8745 Ridge Road

8745 Ridge Road 1.jpg ¹ 1972

8745 Ridge Road 2.jpg
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¹ Photography by Elizabeth Nibbelink, courtesy of the Emily L. Knapp Museum and Library of Local History.

This 1835 structure at 8745 Ridge Road, Town of Clarkson, Monroe County NY, is an excellent example of architecture and construction of the period, "It certainly shares elements of the cobblestone style, horizontal rows (but this is also seen in brick buildings.) I can't tell if there is a decorative profile to the mortar as cobblestones usually have. The general massing of the house and the Greek Revival styling place it as contemporary to the cobblestone era[; however,] I agree this is not a cobblestone.", states Erin Anheier, President of the Cobblestone Society and Museum.

Editor's Note: A significantly enlarged view of the structure reveals that mortar is not decorative, and the faces of the stones suggest that the stones are either quarried or split fieldstone, positioned with a relatively flat face exposed. Since the use of the stones is very consistent, this stone structure does not qualify as a true cobblestone. This evaluation does not reduce the architectural or historical significance of this early stone structure.

It is likely that using stone in this manner was an efficient use of the locally available stone without the laborious and time consuming process of selecting relatively small, collected, smoothed water washed or field stones typically used in cobblestone construction, and then carefully laid in mortar in a consistent and repetative pattern.