Geneva Downtown Commercial Historic District

By John Marks, Curator of Collections and Exhibits

About 18 months ago I wrote about the details of national, state, and local historic preservation programs. They bear revisiting in the wake of the National Register of Historic Places approving the Geneva Downtown Commercial Historic District.

The district includes most of traditional downtown, the rectangle formed by Seneca, Exchange, Castle, and Main Streets. Linden Street is included, as are the Exchange Street buildings just north of Castle Street and just south of Seneca Street. The three late-1960s bank buildings on Exchange Street and the Rite Aid drugstore on the corner of Castle and Main Streets are excluded from the district.

 Several downtown buildings, such as this bank on Linden Street and the Smith Opera House on Seneca Street, are already on the National Register.

More websites and newspaper articles, including the Finger Lakes Times, are doing a good job dispelling myths about preservation designations. A National Register listing doesn’t restrict the owner; in fact, properties can’t be listed without the owner’s consent. As long as no federal government money is involved, a Nation Register property owner can demolish their property if they wishes. (Local preservation ordinances, zoning, and demolition permits are another story.)

A National Register listing doesn’t come with free money to preserve the building.  Owners of income-producing properties are eligible for a 20% federal income tax credit, with numerous qualifications. Any preservation work, inside or out, must meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation and be approved by the National Park Service. The Standards require methods and materials which, while in the best interests of preservation, may be more expensive. Then, the cost of approved work must exceed the “adjusted basis value” – building value minus land value equals the adjusted value. Finally, you may claim 20% of approved costs...on the next income tax you file.

As my dad says, this beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but its complicated money. It’s not cash-in-hand as work is being done. It requires extensive paperwork and approval by preservation representatives. Depending on the adjusted value of your property, the credit may only work for large scale, whole-building projects; it probably would not apply to simply restoring windows and doors to their original appearance.

New York State offers an additional 20% credit on projects that are receiving federal credit…if the building is in an “eligible census tract” and certain fees are paid. If you read in an article that up to 40% income tax credit may be available for preservation, this is what it means.

The Fairfax, Almarco, and Oddfellows Buildings are all under consideration for rehabilitation.

So why does the National Register listing matter if there are financial hoops and paperwork? It matters for large-investment projects, of which there are several on the drawing board for downtown. Property owners were invited to a 2013 meeting and had the chance to hear about and question all aspects of a district listing. They supported the nomination, either in hopes of using tax credits themselves, or to help preservation work downtown by other owners.

The National Register still matters as a brand. We now have three districts and maybe two handfuls of individual properties on the Register. You can preserve old buildings without recognition, but it immediately means something to visitors (tourists, college families, prospective Genevans) who care. For as much as we’ve lost, Geneva is still seen as a city that has preserved a lot of its architecture.

National Register of Historic Places nominations, as well income tax credit programs, are handled through the New York State Historic Preservation Office. To learn more, go to http://nysparks.com/shpo

Lift Up Thine Eyes: The Upper Floors of Downtown Geneva

By John Marks, Curator of Collections

Do you walk around downtown? If so, do you look at the upper floors of the buildings? (I say “walk” because this is a dangerous exercise when driving – trust me, I’ve tried it.)

As you look at the tops of downtown Geneva buildings, two terms to know are cornice and window hood. Cornices are the decorative bits directly underneath the edge of the roof. Window hoods, sometimes called drip hoods, are anything over a window to direct rain away from the top of the window.  

Some of downtown’s upper floors are ornate:

Originally built in the late 1890s for the Baker & Stark clothing store, this is now the Geneva Bicycle Center.

Some have been hidden for decades:

Metal facades were all the rage after World War II. Traditional downtown architecture was old, and business owners wanted to look modern and space-age. They used solid metal panels, or sometimes perforated screens that allowed light into the windows they were hiding. As tastes change, the metal has been taken down. You can see the difference between the Franklin Furniture façade, and the original brickwork that was revealed around 2008.

Some have been changed:

As you can see, these three stores on Seneca Street (J.W. Smith’s, Home Dairy, and Keilty Dry Goods) originally had one roof line and identical windows. The middle building had a new façade by 1929, but the window openings are still in the same configuration and the higher cornice is false. The late Merrill Roenke told me that his father was concerned about the heavy cast iron window hoods falling off J.W. Smith’s so they removed them; he didn’t say what happened to the cornice. In the third photo you can see that the current owners have put back window hoods, but not in the original style.

And finally, some have been lost:

With our photo archives, I have the luxury of looking at buildings that are gone. This building was at 525 Exchange Street, next to the Seneca Hotel. (Some may remember when Peck’s clothing store was there.)

Does any of this matter? It’s all personal opinion and taste. I feel differently walking into a 19^th century brick building with decorative cornices and window hoods than I do entering a concrete block store with large single-pane windows. Preserving and investing in downtown buildings is all about betting that enough people will feel the same way to come to those stores and spend money.

Looking Back on Chocolate Almond Coffee Cake and Department Stores

By Karen Osburn, Archivist

When I was very young I remember my mother dropping me off at my grandmother’s house in Rochester and taking a bus downtown to shop in Rochester’s department stores.  Sibley, Lindsey and Curr Co. was THE store at the time.  I used to beg her to take me with her, but she never did.  I had to wait until I was 14 to take a bus downtown with my girlfriend to get my first peek at this magical store that had EVERYTHING!  I still remember my friend, Pamm, telling me to close my mouth because it made me look like a “country hick.”  (We lived in a very rural part of Greece, NY at that time.)

As I stood under the clock in Sibley’s I knew I had never been in any store as fascinating before.  I am really happy I had that opportunity, because 20 years later that “magic” era was disappearing and the era of the suburban mall was firmly entrenched, syphoning business away from downtown stores.  Of course the malls are not solely to blame for the decline of downtowns and department stores, but it did play a part.  For someone like me, visiting stores like Sibley’s, McCurdy’s, Forman’s, or Edward’s with their very professional sales staff, who knew their frequent clients likes and dislikes and treated them with great deference even to the point of calling them when that special dress line arrived, the special bolt of cloth was in stock or your favorite author’s newest book was on the shelf was a memorable event.  I look back on these experiences with fond nostalgia.

Geneva had its share of department stores, too.   J. W. Smith’s was the big one in our city.  I didn’t move here until after the store was closed, but I remember talking with Genevans who shopped at Smith’s.  One couple told me of shopping there the first Christmas they were married and how the store wrapped everything and delivered it to their home.  Another person spoke with fondness of the store’s lending library.  I don’t recall having heard of a store with a lending library before, but I have a book in the archive with a book plate from Smith’s lending library in it.  We also have photos of the store’s interior, the fabric bolts, and millinery area.

Briefly, John Williams Smith and S.S. Cobb opened a dry goods store in Geneva in 1847 under the name Cobb & Smith.  John was a young child when the Smith family moved to Geneva from Massachusetts in 1822 and became lifelong residents from that moment on.  He worked as a clerk in various local stores until he accumulated enough experience and money to start his own business.  By 1849 S. S. Cobb left the firm and Solomon E. Smith Joined his brother in the dry goods business.  Jointly they operated J. W. Smith & Co. until John died in 1878.  The company name stayed until 1892 when a stock company was formed with S. E. Smith as President and Wm. Whitwell as secretary and treasurer.  The business name was then changed to The J. W. Smith Dry Goods Co.

On April 1^st, 1929, the J. R. Roenke’s Sons, Inc. (formerly Roenke and Rogers) dry goods store, located next to Smith’s on Seneca Street, merged with J. W. Smith Company and for close to a year was run under the management of Henry and Richard Roenke.  At the end of that period the Roenkes acquired a controlling interest in the company which retained the J. W. Smith name.  When Smith’s closed in 1977 it was the oldest continuously operated Department Store in the United States. 

It was a sad day for J. W. Smith’s loyal customers when Smith’s closed in Geneva leaving the building to be used by other businesses.  For instance, Don’s Own Florists, is one of the businesses in the old Smith Building at 40-42 Seneca Street. 

As I walked around Geneva’s downtown recently, I saw signs of growth that allow me to hope the day of under-utilized city centers is coming to an end.  Stores like Stomping Grounds, Finger Lakes Gifts and Lounge, Whisper Chocolate, Mother Earth, Super Casuals and Don’s Own to name only a few are making for an interesting and pleasant shopping experience.  I was able to do the majority of my Christmas shopping locally this year which was a pleasant experience compared with fighting the mall traffic.  I anticipate the day when I can wander downtown and purchase anything I need without having to get in my car and fight the suburban traffic.  And I believe it is coming!

Oops, I forgot to tell you about the Chocolate Almond Coffee Cake.  The fifth floor of Sibley’s was a bakery and they made a coffee cake that had a chocolate almond filling in a pastry- type crust. I purchased one every time I went to Sibley’s.  They also had a gourmet grocery on the first floor which sold beautiful fruit and vegetables and items that were not found in the grocery stores where I shopped.  I remember being so disappointed when General Motors took over the 5^th floor of the Sibley building displacing the bakery.  Eventually the entire food section of the store was phased out and sometime after I moved from the Rochester area, the store was closed.  The day I can buy a chocolate almond coffee cake in Geneva is the day downtowns will have come full circle for me.

Linden Street

John Marks, Curator of Collections and Exhibits

Linden Street gets short shrift when people think of downtown. It’s one block long, traffic only runs one way, and half of the eastern side of the street is a concrete wall. It’s a passage to somewhere else, and its only good quality is the drive-up letter boxes for the post office.

1890 insurance map of Linden Street, with west side on top.

Rubbish, I say. Geographically, Linden Street is the heart of downtown. While it hasn’t been extensively photographed, there are plenty of records of the street’s business activity. Sanborn fire insurance maps show both physical change over time – when buildings were erected, changed, or demolished – and change in use. The 1890 map shows manufacturing (Geneva Optical Works, a printing company), public protection (Hydrant Hose fire house at 217), and retail businesses. There were still a few houses (dwg. = dwelling) on the north end of the street as well.

This map shows a connection from 15 Linden Street to 28 Seneca Street. Funny story about that. In the 1880s, the owners of J.W. Smith Dry Goods owned both buildings and wanted to build a second-story connection. Village code forbade building a structure over driveways…so the Smiths did it in the middle of the night, and the village let it stay. (The story seems a little suspect – how much work can you get done in one night? – but it’s a good one.) J.W. Smith maintained a Linden Street storefront for decades; many people recall using it as a cut-through to Seneca Street, or vice-versa, in bad weather.

Color slide of the J.W. Smith storefront on Linden Street, around 1950s.

I won’t indulge in an address-by-address history of the street, but it’s always been active. C.S. Burrall Insurance Agency. Farmers & Merchants Bank (later Geneva Savings Bank). Joseph “Soufa” George’s shoe repair and hat cleaning. A variety of real estate and law offices.

[Natural foods store and shoe shining] A natural foods restaurant next to Soufa George’s shoe shining, both in the Fairfax Building near Castle Street

Linden Street has been, and is, a place to try different businesses. In the past, it has had the New Delhi Natural Food restaurant and juice bar, the Geneva Food Co-op, and Café Cabana, a Carribean-style restaurant. Now, the Geneva Savings Bank, long vacant, is a special events and arts space, and 38 Linden (once the office of Ontario Coal Company) is Microclimate Wine Bar.

“Quaint”, “side street”, “hidden” – call it what you will, but Linden Street has always been an important part of downtown Geneva.