Abandoned cobblestone gas station

Crossposted to rural_ruin.

East of Rochester, NY is the small village of Williamson. Right on the main street is a nicely detailed cobblestone house, built about 1835, The house was converted to a gas station in the 1940s, and then abandoned about 20 years ago. The pumps have been removed.

Cobblestones were a popular building material across upstate New York from the 1820s to the 1850s. The stones were plentiful along the shore of Lake Ontario, or could be picked out of the farm fields. About 800 cobblestone buildings survive, all but about 40 of them are in a band between Buffalo and Albany.



( Twelve more photos )

Searching for Cobblestone Houses

Saturday was brutally hot ~98 degrees (38 C)~, and miserably humid. This was the 20th day this year with the temperature in the 90s. I decided to get out of the city and go up to the shore of Lake Ontario, where it was predicted to only be in the low 90s. I headed for Chimney Bluffs, with the air conditioning on full blast. At Chimney Bluffs, I changed into a bathing suit and went in the lake. I had to wear my sneakers in the lake because the shore and lake bottom was all fist-sized stones. The lake felt great, and I spent quite some time just standing in chin-deep water. Eventually I realized that my face was now taking the full brunt of the sun. I didn't have a hat or sunscreen, and I could feel my face starting to burn. I decided that even though the water felt great, I would be better off in the air conditioned car. I left Chimney Bluffs, in squishy sneakers, and hit the blue highways in search of interesting old houses. The towns along the south shore of Lake Ontario are a great place to find cobblestone buildings, so that was what I decided to do. I wanted to look for a beautiful little cobblestone house that I had stumbled upon a dozen years ago. It had been turned into a gas station, and then abandoned. I headed west, bypassing the highway, and photographed most of the cobblestone houses that I found.

This house, in Alton, NY, was built in 1840.

( 27 more photos )