VOLUME INTER SUNDAY, JANUARY 29 AT 3 PM NNUAL …

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VOLUME 7 WINTER 2006 NUMBER 1

The Friendly Home moved to its Brighton campus in 1918 and changed its name from Home for theFriendless then. The apartment complex, Linden Knoll, was built in 1972.

The Friendly Home—oldest home for the aged inMonroe County and the ninth oldest in the coun-try— began as the Home for the Friendless in 1849.Its fourth building was the converted AlexanderTavern, northwest corner of East Ave. and AlexanderSt. In 1918, the building became the headquartersof the Red Cross when the home moved to Brighton.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29 AT 3 PM

ANNUAL MEETING TO CELEBRATE BRIGHTON’S FRIENDLY HOMEThe annual meeting of Historic Brighton will be

held on Sunday, January 29 at 3 pm in the auditoriumof the Friendly Home, 3156 East Ave. in Brighton.

The program that afternoon will be a Powerpointpresentation of the history of the Friendly Home byBetsy Brayer, who wrote the sesquicentennial his-tory of the home in 1999.

James E. Dewirst, president/CEO of the FriendlyHome, will bring the story of the Brighton institutionup to date. Refreshments will be provided by theFriendly Home and the public is invited to attend.

* * *Historic Brighton trustees will be elected at the an-

nual meeting. Nominated for a three-year term are:Rome Celli (new)Beth Keigher (new)Hannelore Heyer (2nd term)Arlene Wright (2nd term, Nominating Commit-tee chairman)

The slate of officers, nominated to serve a one-yearterm, will be voted upon at the first board meeting fol-lowing the annual meeting:

President: Sheldon BrayerSecretary: Janet HopkinTreasurer: Patricia AslinAssistant Treasurer: Rome Celli

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SOME HIGHLIGHTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRIENDLY HOME

Constitution of the Home for the Friendless

The Home for the Friendless in pre-Brighton days

The Home was one of the projectsof the Rochester Female CharitableSociety whose early presidents arepictured here.Mrs. Samuel Selden (top left) wasalso president of the lady manag-ers of the Home for the Friendless.

The Rochester Female CharitableSociety was formed in 1822 atMrs. Everard Peck’s home.

During the mid-19th century, the Home for theFriendless published a periodical journal contain-ing essays, poems, and short stories.

The Home had a burial plotin Mount Hope Cemetery

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SOME HIGHLIGHTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRIENDLY HOMEThe Home for the Friendless becomes the Friendly Home and movesto Brighton, 1918

George Eastman was head of theRochester Red Cross during WorldWar I. In 1917, he wanted thebuilding occupied by the Home forRed Cross headquarters. A largedonation to the Home allowed itstrustees to purchase 13 acres inBrighton and build a new Home.

Henry W. Morgan, trusteeand chairman of theHome’s building commit-tee, found the Brightonproperty high on a hillabove Allens Creek andhad the new building con-structed there.

Morgan’s 1905 home on East Avenue hasrecently been named a Brighton landmarkby the Brighton Historic PreservationComission

The Red Cross was in its new headquarters in time tocelebrate Armistice Day on November 11, 1918.

To find out why architect John Gade (right) was chosen to design the new FriendlyHome in Brighton in 1917, please attend the January 29th meeting of HistoricBrighton at 3 p.m. in this building.

1917

4In 1918, renowned landscape architect, Alling De For-est drew plans for the 13 ¾-acre parcel that trusteespurchased in Brighton. Because the residents wantedto grow their own vegetables, several gardens wereplanned. The original blueprints, from which this wassketched, are at the University of Rochester Library.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRIENDLY HOMEThe Friendly Home in Brighton, 1918-2006

More Friendly Home history will bediscussed at the 3 p.m. January 29thmeeting of Historic Brighton at 3156East Ave. in Brighton.

Typical scenes from the Friendly Home ar-chives, 1920s-1950s. In 1949, on the home’scentennial, a reporter wrote: “For though it isactually a home for the aged, the operationalmanagement of the ‘family’s’ management im-mediately removes it from the institutional class,happily different from any such ‘home’ the writerhad visited before. Here is a home geared to thegroup living of more than 100 people, yet itscommunity rules are so elastic that each retainshis individuality to the extreme.”

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Historic Brighton members have been interestednot only in the Buckland Farmhouse but also in theland surrounding these early 1800’s farm buildings.We had assumed that this land, if examined, wouldreveal artifacts, lost to the soil, which would pro-vide insight into the life of the people who occupied1350 Westfall Road over the past two hundred years.So the following is a record of the various artifactsfound over the past two years as we examined fieldsand soil surrounding the buildings. We had plannedfor a systematic search of the property but construc-tion schedules did not allow this studied approach.We were allowed time in the evening when construc-tion had ceased for the day and we would not inter-fere with development operations on the property towalk and scan the soil of the park lands. The back-ground of each found item provides a history storydescribing Brighton farm life.

ARTIFACTS UNCOVERED AT THE BUCKLAND FARMHOUSE

The oldest item found, pre1800, is a Native American tool.The item is called a “scraper,”and was constructed from flint.Flints were used chiefly for thepreparation of hides and skins forclothing and bedding but also forthe working of wood, bone, or

softer materials. This tool was found, on the surface,in a plowed field several hundred feet west of thehouse. Dr. Martha Semposki, a Research Fellow atthe Rochester Museum and Science Center, identi-fied the item. Martha said that it was not possible todate the item because most scrapers looked alike,and were used over hundreds of years with littlechange. She also said that if we had looked close bywe probably would have found an arrowhead thatwould have help date the scraper, for flint arrow-heads progressed in style over the years and can bedated. This tool measures 1 ¾ inch long and 1 ¼ inch

wide. This historical link to a previous century andWoodlands culture was very exciting, and unexpected.The retreat of the ice sheets to the north, which beganabout 10,000 years ago, allowed plants to grow andwoodlands to develop, inviting forest hunters to in-habit the area. This land, now called Brighton, wastheir land. What a neat historical reminder!

The largest unbroken item is a green 30 oz glassbottle, 11.5” tall and 3.5” diameter, from the Paul W.Friedler Bottling Works, Rochester, NY. Paul Will-iam Friedler, born 1866, was prominent in business,social and fraternal circles and operated the com-pany until his death in 1923. In 1887, age 21, he hadformed a partnership with his brother John and openeda bottling works at No. 4 West Lowell St. The un-dated bottle found was designed for 30 ounces ofmineral water or soda pop and was probably sealedwith a cork plug. (Note: Coca-Cola was born in 1886in Atlanta GA; its famous contour glass bottle forCoke-Cola was invented in 1915.) The Rochester CityDirectory for 1893 lists six individual “Soda WaterManufactures” and only one glass bottle productionplant, the Reed Glass Works.

One pottery shard, a small two-inch long segmentof a crock, led to the identification of that crock asmanufactured by John Burger in 1851-52. ThompsonHarrington of Lyons and John Burger Sr. purchasedClark’s Rochester pottery, which Burger manageduntil 1853. From 1855 to 1866 John Burger, Sr. wasthe sole owner and manager of the pottery. During

By Leo Dodd

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ARTIFACTS UNCOVERED AT THE BUCKLAND FARMHOUSEthis period, the pottery was moved from East Ave. toMount Hope Ave. where it remained until closing in1893.

In 1974, the Rochester Museum & Science Centerproduced an exhibit titled “Clay in the Hands of thePotter” with a booklet describing the earthenwarepotters who settled in the Genesee Country duringthe late 18th and the early 19th centuries.

Burger crocks manufactured in Rochester are to-day selling on e-Bay for many thousands of dollars.(At a recent auction sale, a Burger six gallon creampot signed “John Burger, Rochester” went for$44,000.) The shard illustrated could have comefrom the e-Bay 4-gallon pottery crock shown here.

A collection of some twenty spherical items wasfound. Several of these were glass or clay marbles.The clay marbles are interesting. Marbles is a gamethat is more than 3,000 years old. Clay marbles havebeen found in ancient Egyptian tombs. Originallymarbles were made of many materials-clay, bone,polished nuts and stones, and indeed marbles.

We came across two Indian head pennies, one dated1898 found in the field and one dated 1901 found bythe front porch. A trip to Andy Hale’s Stamp & CoinShop on Monroe Ave., to assess value, assured methe pennies were interesting but worthless. To provethe point, after I purchased two paper penny contain-ers, they gave me change, which included an 1881Indian Head penny. OK! OK! They are worthless,but I still think they are a neat find!

Clay marbles began to be produced in bulk fromabout 1870 onwards on both sides of the Atlantic. Inthe 1890’s the first machines for the manufacture ofglass marbles were introduced. However, machineproduction remained low until the 1914-1918 war inEurope cut off supplies of marbles to North America.This stimulated the machine production of glassmarbles to North America. It is impossible to datethe five clay marbles we found outside of the housebut clay marbles create an interesting story and pic-ture of the children who lived on the Brighton Farm.

Some other interesting items were:Buttons: One of several buttons found around the

house was a very small button with a brown coloreddiamond design and another was an Oshkosh metalbutton linking the farmer coverall dress to a Brightonfarm.

The collection we have established so far con-sists of approximately 600 shards. The shard sum-mary is as follows: Pottery ~100, Glass~100, ChinaDishes~200, “Blue Willow Dishware”~100,Metal~50 items, Plastic~25 items. The type of arti-facts reinforces the description of the property as be-ing inhabited by the average farmer family in Brighton.

Come join us at Historic Brighton!

Artifacts can be viewed in living color on ourwebsite: www.historicbrighton.org

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HISTORIC BRIGHTONFOUNDED 1999

Arlene A. Wright, PresidentMaureen Holtzman, Vice-PresidentJanet Hopkin, SecretaryPatricia Aslin, Treasurer

Board of DirectorsElizabeth BrayerSheldon BrayerLeo DoddRichard DollingerSuzanne DonahueMonica GilliganSally HarperHannelore HeyerJosie LeyensDarrell NorrisDee Dee Teegarden

Betsy Brayer, Historic Brighton News editorMary Jo Lanphear, Town of Brighton Historian

MORE MID-20TH CENTURY ARTIFACTS UNCOVERED

WHERE WAS THIS LOST BRIGHTON POSTCARD SCENE?

AT THE BUCKLAND

FARMHOUSE

It’s the time of year to renew your membership. If your nameon the mailing label is highlighted in yellow, you have not yetrenewed for 2006.

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HISTORIC BRIGHTON MISSION:Celebrating the town’s history andEducating our community about

Brighton’s past

Website: www.historicbrighton.org

Address: Historic Brighton P.O. Box 18525 Rochester, New York 14618

Individual/FamilyMemberships

Helen C. AldridgeRichard N. & Patricia AslinDennis & Barbara AsselinEdward & Ruth AtwaterMr. & Mrs. Charles BarkerBruce BellwoodPhyllis BentleyMichel BergHelen BerkeleyC. BlackwellElizabeth & Sheldon BrayerWilliam & Laura BurleighMary S. BurnsPeggy Weston ByrdMargaret CarnallRome CelliMr. & Mrs. Elmer CheneyRichard & Natalie CicconeSarah S. ClappAlfred & Patricia ClarkDavid A. & Stephanie ClarkKatherine H. ClarkChristopher S. ClarkeLibby ClayFrank & Meg ColganSylvia ComminsAnnemarie & Wade CookSybil & Albert CraigMary CritikosPaul E. and Doris CroughJames & Patricia CrowleyEllen & Ira CurrentRichard B. DeMallie, Jr.Leo & Mary DoddMarilyn & Rick DollingerSuzanne DonahueDavid & Mary DuncanScott & Dorothy DunlapMarcia L. ElwittGloria A. EmmanuelMaria L. ErnestElizabeth ForbesMary Alice FournierMelrose FranklinCatherine & Joseph E. GearyJoanne & Robert GianninyMonica GilliganLucius R. GordonJessica GreenElaine F. GreeneKathleen GrenierAlan & Julie GriesingerDr. & Mrs. Donald Grinols

Edward & Terry GrissingFrank & Diane GrossoMary B. GulickSally A. HarperJohn & Shirley HartRobert & Hannelore HeyerRobert & Janet HillChristopher & Joanna HodgmanMaureen & Arthur HoltzmanJanet & Britton HopkinWilliam & Cynthia HosleyJune & Conrad HoulePeggy & Tom HubbardGwyneth D. HuntingMr. & Mrs. Robert S. HurshBeth KeigherJoseph G. & Pat Murray KellyVivian KennelyCharles & Carol KenyonGary & Pamela KimmetLouise H. KlinkeRose-Marie B. KlipsteinSusan KramarskyMary E. KunzThomas LaChiusaDavid & Marlowe LaiaconaMary Jo LanphearMary C. & Teresa J. LeeneNancy & Howard LeVantSteven & Kim LevitskyJosie & Adam LeyensRonald & Leigh LittleJerry LudwigGilbert G. & Katherine McCurdySally McGuckenJames & Roxanne McNamaraRamon & Karen MedalleLynn & Stan MerrellSuzanne MeyerowitzGeorge & Betty D. MiddlebrookLeon & Betty MillerShirley S. MillerWilliam MoehleSusan F. MyersSarah NemetzRichard & Nancy Sanfilippo NewtonCindi NoethElaine & Harvey NusbaumJohn PageJanet Patlow

Kathy PearceDavid & Marjorie PerlmanPolly & Kirk PersoniusRobert W. & Patricia PlaceJean H. PoppoonRuth PorterSandy & Robert PotterJay & Margaret RachfalDavid J. & Margaret ReganRichard & Nancy ReitkoppMariana RhoadesRon RichardsonDan & Nancy RobbinsDiana RobinsonMary RobySarah RockwellJudy RosenbergHerbert RossClaire B. RubinPearl W. RubinRay & Dandrea RuhlmannMargaret S. RuthSusan M. SatterPeggy SavlovSusan E. SchillingOno Lee SchlageterJudy SchwartzGretchen H. ShaferGary L. & Diane J. ShirleyLisa SmithDavid S. & Elizabeth H. Stewart

William A. & Mary Kay TaberDeborah C. TaubDeedee & Ken TeegardenDavid TroupNancy UffindellJames & Linda UnderwoodJoan UpdawDerek VanderlindeJeff Vincent & The Colen GangPaul WetenhallJessie Anne WernerJean G. WhitneyElizabeth & Timothy WilderWilliam B. & Marion G. WilmotCarolyn S. WolfeArlene A. WrightGeorge & Nancy ZimmerCatherine ZukoskyBusiness MembershipLeaded Glass Art(Don & Lenore Cooper)

Club/OrganizationMembershipJames A. & Susan Locke

Newsletter SponsorRonald Reed

2005 HISTORIC BRIGHTON MEMBERSHIP