Building date: 1836
Original use:
Corner structures: Tooled
Mortar application and content: Vertical heavy. Vertical pyramids
Types and uses of stones: Irregular rough
Types and choice of windows:
Structures with similar masonry details:
Masons who worked on building:
Unique features:
Map views courtesy Google Maps. Google Maps street level view is blocked by dense vegetation. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 42°49'51.88"N 77°00'24.55"W. Current owner of record, Poole as of the 2019 Tax Roll.
Town of Geneva and Ontario County Maps
Bellwood Farm, an impressive country estate with a view of Seneca Lake, is on the east side of Pre-Emption Road, two miles south of Geneva. One drives through the gate of a cobblestone wall and along a winding drive to reach this stunning Greek Revival cobblestone house which bursts on the scene. It was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph H. Poole in 1942.
The land at Bellwood Farm was first cultivated by Silas Tucker, who purchased the property in 1826 from his prosperous father-in-law, Jeptha Earl. The original cobblestone house, which Silas built in the 1830s, was less than half the size of the present structure. The transformation from homestead to country estate took place in 1905. It was then that Perry Tucker, a descendant of Silas, sold the home to Mrs. Katherine Belle Lewis of Buffalo.
Using wealth that came from Pennsylvania coal and railroad investments, Mrs. Lewis added the northern half of the house with cobblestones and mortar work of the "new" matching perfectly that of the "old." The interior was changed at that time to the elaborate woodwork and spacious rooms of the present time.
The landscaped grounds around the house included both formal and informal gardens. The entire property was enlarged to 600 acres (from Silas Tucker's farm of 150 acres) giving the later owner and extensive area for beef cattle feeding and breeding. Richard Palmer blog.
Editor's Note: View the complete published article "Bellwood Farm: a hidden cobblestone gem", by Richard Palmer, Special to the Chronicle-Express
"Bellwood Farms", by Katherine Bell Lewis, American Sheep Breeder, September, 1912
Realty Advertisement 9/1/41 "Bellwood Farm, Overlooking Seneca Lake". Attribution not provided. Editor's Note: Listed at $79,000 per handwritten notation.
"The Cobblestone Houses of Upstate New York", compiled by Dorothy Wells Pease. Research done in collaboration with Hazed B. Jeffery, supplemented with material furnished by Carl F. Schmidt, 1941. Reference the fifth paragraph on page 22.
"Bellwood Farm - A Modern Beef Operation", by Paul L. Hauke, The Geneva Times, 1/9/1965
"Bellwood Farm: A Home With a History", by Anne Schuhle, Finger Lakes Times, Geneva, New York, Monday, June 6, 1988
GENEVA - To the hundreds of people who stroll through it this weekend, Bellwood Farm at 4119 Pre-Emption Road will probably seem like an estate of enviable beauty and seclusion. To and Rob and Carolyn Poole, it's home.
Located along the driveway this cobblestone outbuilding may have been originally a horse stable. Note note the row of small, vertical windows on the first story. Grouped in sets of three, they appear to be for box stalls. Each horse stall would have had three windows to provide light and ventilation. Perhaps the second was used for used for either storage of horse-drawn vehicles not in season (sleighs in summer, carriages in winter or for hay/feed/tack/harnesses, etc. The second story might also have been used for lodging: their carriage driver might have lived here, on site. As the main house was enlarged with additional cobblestone construction/wings during the early 20th century, it's possible this building was expanded, with that second story as a later addition. The design of the roof (hipped roof with exposed rafter tail ends) is more characteristic of the early 1900s. It's possible that there was additional renovation to create that large openings (picture windows with panels) to convert this to a guest house or rental apartment. Richard Palmer blog.
"Cobblestone Curiosities", story and photos by Jewel H. Conover, Syracuse Herald-American, 7/10/1966
The Cobblestone Society & Museum Tours:
Historic Structures Visited, 5th Annual Cobblestone Tour Brings 1,100 to City, by Mildred Jennings, The Geneva Times, page 6, 6/15/1965
¹ Image courtesy "History of Monroe County"
Poole, 42, a cash crop farmer, grew up at Bellwood, which, with its six-bedroom cobblestone house, is part of the Geneva Historical Society's Tour of Homes Saturday and Sunday.
The estate was the summer home of Katherine Bell Lewis, a wealth Buffalo businesswoman, who came to Geneva in 1898 and built White Springs Farm for her teenage son, Alfred. When her son married in 1903, historians say Mrs. Lewis "set out to establish another equally beautiful estate nearby" Some of the land that is now Bellwood was owned by the Tucker family fro 1826 to 1905. The Tuckers were farmers and fruit growers and reportedly raised skunks there at one time.
The Greek Revival home at Bellwood was built in 1836 and was much smaller than it is today. Mrs. Lewis made extensive renovations and additions to the house and grounds, adding to the mansion on three sides, with columned verandas running along both stories.
"We believe the house was originally square and about half the size it is now," said Mrs. Poole, on a recent evening, as she and her husband sat in their large kitchen. Lilac branches swayed in the breeze outside, nearly brushing the window above the table.
Several feet away, a fire crackles in a wood-burning stove, and their sons - Ethan Devin and Carson - ran in and out as their parents batted around historical tidbits about the home and the Lewises. "Mrs. Lewis must have had an incredible sense of architecture and a feel for landscape," said Poole. Thumbing through dozens of old photographs of the grounds, he pointed to the rows of trees Mrs. Lewis planted and the ornate sunken garden she made from one of the two gravel pits on the property. It took seven gardeners to maintain it.
Shortly after Mrs. Lewis bought the property, she purchased more nearby farmland for a total of 340 acres, The estate gradually became larger as she and subsequent owners bought adjacent land. Her farming interests included importing and breeding Shropshire sheep until the late 1920s, when she turned to raising and fattening Herford steers. In the fields she grew wheat, corn and barley.
In 1930, Mrs. Lewis died from injuries suffered in a carriage accident on Pre-Emption Road. According to "The Country Cousin", a book published in 1976 chronicling Geneva's history, Mr. and Mrs. Grainger Wilson lived in the house after Mrs. Lewis's death. In 1933, the estate became the first home of Lochland School, now at 1065 Lochland Road.
Poole's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Poole, bought the house and 274 acres of land in 1942 for $35,000. They added an in-ground pool and a tennis court in the 1960s. "My father raised sheep and had a beef cattle feedlot," Poole said, noting they gradually bought more of the Lewis property, including 250 acres of cherry orchards.
"After three years, he took out the cherry trees, cleared the land and turned it back into field corn, oats, wheat and hay," Poole said. Growing cherries was not profitable because of high labor costs, he noted. Poole's father gave up farming in 1964 and rented the land to others, while continuing to live in the house.
A decade later, Poole returned to Geneva after serving in Vietnam and spending two years in Colorado. He said he never gave much thought to being anything but a farmer. "The early-to-mid-'70s were still quite successful farm years throughout the area," he said. "It hasn't been the best in the last few years. But I'd say it's improving."
Today, Poole grows 200 acres of red kidney beans, 300 acres of field corn, 50 acres of wheat and 15 acres of hay.
The only animals they've got, besides their dog, Gypsy, are a few pigs, sheep and beef cattle for their own use. Mrs. Poole works part-time in admissions at her alma mater, William Smith College. Two full-time and one part-time hired men help farm the land.
Since 1978, a stone house and what's left of Mrs. Lewis's sheep barns in the southeast end of the property have been owned by Ed Leo of Snell Road. Also at the east end are 80 acres of apple orchards Poole was not able to buy. They're owned by Iversen Construction Co. of Gorham, which is putting up a housing development.
Poole said the most surprising change in the last 25 years is the number of trees on the property. "If you look at the old pictures, you see way less trees than there are now. I'd think it would be the other way around, that property would have been cleared as time passed. But instead, the early pictures show fewer trees. Maybe they just cut them to burn, or they just cleared the land to plant corn," he guessed, shrugging his shoulders.
The Pooles said the only changes they've made have been subtle ones, in keeping with Mrs. Lewis's work and the tree-planting that Rob's mother did. "We're thankful to Mrs. Lewis for doing this," Poole said. "She had all this money and she didn't spend it in the way she did on this home and land. Everything she did was amazing. She didn't nickel and dime everything." Richard Palmer blog.
Tucker - Lewis - Poole House 5th Annual 06/12/1965
, unpublished manuscript 1972. To access the manuscript content about this structure, see 73, 74. Ontario County, Tucker-Lewis Poole House, and 179. Top of Pier: Tucker-Lewis Poole House.
² Photography courtesy Gerda Peterich. Cobblestone Museum.
³ Photography courtesy Martin and Sheila Wolfish.
4 Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
5 Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.
