Building date: 1842
Original use: Schoolhouse
Corner structures:
Mortar application and content: Vertical, heavy
Types and uses of stones:
Types and choice of windows:
Structures with similar masonry details:
Masons who worked on building: Samuel Crump
Unique features:
Map views courtesy Google Maps. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 43°05'22.11"N 77°30'55.11"W. Current owner of record, Paramount Communities LLC as of the 2018 Tax Roll.
Town of Pittsford and Monroe 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 third paragraph on page 16.
Cobblestone structure an institution in Pittsford, by Emily Morry, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, July 23, 2015
When it opened as the Stone Academy in 1842, this cobblestone structure at 17 Church St. was the only school located within the village limits of Pittsford. Prior to its construction, children living in Pittsford had to a walk a mile to reach the nearest school. The village trustees readily recognized the pressing need for a more conveniently located institution and put out a call for a contractor.
The advertisement caught the attention of English stonemason Samuel Lee Crump. Crump had come to Rochester on his honeymoon, and read the newspaper ad while staying with his cousin. Crump then walked over 10 miles from his cousin's house in Rochester to Pittsford to meet the village officials. Crump's masonry experience, combined with his proposal to use cobblestone - which was then rampant in the area - won over the powers that be, and he was hired on the spot.
His resulting Greek Revival 2 ½-story schoolhouse featured limestone watertable, sills and lintels as well as gables with cornice returns. A wooden addition was later attached to the rear of the building to accommodate the growing number of students in the area. The school's architect would go on to have a lasting influence on the village of Pittsford, becoming proprietor of a general store and the community's only documented engineer on the Underground Railroad, transporting escaped slaves on his merchandise cart to the Port of Charlotte.
The structure Crump built, which became known as the District No. 6 School, also bore a significant legacy. It remained a schoolhouse until the new high school on Lincoln Avenue (which housed all grades up to 12) opened in 1892. District No. 6's wooden addition was removed the same year and became part of a house on West Jefferson Road. The original cobblestone structure was then taken over by the Northfield Masonic Lodge 426.
The Masons already had a lengthy history in Pittsford by that point, having chartered their first local lodge in 1813. Membership at the time included the area's first physician, John Ray, as well as Perinton's namesake, Glover Perrin.
New York Masons later suffered setbacks when an organization member from Batavia mysteriously disappeared after publishing an expose on the fraternal group in 1826. Many lodges in western New York shut down. Pittsford's Masons officially reorganized as the Northfield Masonic Lodge in 1857. The lodge has called the former Church Street school home since the 1890s and has taken care to properly maintain the historical structure. It has also made some improvements, including replacing the building's dirt floor crawl space with a concrete basement. Lodge members conduct bimonthly meetings on the second floor, while the rest of the property is rented out to local groups for gatherings and special events such as blood drives and yard sales.
Though it no longer serves its original purpose, the cobblestone schoolhouse built almost 175 years ago nevertheless continues to function as a Pittsford community institution. Richard Palmer blog.
Cobblestone Academy, article by John Berggren 10/04/1990.
Cobblestone Academy history sheet. From the personal research of cobblestone historian Karen Crandall.
Building was sold by Northfield Masonic #426 on 08/30/2018 for $200,000, to be converted into a single family dwelling by Paramount Communities LLC.
Cobblestone Academy, courtesy the Tom The Backroads Traveller blog.
|
National Register of Historic Places Registration
- "Cobblestone Architecture", 1944, Carl Schmidt
- Page 59
- Comparison of Cobblestone Masonry, the Masonic Temple, Pittsford, New York, Page 78
- Comparison of Cobblestone Masonry, the Masonic Temple, Pittsford, New York, Page 78
- Front of Masonic Temple drawing, Front of Masonic Temple askew to left of straight on view. Carl Schmidt Collection of Two-Dimensional Drawings, online access to view, New York Heritage digital collections.
- "Cobblestone Masonry", 1966, Carl Schmidt: Name reference, District School # 6
- Page 66 - 67, Comparison of Cobblestone Masonry Page 230
 Pit-3 Dist 6 School 1.jpg ¹ Pease Collection 1940-41 |  Pit-3 Dist 6 School 2.jpg ¹ Van Houten Collection 1940s |  Pit_3_1.jpg |  Pit_3_2.jpg |
 Pit_3_3.jpg |  Pit_3_4.jpg |  Pit_3_5.jpg |  Pit_3_6.jpg |  Pit-3 Dist 6 School 3.jpg ¹ Van Houten Collection 1940s |  Pit-3 Dist 6 School 4.jpg ¹ Van Houten Collection 1940s |  Pit-3 17 Church St 1.jpg ¹ |  Pit-3 17 Church St 2.jpg ² |
 Pit-3 17 Church St 3.jpg N |  Pit-3 17 Church St 4.jpg ² |  Pit-3 17 Church St 5.jpg ² |  Pit-3 17 Church St 6.jpg ² |
 Pit-3 17 Church St 7.jpg ² |  Pit_3_4.jpg ³ |  Cobblestone Academy 2.jpg ³ |
¹ Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
² Photography courtesy Martin and Sheila Wolfish.
³ Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.
