Building date: 1838
Original use: Garage (present use 1975-80)
Corner structures:
Mortar application and content: Vertical pyramids
Types and uses of stones: Small, various colors
Types and choice of windows: Lentils wood
Structures with similar masonry details: Hur-1 Fowler, Hur-2 Klueber, Pal-12 Harris, Pal-16 Lyon, Wal-4 Zion Evangelical
Masons who worked on building:
Unique features:
Map views courtesy Google Maps. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 43°13'26.18"N 77°11'18.76"W. Current owner of record, DiGiulio as of the 2019 Tax Roll.
Town of Williamson and Wayne 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 seventh paragraph on page 33.
"Cobblestone Structures of Wayne County" Cobblestone Gas Station excerpt, 1955, Verlyn Edward Klahn, pages 358 and 359. Essay submitted for Hoffman Foundation, Wayne County History Scholarship, awarded 1955. Reprint permission granted by Wayne County Historian.
Bennett-Ward House history sheet. From the personal research of cobblestone historian Karen Crandall.
The Cobblestone Repair Shop is Closed, courtesy the Tom The Backroads Traveller blog.
This cobblestone house at 4051 West Main Street (Ridge Road), Williamson, built in 1838 as the home of Dr. Josiah Bennett, who died in 1850; later Dr. Westel Willoughby Ward, who had his office nearby. About 1931 the house became a gas station. In 2019 it was close to being a pile of rubble and has since collapsed. Richard Palmer blog and email 7/5/2020. From the book "Wayne County: The Aesthetic Heritage of Rural Area" 1979, by Stephen W. Jacobs, page 77.
Built in 1838 by Dr. Josiah Bennett. Later became a Texaco gas and service station. Known as the "Old Cobblestone Garage".
Reference photograph "Image 1760.jpg" below: In a brief interview published in the Williamson Sun on December 1, 1948, Ed Ver How said, "I've laid up a few cobblestones, but I don't know anything about it!" He said he had never seen a real cobblestone mason a work, but at the request of the owner, head had constructed the cobblestone peak on the local Cobblestone Service Station by simply following the pattern of the main building.
Demonstrating with pencil and paper, he showed how the little egg shaped stones were laid in rows with lines of mortar above and below as well as between the individual stones, so that they would protrude a bit to give that characteristic cobblestone texture. The masons in the old days must have had a special to to do that with, he said. "Just how they laid the stones all so perfectly, I don't know! Of course the cobblestones were just used as facing, with the main part of the wall behind them constructed of common field stones and mortar."
A subsequent scrutiny of the facade of the cobblestone service station on West Main Street, one could not tell the difference between what was done a century before and what Mr. Ed Ver How had added. Richard Palmer email 7/5/2020.
John Kucko Digital, a 2/9/2023 visit to the ruins of the Behs Texaco Station. John Kucko is a Rochester NY television broadcast veteran who spent 30 years as a sports anchor before transitioning into digital content development. He travels throughout western New York State posting daily Facebook photographs and videos of interesting structures and landscapes.
The Cobblestone Society & Museum Tours:
Bennett - Ward House 4th Annual 06/06/1964Wayne Historians Organization (WHO), Historic Sites Inventory Cobblestone house - gas station
- "Cobblestone Masonry", 1966, Carl Schmidt: Name reference, Bennett - Ward House
- Pages 194 - 195
¹ Image courtesy Williamson Town Historian.
² Image courtesy Richard Palmer blog. Attribution not provided.
³ Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
4 Photography courtesy Martin and Sheila Wolfish.
5 Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.
6 Photography courtesy Chris Clemens.
7 Image courtesy Karen Crandall.
8 Image courtesy Gene Bavis, Walworth Town Historian.
* Scan reproduction of very faded print. Required significant adjustments and retouching of artifacts in Photoshop.
