The Landmark Society of Genesee County presented its annual preservation awards Friday night at the First Presbyterian Church of Byron.

Photo: Matt Gray, partner, Eli Fish Brewing Co., Rev. James Renfrew, First Presbyterian Church, Jermey Liles, Oliver's Candies, and Bill and Lucine Kauffman.

Below, links to writeups and photos (or in the case of Eli Fish, a video) for each of the award winners:

• Landmark Society Preservation Award: Eli Fish Brewing Co.
• Landmark Society Awards, Oliver's Candies, Adaptive Re-use
• Landmark Society Awards, Kauffman residence, Elba, restoration
• Landmark Society Awards, First Presbyterian Church of Byron, tender loving care

Rev. Renfrew with the volunteers from the church who prepared and served Friday night's dinner at the church.

Award text:

The people of the First Presbyterian Church of Byron celebrated their 200th year of ministry in 2018.  It was organized as a Congregational Church in the beginning but came under the care of Genesee Presbytery in 1830. The present building was dedicated in 1830 and reflects the meeting house form. It was 53 feet long and 40 feet wide.  Some of the lumber that was used was hauled from Dansville by oxcart with the remainder of the lumber being furnished by members in the area. The church was entered by two doors on the front as it is today, with stairs going to the galleries that were on three sides. In the early days, the church building also hosted community functions in addition to religious services.  In the early 1900s, the community gathered in the sanctuary of the church for a dramatic theater presentation.  The fixtures for the old velvet curtains, that would be drawn at the end of each performance, still remain. That evening the play required the use of a gun and unfortunately when the gun was fired it was not a blank and the real bullet hit the thick wood of the pulpit. The bullet hole is still there.

The original features of the church that survive include the flush board façade with pilasters and pediment with applied elliptical ornament.  In 1866 the balconies were removed and the building extended 12 feet to the north.  Also, the altar area was changed to the opposite end of the Sanctuary.  In the 1890s the Sanctuary floor was raised and a ground floor was added.   They now had rooms for classrooms and a kitchen.  Later in the nineteenth century, the church was remodeled along with the windows being altered to round-headed arches. At the same time, the Romanesque Revival style belfry was added and the bell is still rung each Sunday and at weddings and special days.  The next extension to the building was added in 1955 and is a two-story rear addition with a dining room and classrooms above.  This addition was dedicated in November of 1955.  Many in our communities have enjoyed the Annual Turkey dinner here in the Fellowship Hall for the last 50 years.  In the 1990s the new side entrance and lift were added.  Also, the front steps were added to the church.

Several years ago the rough-cut center beam that runs north and south through the church was splitting causing the floor to the crown.  Mike Loewke, a local contractor, had to wrap a steel band around the beam to correct this problem and then replace the floorboards.  The center aisle has been re-carpeted.  Other large projects completed in the last 5 years are having the parking lot resurfaced with commercial grade pavement, the two ancient front doors replaced and the roof was replaced with metal roofing.

Rev James Renfrew of the First Presbyterian Church of Byron shared some of the challenges of a building this old: ”Old building are never ”square”! Foundations sink, roof lines slump, old timbers warp, walls bow (thus our corner-to-corner tie rods).  Original builders were not thinking of modern accessibility issues at all, so stairways everywhere, and difficult to retrofit for modern needs. With security and safety as modern concerns for large gathering places, it is particularly difficult to adapt to these old building.  We can put glass panels in each interior door and institute child safety measures. But having so many entrances in an out of the building is a challenge.”

Rev. Renfrew said, “we love our old building, we are blessed with a generous congregation, and capable Trustees to maintain it, but as we all know, a church is first and foremost the faithful people.”

The Landmark Society of Genesee County presents the 2019 Tender Loving Care Award to the First Presbyterian Church of Byron

Award text:

Restoration category description - maintaining or recreating the original integrity of a building's exterior (perhaps the interior) architectural features, layout, materials, etc.

The style of the Kauffman residence is Greek Revival.  This was a popular American architectural style during the mid 19th century (between 1810 - 1855).  It was also referred to as the "National Style" because of its popularity.  This can be attributed to Thomas Jefferson and his affection for Greek culture, particularly the idea of democracy. Thus, reviving this classic Greek building form was appropriate for the burgeoning US democracy.
 
The Kauffman's purchased the house in 1992, approximately 160 years after the initial house was constructed.   It was designed as a simple farmhouse in the new "National Style" in approximately 1832.

This house, like many long-standing houses, was altered over time to fit the needs of the current owner.  In the late 1880's a wing was added to the primary structure and included a front porch that serves as the formal entry to the house.

Subsequent additions lengthened the house, adding more living and working space, including a summer kitchen.  These changes necessitated interior changes, such as relocating the interior stairs, not once, but four times.

As with all farmhouses, a barn was a central component of the landscape. 

It was torn down in the 1980s and the wood recycled to construct the utility shed.  Elements adjacent to the house still remain reflecting the rural nature of the site, including a concrete trough nestled beside the century old maple, and directly outside the kitchen, is the outdoor water pump that still functions today.

In 1923 the house was purchased by Orville and Emma Slater - who were prominent spiritualist in the area.  Their daughter Vera continued to live in the house until the late 20th century, selling it to Robert and Gabriel West in 1985.  The Wests are credited with saving the house from demolition.  They not only stabilized the house but added modern amenities such as indoor plumbing and heating.  (This image was taken in 1988 by Harold Kilthau and is featured in the Architectural Heritage of Genesee County book.)

The Wests did considerable work to the house. They added two fireplaces that were not original to the house and used local materials collected from other historical structures to embellish the interior design. (The Gothic-inspired cupboard doors were from a local church).

The Kauffman's, like the Wests, try to remain true to the architectural style and history of the house.  Their additions include a new bathroom and redesigned kitchen.  They retain original elements that illustrate the transformation and history of this house.    

In the kitchen, original fixtures are utilized, and custom built cabinets are modified to fit today's needs while maintaining the character and charm of the original.  Period paint colors are used and floors are refinished to highlight their age and natural beauty. 

The Kauffman's in a desire to honor the history and constraints of a 19th century home opted to commission furniture that fits the scale of the rooms while being sensitive to the Greek Revival farmhouse style house they call home.

Award text:

The fourth recipient of this year’s Landmark Awards goes to Eli Fish Brewing Company for their Adaptive reuse of the building known as J. J. Newberry at 109 111 Main Street in Batavia. Matt Gray and Jon Mager are here tonight to receive the award.

I am sure most of you in the audience tonight are familiar with Eli Fish and the story of their creation of Batavia’s first brewery in many, many years. There has been lots and lots of press coverage of the project and many happy diners and beer lovers have paid a visit since their opening in March of 2018. 

Many of you have memories of what was there before- I have fond memories of Main Street Coffee and Pieces (the jewelry, frame spot, art gallery) being there in the early parts of this century. After that, Brian and Beth Kemp’s T-Shirt ETC found a home there as did The American Red Cross. Of course, the biggest memory jogger for Batavians and folks from Genesee County was the decades that the building was known as Newberry’s.

The three-story Italianate style building was constructed in 1881. The architect was George J King who designed several buildings and residences in the area. The building was built by C.H. Turner & Son Company, a prominent local furniture maker and undertaker, before the J.J. Newberry Company, a national five-and-dime store, purchased the building in 1929.

Downtown Batavia was a hopping center of commerce during those years –both sides of Main Street were lined with late 19th century 2 and 3  story buildings, filled with every kind of business needed for a county seat. Shops were on the ground level floor and offices above. On the corner of Jackson and Main the Bank of Genesee, the building stands still, next it the now long vacant Carr Building remains as well. Between Carrs and Newberry a theater once stood, but a fire devastated it in the mid-thirties and was eventually replaced with a single story addition onto Carr’s.

Following World War II, storefronts in Batavia and all across the country began to change. In an effort to embrace the sleek new look in vogue, many buildings were altered by covering up the brick facework with steel or aluminum. The Newberry building’s storefront was altered- but not to the extent that other Newberry properties experienced across the country.  In 1948 a single story building was erected to the rear of the original structure, more than doubling its length.  The

renovation included a relocated lunch counter with a curved Art Moderne hood.  Main Street Coffee incorporated into their operation and Eli Fish left a portion of it exposed in the entry area of the brewery.  The modern storefront configuration with large plate glass windows was a marvel at the time; it even warranted a full article and large picture in the paper announcing its completion.

Newberry maintained its façade between the 1920s and 50s, even to the point of utilizing hand-cut

wooden gold lettering across the signboard to advertise its presence on Main Street, which was much more

sympathetic to its Italianate Design. The use of gold-painted wood is noteworthy given the proliferation of

plastic molding techniques which have become the dominant sign making style since plastic became available en-mass in the 1940s. Indeed, the Batavia sign was reportedly done by H.H. Upham Company out of New York City, one of the city’s most distinguished sign companies.

When thousands of square feet of Batavia’s downtown meet the wrecking ball in the sixties and seventies, the Newberry Building remained. In 1996 it closed and was briefly home to another 5 and dime before it was sold to Andrew Mistler in 2003. That’s when the building was divided into two elongated spaces available for rent. Main Street Coffee and Pieces rented floor space for a period of time, then T-Shirts ETC and The Red Cross followed them.

In 2015, the building was sold to AGRV Properties with the dream of drastically overhauling the building into a Brewery, restaurant and living spaces. Matt Gray and Jon Mager consulted with the Batavia Development Corporation and arrived at the concept of Fresh Lab to bring in two start-up kitchens to supplement Eli Fish’s own operation. Shortly after purchasing the building, Gray and Mager brought in Buffalo’s Preservation Studios to start the process of listing the property on the National Park Services Register of Historic Places. That highly detailed process resulted in the J J Newberry building attaining a position on the list on September 11, 2017. It joins 23 others on the Register in Genesee County. The achievement, in addition to the historical significance, greatly enhanced the financial feasibility of the project to do a 20 percent tax credit at both the federal and state levels.

Construction began in the spring of 2017. During the construction process, the original plans for the brewery evolved from having the brewing operation on the first floor to moving it into the rear portion of the basement, necessitating the removal of portions of the floor and altering the project’s use of the interior space. The final layout occupies more restaurant space than was originally intended.

Since opening last year one of the two start-ups has left the operation but Eden ( featuring vegan fare) has been very well received as has Eli Fish’s beers and food. The operation at the brewery continues to evolve with additional soundproofing to reduce interior noise levels and adjustments to their menu to meet the demands of the clientele.

Quote from The Preservation Exchange Blog entry by Matt Shoen

“The density of our streets have decreased as companies attempt to gain their own spaces, damaging the feeling and cohesion of our cities. Simply look at images of old Batavia to see how the city's commercial district used to be dominated by three-story Italianate buildings, filled with large stores and commercial tenants on the upper levels. Much of these are gone, replaced by box stores and the downtown mall. The Newberry Building is actually a bit of an albatross, standing between buildings put up in the 1950s. The fact that the building maintained its form from 1881 to the present day is remarkable, even more so considering Newberry's company-wide remodeling plan from the 1950s that sought to sheath many of its buildings with metal siding. The Newberry Building in Batavia escaped this treatment, making it one of the few buildings in Batavia to survive relatively unscathed from the city's heyday….., reminding pedestrians of the shape of their old Main Street.”

Downtown Batavia's future is not the mall; it's the open areas south of Main Street, suggests Tim Tielman, a preservationist and urban planner with a track record of success in Buffalo.

Jackson Street, Jackson Square, the south side of Main Street, are where we can find what's left of Batavia's vitality, Tielman said, in a recent interview with The Batavian. The mall, he said, is the last place Batavia should invest tax dollars.

"It's a continuing drag on Batavians, their creativity, their dynamism, their energy," Tielman said. "It's this energy sucking death star in the middle of the city, and you shouldn't spend any money making it a better death star."

We interviewed Tielman in advance of his talk this Wednesday night at 7 o'clock at GO ART! for The Landmark Society of Genesee County's annual meeting.

The topic: How Batavia gets its mojo back. 

Tielman's basic thesis is that Batavia was at its apex just after the end of the 19th century when the village, soon to become a city, had a robust, densely populated urban center with hundreds of businesses.

If that downtown, which was destroyed by urban renewal, still existed Tielman said, people from Rochester and Buffalo as well as the rest of the GLOW region would flock to Batavia every week for the small city experience.

Niagara on the Lake still has it. Batavia lost it. But, with effort, Batavia can get it back, but it will literally be a ground-up process, not a top-down, consultant-driven, developer-driven effort. Batavians have to do it for themselves. But Batavians are already pointing the way if city leaders will listen.

"There's obviously an innate human need for want of a better term, congenial spaces, in towns, cities, and villages, and even in times where they've been destroyed in war or urban renewal, people find them or build them," Tielman said. "What we see in Batavia is people have happened upon Jackson Square because it's a leftover thing that no one thought about and wasn't destroyed.

"The qualities of the thing as a physical space make it a very interesting case. You enter through a narrow passageway, and suddenly, totally unexpectedly, you come to a larger space, and even though it obviously wasn't designed with gathering in mind it has everything people want as a place to gather."

Jackson Square, Jackson Street, combined with the local businesses that still populate the business district on the south side of Main Street are strengths to build on, Tielman said. Batavia can leverage the density already found there and add to it.

But Tielman isn't an advocate of trying to lure developers with tax dollars to build big projects. He believes, primarily, in a more grassroots approach. 

The "death star," he said, and continuing efforts to deal with it, are part of the "urban renewal industrial complex," as he put it, and that failed approach should be avoided.

"The solutions (of urban renewal) are all the same," Tielman said. "It's like, 'let's put out an RFP, let's get some state money instead of saying', 'well, what do the Batavians need? What are they thirsty for? What are they dying for?' What you'll find is that Batavians are like every other group of homo sapiens on the face of the Earth. If they had their druthers, they'd want something within walking distance.

"They'd want to meet friends. They'd want to do stuff close at hand and in a way that they're not killed by vehicles careening down streets at 30 or 40 miles an hour. They want their kids to be safe. They don't want to worry about them being struck by a tractor-trailer when they're riding their bikes to the candy store."

That means, of course, narrowing Ellicott Street through Downtown, perhaps adding diagonal parking to Main Street, moving auto parking from out of the center of the city, particularly in the triangle between Jackson, Main and Ellicott, which Tielman sees as the most promising area of downtown to increase density first.

Batavians will need to decide for themselves what to do, but what he suggests is that the city makes it possible for the parking lot between Jackson and Court become one big mini-city, filled with tents and temporary structures and no parking.

"The rents for a temporary store or a tent or a stand or a hotdog cart should be low enough to allow a huge segment of the population (of Batavia) to experiment," Tielman said.

Low rents remove one of the biggest impediments to people starting a business and open up the experimental possibilities so that Batavians decide for themselves what they want downtown. 

"This gives Batavia the best chance to see, whether for a very low investment on a provisional basis, (if) this will work," Tielman said. "It's not sitting back for 10 years trying to concoct a real estate investment scheme based on some RFP to lure developers and give them handouts at tremendous public risk. The idea is lower the risk and do things the way successful places have done it for millennia."

That's how it worked for Canalside, one of the projects, besides Larkin Square, Tielman has helped get started in Buffalo. With Canalside, development started with tents and temporary vendors. Now the area is revitalized, and permanent structures are being erected. It's a Buffalo success story.

The idea of starting new business and community centers with tents and temporary structures is something Tielman suggested for Batavia's future when he spoke to the Landmark Society in 2013. He suggested then the major obstacle standing in the way of Batavia's economic vitality wasn't the mall, it is massive amounts of asphalt for parking -- economically unproductive and mostly unused.

While he likes the Ellicott Street project, primarily because of the 55 apartments being added to Downtown's housing stock but also because of the involvement of Sam Savarino who has been part of successful restoration projects in Buffalo, Tielman thinks the project needs to have "connective tissue" with everything on the north side of Ellicott Street.

That means narrowing Ellicott, adding wider, more pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, and slowing down truck traffic flowing through Downtown.

Any such plan would involve the state Department of Transportation but that, he said, is just a matter of the city being willing to stand up to the DOT and paying for its own maintenance of that stretch of Route 63.

"If the Batavia's really serious about fixing (Route 63), it should do it on its own dime," Tielman said.

As part of Tielman's suggestion to concentrate growth strategies on the south side of Main Street, Tielman agrees that the farmer's market, currently at Alva and Bank, should be moved to Jackson Street.

The current location is too far from the existing local businesses, so the tendency is for people to drive to Alva, park, shop and leave. The traffic being drawn downtown isn't staying downtown.

Tielman talked about contiguity, the quality of commercial spaces adjoining each other, being necessary for convenience of users and survival of businesses.

"Connective tissue," a phrase used several times by Tielman, is critical to city centers.

"Contiguity is the lifeblood of settlements of towns and of cities," Tielman said. "If left to their own devices, places will develop like this -- and you'll see this up to World War II -- whether they were European cities, Asian cities or American cities.

"Look at a (1918) map of Batavia, contiguity was everything," Tielman added. "In a town of 18,000 people you had four-story buildings. It's crazy, you would think, but (it was built up that way)  because (of) the distance from the train station to Main Street to the courthouse. That's where you wanted to be. Everyone's walking around."

People are social animals -- Tielman made this point several times -- and Batavians, if given a chance, will support a city center with more density, Tielman said because that's human nature. What exactly that looks like, that's up to Batavians, but creating that environment will give residents a stronger sense of community, more personal connections, and shared life experience. That will foster the community's creativity and vitality, which is better than just accepting decline.

"I mean, if you look at the great John Gardner," his formative years are "when Batavia was still a place where a young John Gardner could walk up the street, buy comic books, get into trouble over there by the railroad tracks, buy something for his mother on the way home, blah, blah, blah. He could have quite a day in town and encounter characters of different stripes that can actually (be worked) into pretty rich novels of American life. You wonder whether Batavia could produce a John Gardner today."

Tim Tielman has a lot more to say about Batavia getting its mojo back (this is condensed from an hour-long conversation). Go to GO ART! at 7 p.m. Wednesday to hear more about it, ask questions, even challenge his ideas.

Top: Use the slider on the map to compare Batavia of 1938 with Batavia of 2016.

Press release:

The Landmark Society of Genesee County held its annual Preservation Awards and Recognition dinner on Saturday at the Batavia First United Methodist Church.  Three historic churches, three private homeowners, and one business were recognized.

Those in the photo above are, from left: Dave & Noreen Tillotson -- Pavilion homeowners; Dave Bateman-Batavia homeowner; Dorothy Lawrence & Betsy Abramson accepting for Corfu United Presbyterian Church; Dennis Mellander accepting for Le Roy St. Mark’s Episcopal Church; Bob Carlson accepting for East Bethany Presbyterian Church; Jennifer & Dean Eck -- Corfu homeowners, Sarah Farmer & Chris Grocki accepting for Farmer’s Creekside Tavern and Inn in Le Roy.

The Landmark Society of Genesee County has selected seven properties and their owners for recognition for their preservation efforts.

The awards will be present Oct. 7 at the Batavia First United Methodist Church, 8221 Lewiston Road, Batavia. Dinner is at 6 p.m. with awards presented at approximately 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 per person. Reservations are due by Sept. 30 by calling (585) 757-2714.

Each year the awards committee tries to choose a group of structures that is varied in styles of architecture, geographic locations, building materials, and type of building such as churches, residences, commercial, and public facilities. 

"We are recognizing three historic churches all celebrating 200 year anniversaries this year," said Cleo Mullins. "The three homeowners owners being honored to have all put a lot of love and sweat into their homes. The business owners spent a decade working on their building to ensure that their results were the perfect blend of preservation with modern technology, comforts, and conveniences." 

The winners:

• Tender Loving Care --  East Bethany Presbyterian Church, 5735 Ellicott Street Road, East Bethany 
• Tender Loving Care -- Corfu United Presbyterian Church, 63 Allegheny Road, Corfu
• Tender Loving Care -- St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1 E. Main St., Le Roy
• Tender Loving Care -- Dean and Jennifer, Eck 64, E. Main St., Corfu
• Restoration -- Dave and Noreen Tillotson, 11129 River St., Pavilion 
• Renovation -- Dave and Ashley Bateman, 27 Summit St., Batavia 
• Renovation -- Farmer’s Creekside Tavern & Inn, 1 Main St., Le Roy

Article by Cleo Mullins

The Corfu United Presbyterian Church on Route 77 in Corfu was built in 1831 and has a gable front form, typical of the early rural church, that has remained basically intact. They are celebrating their 200th year as a congregation this year and it is a time to reflect on many projects they have been done over the years.

They have many beautiful stained glass windows from the 1880’s and in 1918 a lovely round stained glass window was installed on the wall behind the main alter. The pews that they have now came from the Methodist Church when it closed in Corfu. Over the years there have been additions to the church to accommodate the needs of the community. In 1956 there was extensive remodeling done to the Church with the balcony being reopened. Also that year an addition was built on the north end with classrooms, offices, a new dinning room and the kitchen was rebuilt. The big change to the exterior was the two front doors were installed to replace the single entrance.

In 1998 a bequest was used to remodel the sanctuary and narthex, and to enlarge the balcony and another bequest in 2004 was used to remodel the kitchen. This year they have a new sign that all can see as you travel route 77 and they have also done landscaping.

The Landmark Society of Genesee County Preservation award goes to Corfu United Presbyterian Church for their Tender Loving Care. 

Article by Cleo Mullins 

East Bethany Presbyterian Church congregation is celebrating their 200th year. In 1826 plans were formulated to build their first church on land they had purchased from Edward Dixon. In church records, it was specified that the building was to be no less than 50x40 feet and was to be built of stone and brick. The bricks for this church were made at a brick factory about one mile south of NYS Route 63. The church was completed in 1828 in the Federal style. It had balconies on both sides of the sanctuary. In 1827 an acre of land was purchased from Edward Dixon for a burying ground behind the church. Many of the early members were buried here with the earliest date of 1841. Edward Dixon passed away in March of 1868 and is buried here. East Bethany Cemetery Association now owns the cemetery.

The first of several additions happened in 1949 and after excavation had started they had a heavy rain and the balconies were hanging as if they were going to break off. With help of the community, the balconies and supporting wall were saved. There are narrow staircases going to the balconies on both sides of the church entry. The doors going into the balconies have the antique door handles. We have a lovely view of the sanctuary from the balcony.

The last addition was put on in 1981, which included a conference room, pastor study, a new kitchen, bathrooms and fellowship hall. In 1989 a new sub-floor was put in the sanctuary to level the floor as it had been necessary to step up to enter the pews. Also, new oak wainscoting was put on the two outside walls under the windows, new carpet, and pews. Then the sanctuary was painted and new interior doors were installed. They were now ready to celebrate their 175th year as a congregation.

In years since new oak front doors have been added and in preparation for their 200th Anniversary they had the outside of the church painted last year. The church has been modified over the years but still retains its federal-style features.

The Landmark Society Preservation award goes to East Bethany Presbyterian Church for their Tender Loving Care. 

Article by Cleo Mullins

Farmer’s Creekside Tavern and Inn has taken a Le Roy Landmark that was built in the 1820’s and after ten years Bill Farmer has created a four story building that will serve as a meeting place for many. It is a perfect blend of preservation with modern technology, comforts and conveniences. It opened this past spring. The original building was built of black Marcellus shale in irregularly sized stones that were dug from the Oatka Creek. It was always covered with stucco until the 1990’s. This building has served as a hat factory, bank office, law office and private home for Percy Hooker (NYS Senator), Harold Cleveland, and Dr. Knoll, who also had his medical office in the building. Later the building was used as a restaurant. I could not find a list of all the restaurants but I can name two (The Ganson House and Creekside Tavern. The stucco was removed while it was The Ganson House in the 1990’s according to an article.

In 2004 fire broke out and it took 200 firemen and 10 companies to put out the fire. After the fire, the owner Jim Gomborone put on a roof and windows. In 2007 Jim had hired Catenary Construction to estimate the cost to repair the building. Bill Farmer is the founder of Catenary Construction and is the senior estimator that came to the property. Bill Farmer said, “ without the roof, the building would never have survived”. Bill found the building in dire condition and the estimate with all the work that needed to be done was so high that the owner suggested that Mr. Farmer buy the building. Mr. Farmer could see the potential in this distinctive building that dates back to the 1820’s. Mr. Farmer and his son purchased the property in the fall of 2007 and on the day of closing the remainder of the south wall collapsed.

With the goal of salvaging as much of the original structure as possible, the rocks from the collapsed walls were saved to be used again. It took four full seasons of masonry work on the project.

The original shale walls and about 100 square feet of original floor, a fireplace, some window boxes and the two front entrances still remain. The rest of the building is a total reconstruction. The floor in the fine dining area call the Cleveland Room with the original fireplace is the original deep brown hemlock floor. Where the floor had been burned it has replacement boards. The next room also can be used as fine dining or a meeting room has the original striped floor of black walnut and a lighter maple. One area still has the scorched boards from the fire. The tavern is on the level beneath the street and has a copper beer system that they designed and had custom built with 18 taps of different beers. They have a spacious kitchen to prepare food for the fine dining area and the tavern. The top floor has three suites and each has rustic beams that came from the building. The beams had been taken down to be cleaned and evaluated and then were reset in the downstairs tavern and upstairs inn. The lowest level, next to the creek, has an outdoor bar with patio seating. The fine dining room, the tavern, and the patios can accommodate 400 people.

The Landmark Society of Genesee County is awarding Farmer’s Creekside Tavern and Inn the Preservation Award for the extensive renovation they have done on this historical building.