Building date: 1830
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Map views courtesy Google Maps. Street level view is not available. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 43°12'44.25"N 77°34'58.39"W. Current owner of record, Town of Irondequoit.
Town of Irondequoit and Monroe County Maps
This structure is not included in the Roudabush Survey. The Blacksmith Shop is located on the west side of the Irondequoit Town Hall grounds, behind the gazebo, accessible from the Town Hall parking lot.
Cobblestone blacksmith shop at 1280 Titus Ave. was built in 1830 by Ransford Perrin and moved to this site in 2008. Perrin, a farmer, moved to this area in 1805. The oldest building in Irondequiot, the walls are two feet thick. Richard Palmer blog.
The Cobblestone Blacksmith Shop
"The Cobblestone Blacksmith Shop, located on the south side of Ridge Road near Culver, was built by Ransford Perrin in 1820. Mr. Perrin laid the field stones in rich mortar for the two-foot-thick walls and to this day the walls appear in perfect condition, with no cracks or falling stones. This speaks well for the thoroughness of work done in those early days.
From the time that the shop was built in 1820 until 1948, when the present owners took possession, the property changed hands fourteen times.
The last blacksmiths to work at the forge were Patrick Mac Elligott and his helper, a Mr. Hopkins. Mac Elligott bought the shop from the widow of Al Krischke. Mr. Krischke had owned and run it for many years. He died in 1924 but the new owner never changed the name of "Al Krischke" over the door. It hung there as long as he had the shop, but when automobiles began to take the place of "old Dobbin" and the buggy, their work changed from fitting horses with durable footwear to mending auto springs and tire carriers.
Originally there was a frame carpenter and wagon shop, next to the blacksmith shop, which a Mr. Bidlack ran for forty years. He had received his training at the Cunningham Carriage Factory in Rochester and was considered an expert craftsman. Mr. Fred Cook, who founded the Cook Iron Works on St. Paul Street, had managed this wagon shop for about five years prior to Mr. Bidlack's ownership. The wagon shop was torn down years ago. Both shops had been a meeting place for town gossip and discussion.
The present owners, Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Richter, bought the old Cobblestone Shop from the Lyndhurst Construction Company in 1945. The appearance of this old landmark has been somewhat changed by cutting away parts of the wall to install display windows, for the old blacksmith shop is now a most attractive Gift Shop run by Mrs. Richter. In the cement block building at the left, Mr. Richter has a welding business." Excerpt from "Irondequoit Story: A History of the Town of Irondequoit, by Maude I. West, Town of Irondequoit Historian, Published by The Town of Irondequoit 1967
List of original and subsequent owners from 1830 to 1948. Courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
"I'm Fond of That Building", Cobblestone Stories - 3, by Maude I. West, Town of Irondequoit Historian, Times-Union 1961.
"Irondequoit 1839-1989", A View from the Past, A Vision for the Future, by Susan Zande, Editor, 1989, Irondequoit Press - Wolfe Publications, Town of Irondequoit, New York. Souvenir booklet commemorating the celebration of the Town of Irondequoit's 150th Anniversary in 1989. Selected cobblestone structure pages. Pages are not numbered.
"Roots: Cobblestone Blacksmith Shop a testament of days gone by", by Alan Morrell, Democrat & Chronicle, 11/9/2016.
 1280 Titus Ave. Irondequoit ¹ |
¹ Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.
