More on the Oldest House

After my post on the former oldest house in the village, Susan pointed out that the house was next to the New York Central Railroad's water filling station, and that a plaque marking the spot of the station is still visible today. Yesterday Laurie went to the spot to look for the plaque and the site of the oldest house. Sadly, nothing seems to remain of the oldest house - not even the beautiful stone walls. But the plaque is where Susan indicated.


Susan also identified the house across the street from the oldest house - it is still there today, though it looks much different. Laurie took a picture of it.

Laurie also found this additional photo of the oldest house with horse-drawn sleighs going up and down the hill next to it.

This is what the hill looks like today: 

Meanwhile, I set out to identify the house on as many maps as I could. Here it is on a map of 1867, before the filling station came in. It belonged to J. W. Merritt (a.k.a. Captain Merritt, who is buried in St. George's/St. Mark's Cemetery and gave his name to the hill). Note the Presbyterian Church in the upper right corner, which is still standing but now belongs to the St. Francis A. M. E. Church.

The filling station was installed in 1880. This map of 1881 shows the house and marks the station "R. R. Co. Reservoir." The Woods still live across the street.

This map, from 1901, shows the house and its neighbor across the street, the house belonging to Mrs. J. B. Wood. Is the oldest house the square marked as "Res" or is it the little box next to it? I'm not sure. Probably the latter.

Lastly, this picture from an atlas of 1929-1931 shows the house and identifies the Ganun Building, which you can see in the modern photo of the hill above. Here you can see the distinction between the reservoir property and the oldest house. The oldest house seems to be part of a property belonging to W. J. Towey Inc.