Building date: 1832
Original use:
Corner structures: Chamferred
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:
Unique features:
Map views courtesy Google Maps. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 43°04'11.40"N 77°51'58.32"W. Current owner of record, Tolar/Moyer as of the 2018 Tax Roll.
Town of Riga and Monroe County Maps
It was Elihu Church who selected this homesite in 1805, when his brother selected a site in Churchville, and built the first sawmill in the area. In 1806 Elihu came here with his family including his father, Richard.
I am certain this structure was built in 1832. I have seen this somewhere as a matter of record, probably on the search etc. in the possession of the Abstract Company (Monroe Abstract and Title Corp.)
The back room, 40' x 20', was partly a summer kitchen with a cistern under it, and partly a creamery and barn. The barn door is where the picture window has been placed. We call it the family room. There are three separate upstairs sections, which do not intercommunicate, each with its own stairs. There are three bedrooms in the front section, one in the middle section (over the kitchen) and two over the rear section. We reconstructed the back room, using the original oak beams (sandblasting them); put in central heating, installed plumbing for a bathroom on each floor. - The small stone building between house and barn was a smokehouse; the cobblestone enclosure now a garden was a barn, the 2nd floor of wood and beyond repair. The barn is older than the house, which I understand was the 3rd house on the site. The white wood structure was a privy.
In his account, quoting from O. Turner's HISTORY OF THE PHELPS & GORHAM PURCHASE *, Elihu Church relates that he arrived with his own and several others families in March 1806 and lived in a surveyor's cabin until they could erect houses for themselves. "We put up the body of it in one day; had it ready to move into on the fourth day. The floor was of split bass wood, the roof of cedar shingles; no boards were used in its construction."
Just this morning Mr. Roy Hondorf of Churchville told me that a Mr. Dunn, no longer living, told him once the house was built in 1838. I do not know how to further check the date. Perhaps we can obtain information from the Search & Title or whatever the abstract company has. I shall try. I remain quite sure that I obtained the date 1832 from some printed source.
Yours sincerely,
Eliott Hague
Excerpt from a letter from then owner Elliott Hague dated 3/27/1971
* Editor's Note: To access the reference to the "History of the Pioneer Settlements of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase" a key word phrase "Elihu Church" search of the electronic book format available through the Library of Congress provides 8 results.
"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. Reference the third paragraph on page 11.
Partial list of known owners: Original Elihu Church 1832; ...Eliott Hague until 1975; Jim and Elita Henderer-Peña; ... as of 2018 tax roll Tolar/Moyer.
Realtor advertisement, Brighton-Pittsford Post, 01/06/1977.
Realtor advertisement with exterior and interior details and images, MAR 2021.
The Cobblestone Society & Museum Tours:
Dr. and Mrs. Eliott B. Hague House 11th Annual 06/12/1971
- "Cobblestone Masonry", 1966, Carl Schmidt: Name reference, Church - Hague House
- Page 68, Page 321
- "Cobblestone Landmarks of New York State", 1978, by Olaf William Shelgren, Jr., Cary Lattin, and Robert W. Frasch, Photographs by Gerda Peterich: Name reference, Church House
- Page 89
- "The Era of Cobblestone Architecture", unpublished manuscript 1972. To access the manuscript content about this structure, see 25. Monroe County, Church-Hague House.
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¹ Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
² Photography courtesy Gerda Peterich. Cobblestone Museum.
³ Photography courtesy Martin and Sheila Wolfish.
4 Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.
