Butterfield Cobblestone House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Butterfield Cobblestone House
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East profile and north elevation, 2010
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 Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Location | Clarendon, NY |
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| Nearest city | Batavia |
| Area | 26.4 acres (10.7 ha) |
| Built | 1849 |
| Architect | James Thompson; William Steele; Donaldus Reuben Bartlett; Daniel F. St. John |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| MPS | Cobblestone Architecture of New York State MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 10000044 |
| Added to NRHP | March 1, 2010 |
The Butterfield Cobblestone House is a special old home in Clarendon, New York. It was built in 1849 by a rich farmer named Orson Butterfield. He used a unique building style called cobblestone. This means the house is made from small, round stones.
The house was designed in the Greek Revival style. This was a popular style in the mid-1800s. It was built for Orson's large family. His family lived and worked on the farm for 80 years. Later owners made some changes inside the house.
This house is one of about 90 cobblestone buildings in Orleans County, New York. It is the only one in Clarendon. Many people think it's the best Greek Revival building in the whole county. The house and its farm buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. This means it's an important historical site.
The Farm and House Layout
The Butterfield Cobblestone House is on a 26-acre farm. It sits on the west side of Bennett Corners Road. The land around it is mostly flat. There are fields for crops or horses. You can also find some wooded areas. Other large farms are nearby.
All the main buildings are grouped together. North of the buildings are horse pastures. Behind them are fields for alfalfa and timothy grass. The rest of the farm has a small apple orchard and a vegetable garden. There is also a woodlot.
Outside the House
The main part of the house is one-and-a-half stories tall. It has smaller, one-story sections on its side and back. A tall horse chestnut tree shades the house. The house sits on a strong stone foundation. Its walls are made of lake-washed cobblestones. These stones are about 1 to 2.5 inches wide. They are set in mortar.
The roofs are gabled and covered with asphalt shingles. A stone chimney rises where the side and back sections meet. A stone band, called a water table, runs around the first floor. Limestone is used for window sills, door frames, and corner stones. A special stone on the east side shows the house was built in 1849.
There is a covered porch on the north side. It has four large wooden columns. The floor is made of Medina sandstone. Another smaller porch was added recently. It covers an entrance on the northwest side. On the back of the house, you can see the initials "O.B." for Orson Butterfield. This shows who built the house.
Inside the House
The main entrance is on the east side. It has a thick wooden door with a ceramic knob. The door opens into a front room, called a foyer. The floor is made of wide red pine planks. The walls have special wooden trim.
To the south is a square living room. It has two windows on the south and east walls. These windows have special panels around them. A door leads to a small office. The north living room used to be three separate rooms. Now it's one big space. It has chestnut wood floors. There's a stone fireplace with "H & JG, '69" carved into it. This shows when it was added.
The current dining room was once the kitchen. It has white oak floors. A brick fireplace with a wooden mantel is on the east wall. The current kitchen has oak cabinets. It used to be a creamery. A bathroom and another office are also on the first floor.
Upstairs, there are three bedrooms and another bathroom. The upstairs rooms are simpler than downstairs. They have pine floors and lower ceilings.
Farm Buildings
Besides the house, there are three other buildings on the farm. These include a barn, a chicken coop, and a metal building. The barn and chicken coop are old and important to the farm's history. The metal building is newer and not considered historical.
The wooden barn is northwest of the house. It is 36 by 100 feet. It has a gambrel roof, which looks like a double-sloped roof. Most of its foundation is original fieldstone. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles.
The barn has several entrances on its east side. One large sliding door opens to a gate and a locked door to the hayloft. Other sliding doors are also on this side. The west side has sliding doors that open to the cellar. Both ends of the barn have a round window near the roof peak. A small lean-to on the south end shelters firewood.
Inside the barn, the south end has horse stalls. There are three stalls with sliding gates. A steep staircase leads up to the hayloft. Another stall is behind one of the tack rooms, where horse equipment is kept. A sliding door opens to the granary, which is now a woodworking shop. The threshing floor is where grain was separated.
The upper part of the barn is mostly a hayloft. It is divided into two sections. Some parts of the basement walls suggest an even older barn might have been there before.
House History
Orson Butterfield moved to Clarendon around 1830. He was in his early 20s. He bought 100 acres of land and started farming. He became very successful. The road where his farm was located was even called Butterfield Road for many years.
The house was built in 1849 for Orson's big family. Local workers built it. The cobblestones came from Lake Ontario. The Greek Revival style was popular. It also worked well for a farm family. For example, the staircases were enclosed to save space and heat. They used efficient cast iron stoves instead of big furnaces.
In 1852, Orson went to California to find gold. His family stayed and ran the farm. His brother Rufus lived there for a time. Orson's son, Wilford, died in 1867 from an illness he got during the Civil War. Orson returned home in 1870.
When Orson and his wife Lydia died in 1887, the house went to their children, Florence and Joseph. The current barn was built around this time. It showed Joseph's success in the Chicago stockyards. Joseph later gave his share to his sister Florence.
Florence's will said her husband could live in the house. After he passed away, it would go to her daughters. In 1920, one daughter, Ora, sold her share to her sister's husband, Darius Morton. Two years later, in 1922, he sold the farm to Dominic and Josephine Mastrangelo. This meant the Butterfield family no longer owned the farm after 90 years.
The Mastrangelos ran the farm until 1961. Then they sold it to John and Margaret Green. In 1964, the Greens sold it to C. Howard and Joyce Greene. The Greenes ran a tack shop in the barn. They made many changes inside the house, like adding the fireplace in the dining room. Most of these changes happened around 1969.
In 1971, Donald and Elmer Gretzinger bought the farm. Donald later decided to sell it. He divided the land into smaller parts. In 1978, he sold the part with the house and farm buildings to Edmond and Ruth Spencer.
Ruth Spencer ran an antiques shop from the barn with her daughter. She was also active in the Cobblestone Society. This group works to save old cobblestone buildings. The Spencers sold the house to the current owners in 2007. The new owners added the north porch. They also changed the old creamery into the current kitchen. Since then, there haven't been many other changes to the house.
