USA > New York > Ontario County > A history of Ontario County, New York and its people, Volume I > Part 25
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In the square have been grouped a succession of noble public buildings, beginning with the first court house erected in 1794, including the second court house erected in 1824 and now known as
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the town house, and culminating in the splendid county building erected in 1858 and recently rebuilt and enlarged.
Facing the square on the north and south were located origi- nally the dwellings of four of the most prominent citizens of the village. On the south side, east of Main street, stood the house of Oliver Phelps, the head of the Phelps and Gorham land company. This continued to be the residence of the family until after the con- struction of the Canandaigua and Jefferson railroad in 1849, when it was utilized for the business offices of that company. A few years later it was destroyed by fire. Facing the square on the north was the dwelling of Nathaniel Gorham, Jr., which upon the opening of Gorham street in 1849 was moved to a location on the north side of that street, where it now stands, the joint property of Dr. A. L. Beahan and John H. Hicks, Esq. Across Main street, on the north side of the square, stood the house of Dr. Moses Atwater, which, in 1850, in preparation for the erection of the office building known as Atwater hall, was moved to a site further west, and was for many years the residence and studio of Marshall Finley, the pioneer photographer of the village. On the south side of the square, west of Main street, was located the house of Thaddeus Chapin, son of General Israel Chapin. This was later adapted to business uses, and about the year 1865 was destroyed by fire.
Among the buildings facing the square as now constituted are the Red Jacket building, erected about the year 1812 by Nathaniel Gorham, Jr., long occupied by the Red Jacket Club, and now serv- ing a useful purpose as an office building ; the stately Canandaigua hotel, erected in 1852-53, on the site originally occupied by the Blossom house; The Hallenbeck, an office building erected in 1895 by Dr. Orlando J. Hallenbeck, on ground where formerly stood the historic Ontario hotel: the large High School building, erected in 1876, and the Canandaigua Hospital of Physicians and Surgeons. erected by Dr. A. L. Beahan in 1898. To this group is to be added a fine example of modern architecture in the shape of a postoffice building, now in course of erection on the old Atwater corner, which was purchased and donated to the government for the pur- pose by Mrs. Frederick F. Thompson. The King Lumber Com- pany, of Charlottesville, Virginia, has the contract for the construc- tion of this building on its bid of $67,225.
Below the square, on Main street, have been centered the business interests of the village in a number of two and three story
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blocks that do credit to the enterprise both of the capitalists who erected them and of the merchants who occupy them. Along the street are located the Thompson Memorial hospital, the Canan- daigua Academy, and the handsome church edifices belonging to the Baptist, Congregational, Pres- byterian, Roman Catholic, Meth- odist Episcopal, and Protestant Episcopal societies, and it is bor- dered on either side, particularly in its upper portion, by handsome private dwellings.
Among these are many of historic interest. In the upper part of the street there stands, restored to its original beautiful proportions, the Gideon Granger mansion built about the year 1814, later occupied by Francis Gran- ger, and now the home of the lat- ter's granddaughters, the Misses Granger; the Alexander Duncan house, which became the property of Judge Oliver Phelps (3d), in 1852 and which has since remained the family homestead, being now occupied by his daughter, Miss ALEXANDER DUNCAN. Alexander Duncan, a prominent figure in the social and professional life of the county seat in early days, was born in Arbroth, Scotland, May 26, 1804, and coming to America when fourteen years of age made his home in Canandaigua with his father's friend, John Greig; graduated from Yale Col- lege; studied law with Nathaniel W. Howell ; admitted to practice at the bar in 1828; continued a resident of Canandaigua for a number of years, then removing to Providence and later, about 1855, to New York city, where in association with Henry B. Gibson's son-in-law, Watts Sherman, he founded the banking house of Duncan & Sherman; re- turned to England about the year 1868, and died there in 1886. Elizabeth Phelps; the Jared Will- son house, built in 1829, and re- modeled by Assemblyman Jean L. Burnett; the house erected near the head of the street on the east side by Rev. Timothy Field, the first pastor of the Congregational church, and now the property of the Stowe estate, and the house adjoining cn the north, built by one of his early successors, Parson Johns; the house erected by Peter B. Porter about the year 1800, subsequently occupied by the distinguished John C. Spencer and by United States Senator Elbridge G. Lapham, and now by Mrs. John D. McKechnie ; the Mark H. Sibley house, built in 1845, later
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the home of Lucius Wilcox and now of Alexander Davidson; the General John A. Granger mansion, now St. Mary's convent; the house built by James Sibley, jeweler, in 1808, and now owned and occupied by the Misses Paul, the first brick house built in the village; the house erected by Myron Holley, an early county clerk and later one of the State commissioners who had charge of the building of the Erie canal, now the residence of Dr. George W. McClellan; the Utica Branch Bank building, now the home of the local Y. M. C. A .; the Daniels house, credited with being one of the oldest frame structures in the village and the first store. In the lower part of the street are still found, near the lake on the west side, the house built by one of the early surveyors, James Smedley, and now the property of Michael Moran ; on the east side, the ruins of the Dudley tavern, recently known as the Foster house ; at the north corner of Main and Parrish streets, the Jasper Parrish house, built in 1824.
Other mansions of historic associations once stood along this Main street, but have been demolished to make room for structures of more modern, not more beautiful, proportions. Among the most notable of these were the Thomas Morris house, located at what is now the entrance of West Gibson street; the John Greig place, which stood opposite the Academy on upper Main street, and the Gibson house, next south of the Congregational church, where the Ontario bank was long located.
Just off Main street, a short distance west on Coy street, still stands the house of General Israel Chapin, the Government Indian agent, and the old structure attached to the building on the north was the General's first home in Canandaigua, the second or third frame building to be erected here and now undoubtedly the oldest structure in the village. In its front yard, where stand the Bennett and Maggs blocks, were held many of the pow-wows with the Indians that characterized the early days of the settlement.
On the lateral streets, which also are laid out on liberal plan. are to be found interesting landmarks in the shape of dwellings whose frame work at least constituted a part of some of the first houses erected in the village, but which as remodeled evidence little of the plainness of those earlier habitations. Added to these are handsome residences of recent construction, chief among which is that known as "Sonnenberg," the summer home of Mrs. Frederick F. Thompson, of New York city. This has been developed
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to the highest state of fruitfulness and beauty, and opened to the public, as it is on stated days throughout the summer, is visited each season by people from all parts of the country.
As the settlement grew, the Main and Cross streets were supple- mented, first, by the opening of streets along the lines of travel that led to the villages at the east or west, or toward the north, and these were followed by those laid out for the purpose of opening the land to settlement. Among the first streets laid out were those bounding the village, East street, West street, and North street. Buffalo street was one of the first streets, being so named because it led to the village of Buffalo. The road opposite it, east of Main street, was first named Marvin street, after Dudley Marvin, an emi- nent lawyer, thus setting the example later followed of naming streets in honor of prominent citizens; but Marvin street became Chapel street, when, in 1816, the Methodists erected a sanctuary there. Fort Hill avenue, first known as Mechanic street, was opened previous to 1800, and Parrish street, opened about the same time, was named after the Indian interpreter, Jasper Parrish. Another street was that named after Dudley Saltonstall, the first principal of the Academy, and running through a farm owned by him. Granger street was opened, as Butcher street, previous to 1814. Bristol street was first called Antis lane, because of the fact that it led to the home of William Antis, the settlement's first gunsmith. The small street which now bears his name was opened about 1844.
Gibson street was opened in 1828, by Henry B. Gibson, the banker, and first named Barlow street from the fact that it extended through the Barlow farm; Wood street named after William Wood, was opened the same year; Beeman street, named after Marvin Beeman, a merchant, was also opened about the same time : Gorham street was opened in 1849 by Nathaniel Gorham, 3rd. Howell street was opened in 1852, through the center of the farm owned by Nathaniel W. Howell. In the same year, Dungan street was opened and named after Dr. Samuel Dungan; Hubbell street, named after Walter Hubbell, and Park street, so named because it started from the Gibson street park. Greig street, named for John Greig, was opened in 1839. Coy's lane was widened into a street in 1850 and called Coy street in honor of Charles Coy, a prominent harness maker, who then occupied the Israel Chapin house on that street. Bemis street, opened previous to 1835, was named after James D. Bemis, the early printer; Clark street, opened in 1841 and named
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after Eldad Clark, the cabinet maker; Foster street, opened in 1849, and named after William K. Foster, shoe merchant; Phelps street, opened in 1846, and named after Judge Oliver Phelps; Chapin street, opened in 1850, and named after General Israel Chapin; Mason street, opened in 1876, and named after Jesse Mason, the tanner ; Beals street, opened in 1873, and named for Thomas Beals, the early banker; Charlotte street, opened in 1873, named for a daughter of Governor Clark; Catherine street, opened in 1849, named for Catherine Chesebro.
The first public necessity for a pioneer settlement like that of Canandaigua, attracting as it did visitors and settlers who must perforce eat and sleep, were hotels or taverns, and then came a cemetery, for death would not delay in exacting toll. Schools were provided also in the first years of the settlement, for the people from the New England hills did not propose to allow their children to go long without instruction in the three r's, readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmatick. The building of churches could wait a few years, the worship of God in the meantime taking place in the hospitable homes, or in the forest cathedrals that surrounded the settlement. Newspapers could wait a while, as must also libraries ; but these all appeared in the early development of the white man's Canandaigua.
The Hotels.
The first entertainment for man and beast, as we have seen, was provided by Joseph Smith, who, with an eye to business, got his log house erected and in order early in the season after the selection of Canandaigua as the headquarters of Phelps and Gor- ham, 1788, and by the time General Chapin and his company of pioneers reached here in May of the following spring he was ready to furnish bread and beds, such as they were, to all who needed and could pay the price. General Chapin's own house, which was erected that season on his lot west of Main street, on the north side of what is now Coy street, was to all intents and purposes a public hostelry, for as the recognized leader of the little commun- ity and the Government Agent he was called upon to entertain every visitor of influence, be his skin white or red.
The first regular tavern, however, was that which was opened by Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Sanborn in 1790, in a house erected on the site recently appropriated for the new postoffice building. Here
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and at Captain Martin Dudley's tavern, which was erected in 1796 on the east side of lower Main street, and which was burned early the present year, 1911, were entertained travelers and prospectors in large numbers and here gathered the belles and beaus of the town for many a banquet and dance.
Another early tavern was that which was built on the west side of upper Main street, about the year 1791, by Phineas Bates, and which became particularly popular during the war of 1812.
The first big hotel of the village was the Blossom House, which was built in 1814, east of the square, on the site of the pres- ent Canandaigua hotel. This was the favorite stopping place for the Concord coaches that furnished communication to and from the settlements at the east and those also to the westward. This hotel was destroyed by fire on the night of December 2, 1851. Early the next year a stock company, consisting of John Greig, Francis Granger, Henry B. Gibson, John A. Granger, Mark H. Sibley, Leander H. Drury, and Gideon Granger, provided means, in conjunction with Thomas Beals and John Benham, the owners of the land, for the building of a new hotel. This was completed and opened in the summer of 1853 and constitutes the Canandaigua hotel of the present day.
In 1827, Thomas Beals, who had recently purchased the prop- erty on the west side of Main street south of Coach street, the site of the Pitts tavern in which was located the old jail, began the erection of the Franklin House, which was completed the follow- ing season. This building, which was of brick, was burned in March, 1860, but was immediately replaced by what is now known as the Webster House block.
The Northern Retreat, standing at the corner of upper Main and Buffalo streets, was built in the early years of the century and burned in 1867; the Southern Retreat, now known as the Lake Breeze hotel, at the foot of Main street, was an old time tavern. The Ontario House, on the east side of the public square, was more notable among these early hostelries, but the date of its erection is not known beyond the fact that it was in the first years of the century. It was torn down in 1895 to make way for the erection of the Hallenbeck office building. The Washington hotel, still standing on Ontario street, was built about the year 1814, and the old Niagara House, erected as an adjunct to the station of the Canandaigua and Elmira railroad, about the year 1851. The Mas-
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seth House, now the Imperial hotel, was erected on contiguous ground in 1875. This does not complete the list, but it makes a record of the hostelries best known in the history of the village.
The Burying Grounds.
Although no minute of the fact appears in the official record, either in the village clerk's office or in the county clerk's office, it is safe to assume that the village plotting made by direction of the original purchasers, Phelps and Gorham, set apart the piece of ground on the south side of what was then Cross street, but is now known as West avenue, for the purposes of burial. It was in this lot, consisting of one acre. that the remains of the first white man who died in the infant settlement, Captain Caleb Walker, brother of Agent William Walker, were interred. This was in August, 1790. There were only eighteen families in the settle- ment at that time, but as the quaint old head-stones of this historic Godsacre abundantly testify, the Walker grave did not remain long alone. Within a few years it was surrounded by a score or more of memorials recording the death of other pioneers.
In January, 1826, the addition located immediately east of what had even then become the "old" burial place was purchased and plotted for graves by representatives of prominent families in town. Fifteen years later, August 14, 1841, the trustees of the village acquired possession of a plot of three and one-half acres lying north of Cross street "nearly opposite," the deed recites, "to the present burying ground," and laid it out for purposes of burial. To this "new" burying ground additions were made in 1860 and in 1871.
The Roman Catholic burial place, now known as Calvary cemetery, was laid out in 1850 under the pastorate of Father Edmund O'Connor. Additions to this were made in 1856 and in 1902.
Woodlawn cemetery was opened in 1884 by a private corpora- tion known as the Canandaigua Cemetery Association, having the following named trustees: Oscar N. Crane, chairman; Harrison B. Ferguson, secretary ; George B. Anderson, William Hayton, Hugh King, John B. Robertson, Abel Richmond, Rollin L. Beecher, Hilem S. Bennett, John Gillette, Charles A. Richardson, and Frank O. Chamberlain. Woodlawn was laid out upon the most liberal and
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artistic plan. With the permanent improvements and additional lands, making the cemetery area now include sixty-five acres, and counting in the expense of maintenance, the property has cost, from the organization in 1884 to June 1, 1911, the sum of $119,- 224.40, which with the exception of an indebtedness of $3,163.56, representing the cost of the boulder entrance recently erected, has all been met by the sale of lots, without the aid of bequests or contributions. The cost as thus figured, however, does not include the handsome stone chapel completed in 1910 at the sole expense of Mrs. Frederick F. Thompson.
The Schools.
The village of Canandaigua has been famed from the earliest years for its educational facilities. These were comprised at first of neighborhood schools, housed it may be guessed in log buildings, and these were supplemented at a very early date by private schools of greater or less prominence. Whether as an actual fact one of these was conducted in a wing of the old Morris house by Louis Philippe, afterwards the "Citizen" King of France, during the time he was a fugitive in this country between 1746 and 1800, as tradition saith, it is a fact that William Williams conducted a school in Judge Howell's office, and that Miss Sybil Mosely, credited with having conducted the first Sunday school in the village, Miss Mary Baker, who conducted a school for girls in the house since occupied by the Paul family, Mr. Warren Bundy, and others, acted as instructors in such schools in the early days.
At the time the public square was deeded to the county in 1800, certain reservations were made for the protection of the log school house then standing on the west side of Main street, which was evidently private property, as it was provided that the owners of said school might rebuild the same from time to time on said square.
Following the establishment of the public school system of the State, in 1813, the village was divided into three school districts, and brick school buildings erected as follows: In No. 11, changed to No. 10, on the west side of lower Main street just below the Walker blacksmith shop; in No. 12, changed to No. 11, on the north side of Cross street, or West avenue, about opposite the old burying ground, supplanted in 1851 by a larger building erected on Greig street, now used as the boiler house for the High School building ;
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in No. 13, on Chapel street, on the site of the present branch school building.
But the disposition of the founders of the village in regard to the matter of education had its first significant manifestation when, as early as January, 1791, Nathaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps, for the purpose of establishing and supporting an Academy or Seminary of learning, deeded to trustees certain tracts of land aggregating six thousand acres, situated as follows: 3,000 acres in lot No. 9 in the third range, 2,000 acres in lot No. 7 in the fifth range, 500 acres in lot No. 11 in the second range, and 500 acres in lot No. 10 in the third range, "which said township lies at the north end of Canandaigua lake and adjoining thereon," in which it was stipulated the proposed "Academy or Seminary of learning" should be situated. In 1795, the Canandaigua Academy was formally incorporated, and steps were taken to raise by subscription the funds needed to erect the Academy building. This was of wooden construction and was completed and opened for use in 1804. The first board of trustees was made up as follows: Dudley Saltonstall (substituted for Nathaniel Gorham), Oliver Phelps, Nathaniel W. Howell (substituted for Israel Chapin), Nathaniel Gorham, Jr., Thomas Morris, Arnold Potter, John Smith, Timothy Hosmer, Charles Williamson, James Wadsworth, Oliver L. Phelps, Daniel Penfield, Ambrose Hill, John Codding, John Wickham, Moses Atwater, Judah Colt, Israel Chapin, Jr., and Amos Hall.
A separate paper, annexed to and recorded with the last deed. provided that the trustees should annually appropriate the sum of twenty dollars as a premium to the student writing and publicly delivering the best oration on "The Transcendent Excellence of a Genuine Representative Republican Government effectually secur- ing equal liberty founded on the Rights of Man," and that certain part of the income should be expended in "educating such young men as having bright intellect and amiable dispositions bid fair to be useful members of the community, but from the incompetency of their resources are unable without assistance from the fund, hereby appropriated, to acquire a suitable share of literary informa- tion to enable them to do extensive good to their fellow men."
Canandaigua Academy at once took a position as a leading educational institution and under a succession of able principals rendered a service to the young men in this part of the State of incalculable benefit and that enabled many of them to attain high
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places in the world of business and politics. The first principal was Dudley Saltonstall. A few years later came Rev. James Stevenson, who received a yearly stipend of $800, but, not unlike his predecessors or successors in that respect, was unable to make the school pay its way. Later came Mr. George Willson, who was the author of Willson's Arithmetic and Willson's Class Reader. Henry Howe was the principal from 1828 until 1849, and under his management the institution be- came self supporting for the first time, and the building, in 1834-5, was entirely remodeled, being en- closed with brick and enlarged by spacious additions. Marcius Will- son, who later won recognition as a historian of ability, became the principal in 1849, and upon his resignation in 1853, Dr. Noah T. Clarke assumed the responsibility of the management, a position which he continued to hold to the great advantage of the school and its students for a period of thirty years, or until 1882. Finally, all HENRY B. GIBSON. efforts to endow the institution having failed, it was compelled to yield to the progressive rivalry of the public high school and trans- ferred its property, with the trust funds heretofore mentioned, to the village board of education.
Henry B. Gibson was born in Reading, Pa., April 13, 1783. Educated at Saratoga, N. Y. Began business career at Cooperstown, then moved to Utica, where on December 9, 1812, he married Miss Sarah, daughter of Watts Sherman, the famous banker, with whom he was afterwards associated in business. Came to Canandaigua in 1820 to take charge of the Ontario Bank, which he managed with signal success until the expiration of its charter in 1856, when he retired with a fortune estimated at $1,000,000. Was elected President of the Rochester and Auburn Railroad upon its com- pletion in 1840. Continued to reside in Can- andaigua until his death, November 20, 1863, in the 81st year of his age.
Another Canandaigua school that gained national reputation, and that was in fact a pioneer in the movement for higher education for women, was the Ontario Female Seminary. This institution was incorporated in 1824, and in 1825 the building was erected on land deeded by Henry B. Gibson. After several years of varying history, the principalship in 1830 passed to Miss Hannah Upham and Miss Arabella Smith, under whose management the institution was greatly prospered. Miss Smith died in the summer of 1842, after
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which Miss Upham was in sole charge until July, 1848, when she resigned to return to her New England home. Miss Upham was succeeded by Mr. and Mrs. Edward G. Tyler, who came to Canan- daigua from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and under their management the capacity of the Seminary was enlarged so that it accommodated some eighty boarding pupils, with a dozen or more teachers and a large day school. In 1854, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Richards became interested in the institution and continued associated in its manage- ment until the competition of richly endowed rivals brought about the suspension of its work, in the year 1875.
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