Building date: 1850
Original use: Schoolhouse 1850 - 1944
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Map views courtesy Google Maps. Google Maps street level view is not available. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 42°58'38.93"N 76°47'52.55"W. Current owner of record, Simolo as of the 2021 Tax Roll.
Town of Tyre and Seneca 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 ninth paragraph on page 30.
School completely stuccoed over except on wall inside the garage addition. School converted to home. Permanent File of Cobblestone Structures Robert W. Frasch June 1964.
School No. 1 was affectionately called "Cranetown Academy". Karen Crandall email 4/8/2022.
"John Burton, later a lawyer at Waterloo, taught a school in what was euphoniously named the Cranetown Academy, a log school-house in Tyre. the academy fell a prey to the devouring element in 1812, and improved houses replaced the loss." History of Seneca County, New York, page 30, 1876.
The first school built of logs on the southwest corner of Asa Smith's land was established in 1804. History records that Asa, Caleb Woodworth, Moses Marsh and Lewis Winans contracted it. The first teacher was Miss Nancy Osman for the summer term, and Richard Thomas, an elderly Revolutionary veteran born in England, taught during the winter.
Once called the Cranetown Academy, when it burned a few years later, a substantial cobblestone building was erected, now a remodeled private residence. Although long unused as a school, its was once proposed for an historical museum, but was ordered sold for $1,000 in 1952. Excerpt from article The first families of Tyre, by E. Payson Smith, Finger Lake Times, 8/9/1979
Cranetown history sheet. From the personal research of cobblestone historian Karen Crandall.
![]() 1838 or 1858 Seneca County Tyr-5 School No 1 Excerpt Map.jpg ¹ | ![]() 1874 Tyre Dist 1.jpg ² | ![]() 8D684B2D-4A8A-4FDB-9E3F-DCC9920D0DFE.jpg ³ |
¹ 1838 or 1858? Seneca County Map Tyre-5 excerpt courtesy Library of Congress. 1838 printed on map, but stated as likely to be 1858 by Library of Congress.
² Image courtesy Karen Crandall.
³ Image courtesy Town of Tyre NY Historian in 2013, as provided by Karen Crandall.