Hosmer's Inn
at Genesee Country Village, & Museum
Built: |
1818 |
Original location: |
Caledonia's, NY |
Original owner: |
Sylvester Hosmer |
Style: |
Georgian |
1818 Georgian (Federal) style building |
Ladies' sitting room |
Ladies' sitting room - Chippendale wing armchair with scrolled crest |
|
Ladies' sitting room: |
Ladies' sitting room detail - Federal cane-seated side chair - curved rectangular top rail with foliate design |
Ladies' sitting room Federal secretary |
Ladies' sitting room Federal secretary - detail |
Taproom. |
Taproom grill |
Public dining room |
Public dining room detail - stenciling on the walls |
Public dining room |
Public dining room. |
Ladies' dining room. |
|
Ladies' dining room. |
Ladies' dining room.. |
Ladies' dining room. |
Ladies' dining room. |
Ladies' dining room fireplace |
Ladies' dining room fireplace equipment: |
In 1809 Sylvester Hosmer, one of five sons of Timothy Hosmer, physician, married Laura Smith, one of the six daughters of Major Isaac Smith, innkeeper. The Major's tavern was a log building alongside the Ontario and Genesee Turnpike a few miles west of the Genesee river crossing near Avon.
Following his father-in-law's death, Sylvester Hosmer became its proprietor. Accommodations and food were pronounced excellent by those who stopped at the log inn while traveling the main route through western New York.
Business was good, and in 1818 Hosmer replaced his log building with the two-story frame structure which now looks across the Genesee Country Village square.
There are seven fireplaces throughout the inn. The brick floored kitchen and storerooms are on the ground level. The first floor includes a taproom (reached through an entrance at the side), a public dining room, a ladies' dining room and a ladies' sitting room. On the second floor are the landlord's own quarters, four private sleeping rooms, and a combined meeting and ballroom.
The old inn was occupied as a residence in its late years, although it was being used as a granary when acquired by the Museum. The inn yard behind Hosmer's contains a wagon shed and Hosmer's old brick-lined ice house given to the Museum by Silvanus Macy.
-- Genesee Country Village, by Stuart Bolger, 1993