Building date: Circa 1840. Demolished by accidental dynamite explosion circa 1900.
Original use: Blacksmith Shop
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Map views courtesy Google Maps. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 43°12'24.74"N 78°19'28.48"W.
Based on the 1860 Niagara Orleans map shown below, the blacksmith shop was located between the south bank of a Fish Creek tributary and the north side of the current house located at 4228 East Shelby Road.
Town of Shelby and Ontario County Maps
William Hey owned the shop near the turn of the century when a farmer, as legend has it, brought in some damp dynamite. The smithies attempt to dry the dynamite by warming it. The result was the death of one man and demolition of the Millville Blacksmith Shop! "Chapter III Cobblestone Buildings", by Delia Robinson, "Architecture Destroyed in Orleans County, New York", by C. W. Lattin, Orleans County Historian, November 1984. Published by the Cobblestone Society. William Hey afterward ran a shop in Albion, Orleans County, New York.
"Cobblestone Buildings of Orleans County, N. Y.", A Local History, page 92, by Delia Robinson, Edited by Evelyn Lyman and William Nestle. Jointly published by The Cobblestone Society and The Orleans County Historical Association, December 1996.
² Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
³ Image courtesy "Chapter III Cobblestone Buildings", by Delia Robinson, "Architecture Destroyed in Orleans County, New York", by C. W. Lattin, Orleans County Historian, November 1984. Published by the Cobblestone Society.
4Image courtesy Catherine Cooper, Town of Ridgeway Historian.
