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29 Comments

  1. Laurie
    January 4, 2015 @ 10:51 am

    I live on Quaker Rd. in Palmyra situated alongside the canal. There are several cobblestone houses surrounding my house. Now i know their origins from reading your article.

    • Chris
      January 4, 2015 @ 4:43 pm

      Glad you found this helpful Laurie! There definitely are some great examples in Palmyra, one of which was owned by one of the original Mormons who mortgaged his property to fund the printing of the Book of Mormon–I totally should’ve included that one. Next time…

      • Michael Miano
        March 21, 2016 @ 9:36 pm

        The idea that cobblestone structures were created by newly-unemployed Canal stone masons is oft-repeated, but false. Cobblestone buildings were created during the 25 years after the Canal was completed because the stones were already there for thousands of years and the Canal created a need for new homes. Quoins could be cheaply shipped from quarries in Lockport by using the Canal to the construction site. After the Lockport locks were completed, the stone masons simply went home. They didn’t wait around a generation to reinvent themselves as cobblestone house builders.

  2. Mike
    January 4, 2015 @ 12:11 pm

    Another excellent task for the upcoming year.
    I have a book, put out by Rich and Sue Freeman, with the title, “Cobblestone Quest”.
    It has information on what is a cobblestone, who built with them and why in our area.
    Also has a list of 17 ‘tours’ ranging from around Lockport, and to the east of Geneva, around Weedsport.
    The tours cover the cobblestone buildings around our western portion of the state.
    Between the shore of Lake Ontario and the fields around what would become the canal, there are a lot of cobblestone buildings.
    If you get a chance maybe you can get a copy of this book and it may add to the ideas you already have.
    I wanted the book because I had the idea to follow most of the tours to see these structures.
    As with some things, I never did the tours.
    Have fun.

    • Chris
      January 4, 2015 @ 4:38 pm

      Very cool! I’m familiar with their work from the ‘Take a Hike’ series that I’ve always enjoyed. I’ll have to find this one too.

  3. Mike
    January 4, 2015 @ 12:20 pm

    I forgot to mention something which may require more info.
    The ‘smoke house’ you refer to located on Culver Rd. across from Sea Breeze Park, was originally a small building that the gentlemen of the time would go to, to smoke their cigars.
    When the building was moved from a lot next to the Ridge-Culver Fire Dept., I think that was the description of it. The current location of the fire department building was where the house was that the smoke house was a part of.
    I took your description of a ‘smoke house’ to be where meats and fish were smoked to preserve them.
    I’m sure there has to be more information available, especially from Pat Wayne, the Irondequoit historian.

    • Chris
      January 4, 2015 @ 4:40 pm

      Ya know, I tried to find a history on that building, because I always figured it was a food-smoking-house too. But, as a cigar smoker myself, I’d LOVE now to know more about it. I’ll have to do some more digging and maybe I can find more with your direction to Pat Wayne. Many thanks!

  4. justteejay
    January 4, 2015 @ 12:37 pm

    I had a client who lived in a cobblestone house. He had told me he had to carry a specialized insurance rider on the house because there are so few people who can do repairs to the cobblestone.

    • Chris
      January 4, 2015 @ 4:41 pm

      Interesting. I guess I wouldn’t think of things like insurance being higher on a house like that, but it makes sense. Come time to sell my house, I probably won’t be being a cobblestone then! 😉

  5. Caryn
    January 6, 2015 @ 7:32 am

    I can’t believe that Wayne County has the most and you only included one. Serious omission here! You missed a fabulous one outside of Phelps as well. Some of those included in the article are quite mundane by comparison.

  6. Kathy Guenther
    January 6, 2015 @ 8:26 am

    You missed a few on Route 14 south of Geneva. If you travel south on 14 across from Anthony Road Winery there is a nice on there. Travel further south on 14 about 2 or 3 miles south of Dresden, there is a nice one just across from Leach Road and across from PreJean Winery. In Wyoming County, Castile, there is one that is listed on the Cobblestone Registry. It was my grandmothers place. It’s a Greek Revival and also has a cobblestone smoke house. It has real cobbles.

  7. Wendy
    January 6, 2015 @ 8:04 pm

    Years ago we lived in a Cobblestone in the Town of Mendon. It has since been added to the Historic Registry. Now I live in CA and can’t say I have ever seen a coblestone home out here, thanks for the Article
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Cobblestone_House

  8. Kim
    January 17, 2015 @ 11:49 pm

    Hi, Chris – noticed you started following my blog and thought I’d check you out! So glad I did! Nice to see you were in my neck of the woods to visit the cobblestones in Childs! I was married in the Universalist Church you included here and we dressed in the Ward House next door to prepare for the wedding. I look forward to reading more of your posts and hope that you will enjoy my blog, as well. Kim

    • Keith coffee
      June 28, 2017 @ 7:32 am

      We also married there , and dressed next door. Beautiful place. We purchased a dillapitaded cobblestone home next door for renovation. After carefully removing all the interior material it has become a great lesson in the moethods used to build the walls. Very interesting.

  9. tomthebackroadstraveller
    January 18, 2015 @ 5:44 am

    Hi Chris, A great challenge. Cobblestones have always fascinated me and I have collected many photos. You found many that I haven’t visited get. Exploring Upstate New York is my passion, I will have to return often. Tom The Backroads Traveller

  10. Sheri
    January 18, 2015 @ 11:05 pm

    We used to live in #9. It used to be a school house.

  11. 15 Religious Sites in NY |
    February 4, 2015 @ 7:42 am

    […] find 15 examples of it from my jaunts around New York. My inaugural ’15 for 2015′ was cobblestone buildings, and in keeping with the building theme, I’ve decided that my second installment in the […]

  12. Seana Christine Catherman
    February 16, 2015 @ 9:16 am

    Hi Chris! Great work hunting down those cobblestones. My family owns one on the corner of route 15 (West Henrietta Rd) and Brooks Road, right next to the RIT Inn. I forget exactly what year it was built, but we’ve owned it since before WWII. It used to be a dairy farm that my grandfather ran, but we’ve long since given up the cows and it now sits unoccupied unfortunately.

  13. 15 Spots to 'Shop Local' in Rochester, NY |
    March 22, 2015 @ 6:02 pm

    […] to find 15 examples of it from my jaunts around New York. My inaugural ’15 for 2015′ was cobblestone buildings and the second was spiritual sites. March has been way busier for me than I anticipated, so I […]

  14. David
    September 10, 2015 @ 3:48 pm

    Chris,
    First, nice blog – happy to discover it! Ten years ago when I first learned about New York’s cobblestone buildings there was virtually nothing of depth on the internet. Now there’s a lot. Wikipedia has an excellent entry and the National Park Service has what is probably the most informative document online. My interest began with the book Cobblestone Landmarks of New York State pub. by Syracuse Univ. Press ’78. In it street locations are paired with black and white photos. It has been a longstanding wish to present those with current photos which I began several years ago and am furthering now. I have a few posts you can see here: http://thewaterwall.blogspot.com/

    I’d love to put up a link to your site on mine if that is cool with you.

  15. Heidi Morgenstern
    August 23, 2016 @ 12:41 am

    Wonderful site, I have been wanting to photograph every stone structure I can locate, including the limestone ones in the north who are often left in decay. Researching how they built the cobblestones in intense.

  16. Susan Loughnane
    July 8, 2017 @ 8:08 am

    I have lived in a cobblestone home for the past 26 years and have loved the history that it brings. It is the original ‘Barden Home”. It originally sat on 210 acres as a family farm.
    when it first left the Barden family around 1969, the land around the home was sold to a farmer and the 4.3 acres surrounds this 4000+ sq ft living space. The home has been listed on the Historic Registry and has been on two house tours. I currently have the home listed for sale as it is too large for me to maintain. I am hoping that someone as adventuresome as I was will find the experience of owning a piece of history as thrilling as I have. Susan Loughnane, 2492 Ferguson Corners Rd, Penn Yan NY

    • Robert Matcham
      August 4, 2018 @ 1:59 pm

      Have you sold your house? I have become interested in cobblestone houses in this area of New York. Currently looking for a home. Thanks, Bob

  17. Cliff
    August 13, 2018 @ 9:20 am

    There’s some near Alabama, Oakfield area of ny. One right by a quarrying rt63 and one is at the end of ledge road it’s called the ledge egg farm. There both pretty old but unsure of the exact year. I’d love to know more about them and if the same people built them since they’re so close.

  18. Richard Troiano
    September 8, 2019 @ 9:46 pm

    PBS did a show on Erie Canal. Hoped it would include the cobblestone houses, but didn’t. Enjoyed the article.

  19. Greg Lawrence
    March 2, 2020 @ 11:37 am

    A public internet release will be offered by The Cobblestone Society and Museum and the Landmark Society of Western New York in the spring of 2020 of the Cobblestone Info Base, a virtual library and repository of all known and found information on Cobblestone structures in North America. To-date, the Cobblestone Info Base includes about 950 existing and non-existing true cobblestone structures, circa typically 1820 to 1865, with about 6500 photographs. All structures are located with exact GPS coordinates with additional Google Maps street level (when available) and satellite views provided. The Info Base is based on the Robert Roudabush Survey, Richard Palmer’s blog Cobblestone Buildings of North America, Carl Schmidt books “Cobblestone Architecture” 1944 and “Cobblestone Masonry” 1966 (digitized in the entirety with permission), and the Martin and Sheila Wolfish Photographic Collection, and numerous other contributors.

    This will be a living Info Base where information and imagery will be imported for years to come including links to external sources of information on the internet. The pre-release web testing version 1.0 is available at URL:

    http://www.cobblestonemuseum.org/CobblestoneStructuresCatalog/CM0000.htm

    Note that this URL may change when it is officially linked with The Cobblestone Society and Museum website. This is a serious pro bono effort of about 1500 hours over 18 months at the time of this posting.

  20. Preserving the history of cobblestone architecture - Rochester BeaconRochester Beacon
    March 16, 2020 @ 11:01 am

    […] a result of that architectural trend, our region now has the largest collection of cobblestone structures  in the nation. It’s estimated that more than 1,000 cobblestone structures have been built in […]

  21. Cobblestone Universalist Church - Childs, NY | Exploring Upstate
    May 18, 2020 @ 3:48 pm

    […] most buildings. Because of the availability of cobblestones and limestone, you can find a lot of cobblestone architecture […]

  22. Judith A. Colella
    April 5, 2022 @ 4:09 pm

    Back in the ’60s, we stayed at what was called a tourist home in upstate NY. It was called The Cobblestone, and the owner, a widow who lived there, rented out the beautiful bedrooms to tourists like us for $5./night. In the morning, she made us breakfast on her wood-burning stove, complete with homemade strawberry jam for the toast. She had black and white postcards of her house, which is how I knew its name. She said the house was built in the late 1700s. Does anyone know this home, or what became of it?