Building date: Demolished 1955.
Original use:
Corner structures:
Mortar application and content:
Types and uses of stones:
Types and choice of windows:
Structures with similar masonry details:
Masons who worked on building:
Unique features:
Map views courtesy Google Maps. The location is approximate based on the 1859 Ontario County map excerpt, see below; 42°57'25.02"N 77°03'42.57"W. Current owner of record, Norsen as of the 2021 Tax Roll.
Town of Phelps and Ontario County Maps
"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 sixteenth paragraph on page 18.
Editors Note: Carl Schmidt incorrectly states the house was demolished in the 1940's. It was razed after the pictures below were taken in 1955. Thanks to cobblestone researcher and co-editor Karen Crandall for the following detailed information.
Structural Details
2-story house, gable faced road; entrance on left w/2 window to the right; 3 windows centered above the lower openings. Sidelights were on each side of the door. All window sashes were 6-over-6. In the gable peak was a round ornament, resembling a pie chart with dozens of slices. It was framed in limestone which matched the carefully cut lintels and sills. A 1-story recessed wing was on the left and a rear wing projected from it.
Masonry Details
Limestone chiseled and tooled, square-cut quoins were of uniform size; neatly cut lintels and sills of same material. Horizontal V'd joints; pyramids on verticals. Multi-sized, shaped, and colored small stones were irregular and slightly smoothed, and were laid 4/Q on both the front and side. The 1904 Sanborn map indicates a cobblestone wing at the rear, although there are no pictures of that (except maybe the Peterich picture showing 3 rows of stone per quoin).
Ownership
1859: "J.Nelson"; 1874: "J.M.Nelson"; 1904: "Miss M Nelson"; subsequently acquired by Frank and Rose Longyears; Purchased by "Cooperative G & E Marketing Service, GLF" on 10/1/1955.
The house was located on the SE corner of Ontario & William St, second lot in (ie adjacent to the triangular lot).
The house was on the lot adjacent to the G.L.F. malt house. Rose Longyears went to the Village Board every year in the Fall and objected to the 24/7 noise when the drying season was in full swing and kidney beans were being processed there. In 1955 G.L.F. bought the property, and the house was subsequently torn down - that ended the problem. "It was a pretty house." Per Don Tiffany, Phelps Town Historian, 2/27/2012 interview with Karen Crandall.
Don Tiffany was a neighbor of the Longyears, as a child he lived in the cobblestone house at 53 Ontario St. (Phe-1).
- "Cobblestone Masonry", 1966, Carl Schmidt: Name reference, Nelson-Longyears House
- Page 105
 1859 Ontario County Phe-27 Map Excerpt.jpg ¹ |  Phe-27 Nelson-Longyears 1 ² Pease Collection 1940-41 |  GP Ontario Phelps Phe-27 1-1 N.jpg ³ c. 1955 |  GP Ontario Phelps Phe-27 2-1 N.jpg ³ c. 1955 |
¹ 1859 Ontario County Map Phe-27 excerpt courtesy Library of Congress.
² Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
³ Photography courtesy Gerda Peterich. Cobblestone Museum.
