneers of Greece, decided to stay after working on the canal, settling in Greece in 1823.

South Greece did have one Lock and it was only used when they did the expansion in 1919 till about 1923 then after it was used as a dry dock for the rest of the 1920s on the canal but later it was decommissioned and blocked off the dock is now just being overgrown with trees and other wild plants.

Erie Canal Completion Medal, 1826 this one is in The Henry Ford Museum

During my Visit to the Henry Ford Museum in August, I saw this sitting in the Driving America Exhibit in front of an 1891 Abbot Downing Concord Coach.

The Buffalo Maritime Center is in the process of building a replica of a packet boat at the Longshed at Canalside in Buffalo at the end of the Commerical Slip and they believe it will take at least 2 years to complete the boat project and set sail in 2025 for the 200th anniversary of merging of the waters. In 2025 they will be traveling the Erie Canal and stopping in each community along the Erie canal so people explore the replica, as well as displays about building the boat and how they built it, and the materials they used in the process you can learn more about the project at https://buffalomaritimecenter.org/

1. Finch, Roy G. (1925). The Story of the New York State Canals (PDF). New York State Engineer and Surveyor. Retrieved June 28, 2022.

2. “Locks on the Erie Canal”. The Erie Canal. Retrieved June 28, 2022.

Bicentennial Snapshot # 14 – General Stores

June 21, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

This week on our Bicentennial Snapshot we explore two of the most visited General Stores out of two neighborhoods the first one will be H.C. Phelps Located on the southwest corner at Latta and North Greece and the second one is Gilbert (Burt) J Wagg’s Groceries and Provisions Located where Tim Horton’s is today at Lake Ave, Ridge Road and Pullman Ave.

Disclaimer The references to tobacco products in this Bicentennial Snapshot are for historical purposes only, recounting an individual’s reminiscences of a bygone era. The Greece Historical Society does not encourage the use of any tobacco products.

Today we take it for granted how easy it is to buy food, clothing, and other products from various stores and within easy travel distance or online via Amazon, eBay, and other online retailers. But in the 19th century and even into the 20th century, Greece residents depended on General Stores for their purchasing needs.

When the American colonists mainly started expanding west word they would set up General Stores that would be where the travelers or residents of the small villages or towns would gather to buy, trade, or sell items that they needed for a day-to-day living unlike how it is now that you purchase Clothing from Store A and then go to store B to get you Garden supplies, then maybe you go to Store C for your meats, and then finally get to the Produce Market for all your fresh produce these good would last longer or shorter depending what the product was intended for like planned obsolescence.

The invention of the Ice Box did help out with some growth of General stores but some of the General stores evolved with the times and they kept up with the changes evolving into smaller corner stores which some people will call the store a bodega, especially in New York City. In other parts of the country, the Mom and Pop General stores are somewhat making comebacks in your rural communities because these are now becoming small access points for online orders and delivery hubs for pickups for places like Amazon, UPS, FedEx, DHL, LaserShip, and even the post office still because the cost is still worth them to operate just to help the people that cannot get the packages delivered to the porch of the local farmer or rancher or even the smallest campgrounds.

Question of the Week:

How long do you think it would take for you to get from Hoosick Cemetary (West Greece) Manitou at West Ridge Road to G.C. Latta House at Lake Ave, and Latta Rd in Charlotte?

But for this question, we will be starting at the Hoosick Cemetary Manitou Road at West Ridge Road, proceed heading north on Manitou Road until you come to Latta Road, and then make the right on Latta Road passing H.C. Phelps General store on the right at North Greece and Latta road, and continuing on Latta you will be passing Green Acres on your left, you then continue on Latta and cross over Long Pond Road, maybe stop at Apple Anne’s for some apples, after that you maybe stop to worship at Mother of Sorrow’s church and then head down the hill and cross over Dewey ave and a much smoother path on Latta road you pass on your left the Fleming Homestead now a nursing home to then you should get to your destination at Lake Ave and Latta in front of the G.C. Latta House

Here is the formula to solve for each type of mode of transportation

time = distance/speed

Your Distance is 9.5 Miles

Your Speed is based on the mode of transportation you take to get to the destination.

Traveling by car at 35 mph

Traveling by a Horse at 5-8 mph

Traveling by a pedal bike can vary depending on how fast you can pedal it can be as low as 8 mph and high as 26 mph

Traveling by public transit is not available for this example.

The answer to this will be at the end of this post with the solution to this question.

H.C. Phelps.

H.C. Phelps is located on the southwest corner of Latta Rd and North Greece Rd.

Henry C. Phelps built his store on North Greece Road in about 1870. The area was then known as Jenkins Corner at Latta Rd. By 1900 it had the name, North Greece, as it’s known today. Henry carried a varied lot of merchandise. Just about anything that would fit in the store and would sell found a place on the floor or a shelf. He catered to the farmer and his family. It helped that the local U.S. Post Office was also in the building. The opening of the Manitou (seasonal) Trolley in the 1890s expanded the number of cottages along the lake and bays. Several times a week Phelps would send out his horse and wagon filled with fresh vegetables, fruit, and sundries. Going door to door, the “huckster” (an old term for a peddler) would often empty his wagon by the end of his route. After Mr. Phelps retired the store continued under several owners and name changes well into the 20th century. The post office moved to its own quarters and other business enterprises took over the site until we arrive in the 21st century. Except for the loss of the front porch and several horse-hitching posts, the building remains much as it was built over 145 years ago. An insurance office is now the proud caretaker.

Gilbert “Burt” J Wagg

Gilbert (Burt) J Wagg’s Groceries and Provisions is Located where Tim Horton’s is today at Lake Ave, Ridge Road, and Pullman Ave.

Wagg’s Grocery and Provisions store could hardly be called a general store in the same sense as Henry Phelps’s business. Gilbert (Burt) J. Wagg started in business in the early 1900s with several small grocery stores in Rochester. Since he was a natural salesman and “go-getter” (a favorite saying of the day), he decided to open yet another store on the northwestern edge of the city. Streets along Lake Avenue were developed because of the expansion of the Eastman Kodak Company, and Kodak Park Works. An ideal place for Burt’s new store was on the east side of Lake Avenue near Kodak. The business grew, with departments added almost yearly. A bakery, a meat department, groceries, and produce were sold there from the start. Furniture, china, yard goods, clothing, shoes, phonographs later called gramophones now called record players or turntables depending on your generation, and records all became integrated into Wagg’s, especially after the business was moved nearby to a building with ample floor space about 1912. The business eventually took a building on Lake Avenue as well as a number down Pullman Avenue.

One photo ( 1920) shows the business with a bus at the corner of Lake and Pullman. Most people referred to it as Wagg’s Corner. The mini-department store then employed 28 clerks and drivers to cover the departments and five delivery wagons. Burt is at the telephone in one of the photos and his sister Grace is at the adding machine to his right. Grace was as astute about the business as her brother. Burt passed on in 1944.

Burt is at the telephone in one of the photos and his sister Grace is at the adding machine to his right.

Grace took over and ran it until it became clear newer and more modern stores had opened on West Ridge Road. The business closed in 1964 and the building was torn down in 1988. Parts of the other shops that were to the right of the G.J. Wagg’s store are still standing but now are apartments at 17 thru 29 Pullman Ave. Pullman Ave was redesigned to come back a bit from the corner that Lake Ave and Ridge Road to prevent sharp turns onto Pullman Ave from coming from the Veterans Bridge or from lake ave turn onto Ridge Road and then a sharp left onto Pullman Ave and then the raised median makes it impossible to turn on to Pullman ave after the light on at ridge and lake coming from the Veterans Bridge.

Answer to the Question

How long do you think it would take for you to get from Hoosick Cemetary (West Greece) Manitou at West Ridge Road to G.C. Latta House at Lake Ave, and Latta Rd in Charlotte?

Your Distance is 9.5 miles in one direction

Your Speed is based on the mode of transportation you take to get to the destination.

Mode of Transportation	Speed	One Way Trip	Round Trip Time
Car	35 mph	15-17 minutes	30-34 minutes
Pedal Bike †	8 mph	1 hour, 11 minutes, 15 seconds	2 hours, 22 minutes, 30 seconds
Pedal Bike †	26 mph	0 hours, 21 minutes, 55 seconds	0 hours, 43 minutes, 51 seconds
Horse Trot‡	5 mph	1 hour, 54 minutes, 0 seconds	3 hours, 48 minutes, 0 seconds
Horse Trot‡	8 mph	1 hour, 11 minutes, 15 seconds	2 hours, 22 minutes, 30 seconds
Walking §		3 Hours 10 Minutes	6 Hours 20 minutes

Calculation of Time

† Traveling by a pedal bike can vary depending on how fast you can pedal it can be as low as 8 mph and high as 26 mph

‡ Traveling by a Horse at a trot at 5-8 mph

Traveling by public transit is not available for this example based on the chosen route that was selected

Bicentennial Snapshot # 11 – The Ridge Part 1

May 31, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

This week we turn our attention to the central commercial district in the town most of you know as

The Ridge.

We at the Greece Historical society bet that most if not, every person in the town of Greece has at least one point in their daily life been to some part of the Ridge, which could be to the Mall at Greece Ridge formally Long Ridge Mall, and Greece Towne Mall, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Wegmans, or the number of other shops and stores along the Ridge.

According to the Diary of Eli Granger whose dairy we share a bit from in the King’s Landing snapshot, he wrote this entry in his diary about the ridge and why he thought it would be a handsome ridge for a road

[1 June 1797] came home on a handsom Ridge suitable for a Roade — got home on Monday 29th May after Spending 14 days 3 of us — 42 days in whole — my Expence for pilott — 8 dollars for Expence at Niagary for pilote &c — 2 dolars — other Expence — $3.90
Diary of Eli Granger https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/4044

Those who may not remember earth science class or other science classes and parts of some history classes when they talked about the Ice Age and how most of the region was covered in ice and glacial valley, also called glacial troughs as seen in this map. Almost 13,000 years ago a large glacial lake, Lake Iroquois, as it is called by geologists, lapped the far eastern portion of what became the Niagara escarpment. When the waters of Lake Iroquois receded, it left a ridge of land 400 feet above sea level. You can see on this map, the dimensions of the prehistoric lake in relation to Lake Ontario today.

Notice the line in Red that is the portion of Ridge Road from the Genesee River to Lewiston. , the /// lines going from lower left to the upper right that is the outline of Lake Iroquois, and the cross lines ### in the pen are the ice sheet as the ice continued to recede north as the time when on from the ice age.

In 1960, in front of the old Greece Town Hall, on W Ridge Road, a Monroe County historical marker was placed noting the history of the old Ridge Road. Before the town moved from the old Greece Memorial Town Hall offices in 1997 to the new Greece Town Hall located on Long Pond Road. With the center of the population being closer to the Latta and Long Pond area the town felt that they need to move all the town services to a centralized campus close to the middle of the town instead of being on a major corridor where it stood for almost 96 years. From March 20, 1960, to 1997 when you went to the Old Greece Memorial Town Halland you might have wandered over and look the historical marker that was in front of the Town Hall. On the historical marker, it explains Ridge Road was molded by glaciers and that it was a well-traveled Haudenosaunee (Indian) trail, then it was traversed by Pioneers’ ox-carts, stagecoaches, and covered wagons, and that the town of Greece was founded in 1822. The Old Ridge Road historical marker was removed for a short time while Ridge Ridge was being expanded into a six-lane with a raised median highway. It was placed in the care of the Greece Historical Society. The sign was reinstalled and now sits on the edge of the sidewalk and the strip plaza.

This sign was originally located right as soon as you walked out of the front doors of Greece Memorial Town Hall and to the left of the Flag pole on the sidewalk in the picture above.

Headline from March 24, 1960, Greece Press,

Strip Plaza at the location where the old Greece Memorial Town Hall stood, Photo Bill Sauers

How much do you think it cost now to start a road like the Ridge, back then in 1813 New York State appropriated $5,000 for construction work that cost would be only $90,346.56 this was mainly to cut down trees and build basic bridges over streams this does not include the veteran’s bridge over the Genesee River, Mount Read bridge, and the bridge at Ridge and I-390/NY-390. Those bridges would be built during Part 2 of the Ridge which will be next week.

We cover more on the Rowe Tavern in our look into the neighborhoods of Greece, which will be called ADA (Ridge) note that this is the only neighborhood that uses the ridge in its title.

Travelers often stopped for the night at one of the two-story taverns along the Ridge, such as the Stone Tavern, or the Rowe Tavern.

**Stage Coach Loaded with passengers**
**in the 1860s from the Office of the Town Historian**

Even though Railroads and by the time these taverns were open for business most of the transportation to these establishments was by stagecoach, and as many as twelve people might be stuffed inside the coach, but that was perhaps better than having to ride outside while being subjected to all kinds of weather that mother nature could unleash during this time period.

There were a number of small general stores that a lot of the early pioneers shopped at for daily goods and items they needed for daily living. Like Anderson General Store located at the southeast corner of Ridge Road and Mitchell Road and Gilbert C. Wagg’s emporium at Ridge Road and Pullman Ave, these two General stores as well as a well-known general store in the North Greece Area at Latta and North Greece Road will be featured in the bicentennial snapshot number 14 all about these general stores. Also, you can check out this article from October 2017, Corinthian called “A Tale of Two General Stores From Apples to Zithers” by Alan Muller

As for the nursery businesses, this was where Asa Rowe, the Lay Farm, the Ver Hulst Farm, and smaller farms operated from but most notably Asa, and the Lay Farm. In 1826, Asa Rowe established the first nursery business in Monroe County when he opened the MONROE GARDEN AND NURSERY on the north side of Ridge Road near where today, Mitchell, Long Pond, and Ridge Roads intersect. He offered a large selection of “fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, bulbous roots, and green-house plants.” The opening of the Erie Canal made transportation fast and cheap and his nursery business thrived.

The Lay Farm, which later became the Ver Hulst Farm, now sits Bob Johnson’s Chevrolet.

**Anderson General Store is located at the southeast corner of Ridge Road and Mitchell Road. circa 1912**

Gilbert C. Wagg’s emporium was located at Ridge and Pullman Ave where Tim Horton’s is now located. and a portion of the smaller shops attached to Wagg’s still stands on Pullman Ave as apartments.

How many recognize these two buildings here?

David **Todd Mansion from History of Monroe County, W. H. McIntosh, 1877**

These are two structures that can be seen on the ridge the first one on the left is the David Todd Mansion which became a small apartment complex and the one on the right is The Upton Manor which is now the site of Ridgemont Country Club. For more information check out this article from our newsletter about the Craig house called The Victorian Survivor on the Ridge by Alan Muller written for the September 2020 issue of the Corinthian.

We wonder how many of you know that George Eastman and Eastman Kodak Company started the first plant for filmmaking not in the City of Rochester but in Greece, New York. In the 1890s, George Eastman decided that 16 and a half acres of farmland in Greece, “out in the country” where there was fresh air, plenty of clean water, and railroad terminals, was ideal for his new film-making plant. He constructed it on the corner at Ridge and Lake across the street from Wagg’s Corner. The Town of Greece would never be the same. But that’s a tale for another episode.

**Kodak Park, 1894, Office of the Town Historian**

Greece Historical Society’s Annual Strawberry Festival Fundraiser

May 25, 2022August 23, 2022 by John Gilbert

Strawberry & Dessert Tasting Festival

🍓 🍓🍓 🍓

Strawberry Festival June 20th 4 p.m to 7 p.m. $8.00 Adults, $ 5.00 for Kids 6-12, Free for Kids Under 5

Date And Time:

Monday, June 20, 2022
4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Location:

Greece Town Hall Pavilion
3 Vince Tofany Blvd, Greece, NY 14612

Admission:

$ 8.00 – Adults
$ 5.00 – Children 6-12
Free for 5 & Under

FREE PARKING

The Admission includes

Strawberry Short Cake and other Cake Samples from

Dessert Samplings from The following vendors

Mayer’s Cider Mill & Lake Ontario Winery & Vineyards

Hots, Burgers, Sausages, etc. will be available for purchase.

Music for the event is provided by:

DJ Flyin Brian of Party Productions

Other Activities include:

Children Activities
Grease Paint Alley Clowns
Community Displays
A Square Dance demonstration at 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
There will be Door Prizes
A Chinese Auction
As well as a chance to win one of these interesting Bicentennial Pioneer Families Signs
- The Tickets are $ 5.00 for one
- 3 for $ 10.00
- The Drawing for this Raffle will be done on July 10th, 2022.
- You Could Win one of these five Unique designs

Sponsors of this Year’s Strawberry & Dessert Tastings Festival

Bicentennial Snapshot # 10 – Samuel and Lydia and George and Frances Latta

May 24, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

This week we introduce you to Samuel and Lydia and George and Frances Latta, one of the preeminent families of the Town of Greece. They were members of the Valliant 33 group that fought to defend Charlotte and the port from the British in the war of 1812 Part 3 snapshot.

Samuel Latta Bio

George C Latta Bio

Samuel Latta

He was born 14 Apr 1776, in Walkill, Ulster co., New York to James and Sarah Jackson Latta. Some of his many accomplishments as a pioneer family of the town of Northhampton which covers both Towns of Gates and Greece until 1812 when the town was renamed, Gates then in 1822 the two towns split into Gates and Greece. Samuel Latta served as Town Supervisor in 1810 as seen in this map here. He was the first to build a warehouse at the port of Charlotte and was the first Collector of the port which was described in the snapshot Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse. He surveyed and laid out a road from the river to Parma, today’s Latta Road.

Among Samuel’s accomplishments: he built the first warehouse at the mouth of the Genesee River, the first in all of this part of the country; he was the first collector of the Port of Charlotte; he surveyed and laid out a road from the river to Parma, today’s Latta Road.

George C. Latta

George C. Latta was born in 1795 in Walkill, Walkill, Ulster co., New York to James and Sarah Jackson Latta and brother to Samuel. George has some of the same talents as his brother did but he was an entrepreneurial powerhouse. He was the quintessential “self-made man.” The broad range of his investments and businesses included mercantile, forwarding, manufacturing, farming, and nursery operations.

One of the mercantile companies was for a clerk in the Frederick Bushnell and James K. Guernsey mercantile business in Charlotte.

After working in the mercantile business he went on to be the town supervisor from 1845 to 1849, a trustee of his church the Lake United Methodist Church, and he donated the land for the Charlotte Cemetery which is located at 20 River St in Charlotte is right across from where District 4 school was located and now is the site of Rochester Engine 19 Station.

W. M. Britton and Edward Frisbee were not the only town supervisors and or families that help with education and land to be used for a school, In 1837 George Latta donated a site at the North side of Stutson St. A new one-room brick building replaced the old one. In 1837 bricks used for the building were made on site. In the 1860s the school was overcrowded with 1 teacher handling 80 students. In 1868 a new school was built at the corner of Latta Rd and River Streets. In 1893 a two-story addition was completed at a cost of $ 6,200. In 1907 a second school was constructed on-site. After annexation, Rochester built school # 38 on Latta Rd in 1928 and put on an addition in 1953. The evolution of education in the town may be another snapshot altogether as some other things that George C Latta did as supervisor of the town of Greece can be viewed on the digital kiosk at the museum in the section labeled supervisors of Greece.

District 4 on the land that George C Latta donated for the construction of this school

An Article was written by Joan Sullivan about George C Latta a Pioneer, Merchant, and Entrepreneur those who would like to read that article can it be read here

For more about these two pioneer families check out our pioneer families displays in the dining room at the museum Sundays from 1:30 pm to 4 pm. If you are into reading you might want to pick up a copy of Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece: Volume 1 now available in our gift shop or on amazon. Also, some of this information is in Eight Miles Along the Shore as well which is another great book about the town’s history.

All video and post-production are done by Pat Worboys and Narration and script are by Maureen Whalen. Most of the photos in the clip are from the Greece Historical Society’s archives, Greece Town Historian’s Office, and the Greece Post, the rest are creative commons licenses which are provided in the video.

Bicentennial Snapshot # 07: Town of Greece War of 1812 Part 3

May 3, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys

This week we conclude our three-part presentation on the attacks along the Greece shores of Lake Ontario during the War of 1812. Today we look at the battle fought on May 15, 1814. What occurred then never made it into any national history books, but is legendary in local history. Initially, 33 men from the volunteer militia responded to the sighting of the British fleet at the mouth of the Genesee River and fooled Commodore Sir James Yeo into thinking that they were “a substantial force” until more regiments could join them to turn away the enemy.

The Valiant 33

We know 17 these names of and members of the Valiant 33:

Isaac Stone, Francis Brown, Elisha Ely, Abelard Reynolds, Hamlet Scranton, Jehiel Barnard, Hervey Ely, Jesse Hawley, Silas O. Smith, Oliver Colby, Sam Latta^‡§, George Latta^*§ Thomas King^†, Bradford King^†, Zaccheus Colby^‡, Eastman Colby, Frederick Rowe

Note the symbols next to some of the names

*- Greece Town Supervisor
† – They are the Sons of Giddon King more on King’s Landing is in King’s Landing
‡ – They are Town of Northhampton Supervisors, not Gates or Greece – The town of Gates was formed in 1813 when the town changed its name to Gates, and for more information on the forming of the town of Greece check out the first snapshot of How Greece was formed
§- The Latta Family, Sam and George are brothers, born in Walkill, Ulster co., New York. More on the Latta Family in Snapshot #10 and in the publications Eight Miles Along the Shore and the latest book Pioneer Families of Greece Volume 1.

Samuel Latta's War of 1812 Card — Samuel Latta’s War of 1812 Card

Sketch of what appears to be the Frederick Bushnell and James K. Guernsey mercantile business at the mouth of the Genesee River or the

One of the Wearhouse that was hit was near Frederick Bushnell’s and James K. Guernsey’s mercantile business located in the Port.

The war of 1812 did last till February 18^th, 1815 but there were so many small battles and wars in this battle, was the British attempting to retake the colony back and make America regret its choice to become its own country on July 4^th, 1776.

General Peter Porter arrived that afternoon in time to receive a second flag. The British demanded that they surrender the provisions or they would land an army and 400 Indians. There were now 600 to 800 men on the east and west sides of the river ready to fight. Not knowing how many men were defending Charlotte, Yeo sailed away from the mouth of the Genesee on the morning of May 16, 1814.

General Peter Porter sent a message back to the Governor of New York that day stating:

“We saved the town and our credit by fairly outbullying John Bull.”
General Peter Porter

“At the Genesee, the enemy had a substantial force.”
Sir James Yeo wrote in his report to his superior officers:

Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece - Vol. 1 — Eight Miles Along the Shore By Virginia Tomkiewicz and Shirley Cox Husted

More on the war of 1812 is in the book we published Eight Miles Along the Shore.

Learn more about the Latta Families Samuel Latta and George Latta in Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece Volume 1

Bicentennial Snapshot # 04: King’s Landing

April 12, 2022December 31, 2023 by Pat Worboys, Maureen Whalen, Joe Vitello and Lee Strauss

This week we consider King’s Landing, the First European Settlement, and Lake Port west of the Genesee River. Natives of Sheffield, Connecticut, in 1797. the King and Granger families established a settlement on the banks of the Genesee River. They cut roads, built a bridge over the ravine, cleared the land, built a wharf and a schooner, sailed to Fort Niagara with their first load of produce and wheat, killed rattlesnakes, and went about their daily lives until the settlement was decimated by malaria or Genesee Fever as it was called then. In 1807, the seven Hanford brothers renewed the King’s Landing settlement and built a mill, hotel, and shipping center. More on Handford’s Tavern involvement in the War of 1812 Part 1.

The King’s Landing Bicentennial Snapshot was compiled by Lee Strauss, and Joseph Vitello, using notes by Helen Edson Slocum, Narrated by Maureen Whalen.

For more on King’s Landing check out: Eight Miles Along The Shore by Virginia Tomkiewicz and Shirley Cox Husted is the first book you should pick up.

There is a copy of King’s Landing, A History of the First Settlement west of the Genesee River in the State of New York 1797 by Helen Edson Slocum available in our reference library for research only.

Don’t forget to, check out the Digital Kiosk inside the Newcomb Museum Wing has a fully interactive exhibit on King’s Landing.

1816 and the effects of Mount Tambora eruption in Greece New York

Q: What was our mitigating factor?

1934 Cold Snap Hits the Orchards Businesses

Blizzard of 1966

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Larkin-Beattie-Howe House – 595 Long Pond Rd

Covert-Brodie-Pollock House, 978 North Greece Road

The Joseph Fleming House, 981 Latta Road

The Rigney-Feeney House, 1885 Latta Road

William A. Payne House, 505 Elmgrove Road

Colby-Shearman House, 1777 Ridge Road West to 550 Latona Road

Yates-Thayer House Now called Holiday Fleming Point, 710 Latta Road

Carpenter-Toal-Latragna-Stauffer House, 3490 Latta Road

Thomas W Boyde, Jr. Designed House, 442 Edgemere Drive

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Covert-Brodie-Pollock House, 978 North Greece Road

Westfall-Mercier House at 4350 West Ridge Road

Margot and Ralph Gram

Raymond Mercier

Hartman-Foos Cobblestone House

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School District # 9

First Christian Church

Davis-Bagley-Hazen House

District School # 7

Next week

For More on Cobblestones buildings from this Snapshot

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Thomas F Toal Bio

Carrie L. Frisbee

What is a Cooperage? What is it nowadays?

Cooper Tools

Wine Cask Chart

Brewery casks

H. C. Phelps Connection with Tom Toal

Tom Toal and His other Trade

Tom’s Connection with Doctor Abdiel Bliss Carpenter

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The Background of the Hotel and its similarities to the H. C. Phelps building

The owners of the location

Peter Larkin

Peter Larkin

Rose Larkin

Joseph B. Larkin

Children

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Street Names of Greece

Scott Road, Eddy Road, Mt. Read Blvd.

Scott Road

Eddy Road

Mount Read

Elevations in the town

Hojack Line / Lake Ontario Shoreline Railroad /Rome, Watertown, Ogdensburg Rail Road (R.W. & O.) lineand New York Central Railroad

Hojack Line Myth # 1

Hojack Line Myth #2

Hojack Line Myth #3

The More Plausible answer to the Hojack Line Myth

Want to Explore More on Snapshot 19

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Ada Ridge

The Myths of how the area known as “Henpeck” South Greece got its moniker

Henpeck Myth Number 1

Henpeck Myth Number 2

Henpeck Myth Number 3

Henpeck Myth Conclusion

The Myths of how the area known as “Hoosick” West Greece got its moniker

Hoosick Myth Number 1

Hoosick Myth Number 2

The Braddock Bay Myths

Braddock Bay Myth Number 1 – The French and Indian War Connection

Braddock Bay Myth Number 2 –The Lost Treasure of The Pirate Braddock

Barnard Crossing is not a Myth but connected to a real family

When did the United States remove apostrophes from most places?

Hojack Line / Lake Ontario Shoreline Railroad /
Rome, Watertown, Ogdensburg Rail Road (R.W. & O.) line
and New York Central Railroad

The Myths of how the area known as “Henpeck”
South Greece got its moniker

The Myths of how the area known as “Hoosick”
West Greece got its moniker

Braddock Bay Myth Number 1 –
The French and Indian War Connection

Braddock Bay Myth Number 2 –
The Lost Treasure of The Pirate Braddock

When did the United States remove apostrophes
from most places?