Building date: 1838
Original use: Schoolhouse
Corner structures:
Mortar application and content: Vertical very heavy, bold
Types and uses of stones:
Types and choice of windows:
Structures with similar masonry details:
Masons who worked on building: McBride, Hugh
Unique features:
Map views courtesy Google Maps. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 42°47'43.87"N 77°48'47.60"W. Current owner of record, Historical Museum as of date (YMD) 190416.
Town of Geneseo and Livingston County Maps
About the Livingston County Historical Society's Museum
The label of the first photograph below incorrectly states "School #7" which is correctly identified as "School #5" in the Roudabush Survey document.
The Livingston County Historical Society Museum at 30 Center St., Geneseo, was built as School District No. 5 in 1838 on land donated by the Wadsworth family. It has been a museum since 1932 when the school moved to a new facility. It is built in the shape of a Greek Cross. It is within the Geneseo National Historic Landmark District. Richard Palmer blog.
"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 ninth complete paragraph on page 13.
[The museum has a] wide range of local history exhibits housed in 1838 Cobblestone Schoolhouse. Displays include: Indian artifacts, farm and household articles, military items, old toys, Concord Coach, antique fire apparatus, section of the famous "Big Tree", etc. Caption on reverse of postcard image Gen-3 Livingston Historical Museum 1.jpg shown below in Photographs section. Editor's Note: The image likely is dated about 1974 or 1975 based on comparison of Roudabush imagery taken about April 1977.
The cobblestone building at 30 Center Street, Geneseo, is one of several buildings constructed of small cobblestones, built in 1838, probably by Hugh McBride of the village, at a cost of $4,000. For 94 years it served as a school but in 1932 became the Livingston County Historical Museum. Miss Margaret E. Gilmore, Town and Village Historian for Geneseo
found the following advertisement in the Livingston Register of May 1838:
"Notice to Builders - Cash Job - The subscribers as a committee will receive proposals till the 15th day of June next for furnishing the materials and building a . . . School House for the Village of Geneseo, thirty-six feet wide by fifty-six feet long, with two wings for entrances and Wood Houses. The walls of the building to be made of small stone and well finished. For further particulars and reference to the plans of the Building, enquire at the office of Charles Colt, Esq. Any information will be given by calling on either of the subscribers. Gurden Nowlen, Allen Ayrault, D. H. Bissell, Charles Colt." "Notes from other Cobblestone centers", an excerpt "Livingston County" by Marie C. Preston, Livingston County Historian, page 13, "A Heritage of Cobblestone", a product of the Cobblestone Society, printed and published as a supplement to "The Orleans Republican American" circa 1966.
List of Cobblestone Structures, page 2, Township of Geneseo, Item #1, in Livingston County dated 1961 (incomplete).
"Cobblestone Building in Geneseo 125 Years Old", by Margaret E. Gilmore, Geneseo Historian, Livingston County Leader, Vol. 78, No. 4, 8/3/1963
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National Register of Historic Places Registration
- "Cobblestone Masonry", 1966, Carl Schmidt: Name reference, Geneseo District #5 School House
- Page 32
- "Cobblestone Landmarks of New York State", 1978, by Olaf William Shelgren, Jr., Cary Lattin, and Robert W. Frasch, Photographs by Gerda Peterich: Name reference, Geneseo District No. 5 Schoolhouse
- Page 95
- "The Era of Cobblestone Architecture", unpublished manuscript 1972. To access the manuscript content about this structure, see 11. Livingston County, Geneseo District #5 Schoolhouse.
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¹ Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
² Photography courtesy Gerda Peterich.
³ Image courtesy Livingston Country Historical Society Museum, postcard archived at Cobblestone Museum.
4 Photography courtesy Martin and Sheila Wolfish.
5 Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.
