Building date: 1997-98
Original use: Ulysses Town Hal
Corner structures:
Mortar application and content:
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Structures with similar masonry details:
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Map views courtesy Google Maps. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 42°32'28.42"N 76°39'40.57"W. Current owner of record, Town of Ulysses as of the 2019 Tax Roll.
Town of Ulysses and Tompkins County 2011 Highway Maps.
One of the most unusual modern examples of more contemporary cobblestone construction in upstate New York is the Ulysses Town Hall at 10 Elm St. in the village of Trumansburg, Tompkins County. The original structure was a wooden frame and cinder block building and had housed a tractor dealership. A second story was added.
The idea of the unusual modern Greek Revival exterior originated with architect Mark Inglis who grew up in Wayne County and was descended from a cobblestone mason. He worked on the project with Trumansburg architect Peter Demjanic.
There used to be large plate glass windows in the front that were closed in. Some 270 veneer panels of mortar and cobblestone were constructed and affixed to the exterior of the building. The building is about 60 feet square. It has no second story per se, but rather a large roof that was added sometime in the past. The building was elongated in 1996-7 with wood by about a third its length to its present size.
This project to cobblestone the building occurred in 1997-98 and was done by Paul Briggs of Lansing, N.Y., a mason long recognized for his knowledge in cobblestone construction and restoration. The cobblestone five-inch thick veneer was added by Briggs in 1997. Work was completed in the spring of 1998.
A local mudstone called "Llenroc" was used for the foundation, lintels, sills and quoins. All squared stones are about five inches thick. Many cobbles are that thick and many are not - just as in other cobblestone houses
Some 3,000 stones were collected in Genoa in Cayuga county. Briggs said: "I hired my neighbor Keith Hayes to help at times and taught him to do the joint work and set cobbles. He did about 25 percent of them. Keith and I cast them into 12" x 24" forms, and did the joints after de-molding them. This was to save time but it was a marginal savings due to other complexities." Richard Palmer blog.
 Ulysses 4.jpg ¹ Main entrance fronting Elm Street. |  Ulysses 1.jpg ¹ Rear entrance |  Ulysses 2.jpg ¹ Detail of side wall replicates early day use of rough field cobblestones. |  Ulysses 3.jpg ¹ Side wall showing quoins. |
¹ Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.
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