Architecture Around the World

Hosmer's Inn
at Genesee Country Village, & Museum

Built:

1818

Original location:

Caledonia's, NY

Original owner:

Sylvester Hosmer

Style:

Georgian



Click on illustrations for larger size -- and additional information

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.
One of seven fireplaces.

Taproom grill

Public dining room

Public dining room detail - stenciling on the walls

Public dining room

Public dining room.
9-spindle, comb-back
Windsor chair

Ladies' dining room.

Ladies' dining room.
Built-in corner cupboard ...
Windsor chair with decorated top rail

Ladies' dining room..
Painted
Windsor chair with decorated top rail

Ladies' dining room.

Ladies' dining room.
12 over 12 lights

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


Special thanks to Public Relations Manager Katie DeTar and the many helpful docents for their assistance
Photos and their arrangement © 2005 Chuck LaChiusa
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