The county's $1.8 million restoration of the brick and Medina sandstone of the Genesee Justice/former Sheriff's Office on West Main Street in Batavia has been a months-long project but appears to be nearing the end.
The contract for the work was awarded to Montante Construction last June after the County Legislature realized that delaying the restoration project had only driven up the cost.
The facade of the historic structure was crumbling, with large bits of sandstone falling away from the building.
Workers removed all the sandstone and restored the underlying masonry before putting the sandstone back in place.
Tom Rivers, editor of Orleans Hub, as part of a series on Medina sandstone structures in the region, wrote about the old Sheriff's home and headquarters in 2013.
The jail is part of the Genesee County Courthouse Historic District that was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The district represents the civic core of the city and includes buildings from the 1840s to 1920s.
The collection of historic structures includes the old county courthouse, former city hall, U.S. Post Office, The Holland Land Office Museum, a county office building and a Civil War monument. The jail is the only Medina sandstone building in the disitrict. St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which is close by, also is a striking sandstone structure.
The building was constructed in 1902-03. It was designed by Poughkeepsie architect William J. Beardsley in a Victorian Gothic style. Beardsley also was the architect for the Attica State Prison and many county courthouses.
The Legislature first discussed the need for restoration in 2016 and sought grants to help cover the anticipated $500,000 costs. Last year, Chair Shelley Stein noted, “We should be kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner, but we didn’t have the money.”
There has been a “tremendous amount of damage” that, along with inflation, tripled the initial price estimate, County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens told legislators in June 2022. "There are pieces of stone falling from the top of the porch, and many areas of it are cracked and crumbling."
Currently, the former Sheriff's Office is the office of Genesee Justice, but Genesee Justice, and the jail behind it, will relocate later this year to the new jail facility being built by County Building #2 on West Main Street Road in the Town of Batavia.
County Manager Matt Landers said Thursday evening that the county is still evaluating possible uses for the building and is going to have SMRT, the architectural firm working with the new county on the new jail, assist in that evaluation process. Landers said he has some rough ideas of what could be done with the space but isn't at liberty just yet to publicly discuss those ideas.
Photos by Howard Owens.
