The Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse 05
The light is the second oldest in the U.S. and the oldest government building in the county of Monroe. www.lighthouse.boatnerd.com/gallery/Ontario/charlotte-gen...
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In the 1500s, the Genesee River was a popular waterway for the Seneca Nation, a tribe of the Iroquois confederacy whose war parties held sway over territories from New England down to North Carolina. Jesuit missionaries and French adventurers found their way to the region in the late 1600s, and in 1788 the land around the future Port of Genesee was purchased from the Seneca Indians. Soon thereafter, trader William Hincher, along with his wife Mehitabel and their eight children, arrived in the area via an ox-pulled sled and acquired a few acres on a hill overlooking the west bank of the Genesee River.
In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson decreed that the seventy-mile stretch extending along the southern shore of Lake Ontario from Oak Orchard to Sodus Bay, would become an official port district, centered at the juncture of Genesee River and the lake. Samuel Latta was appointed Customs Collector, and in his first year he managed collections of just $22.50 while incurring $24 in expenses. The port was destined to grow in importance, and soon Genesee River became home to five boat-building yards, three railroads, three grain elevators, a dry dock, and numerous ferries. Just six miles to the south of the port and the Village of Charlotte stood the City of Rochester, which, having access to three waterfalls, became a vital flour-milling center.
Ships entering the port were originally guided by either a torch on a large pilot tree or a lamp atop one of the region’s early hotels. In 1821, the recently widowed Mehitabel Hincher was paid $400 for a four-acre plot to be used for lighthouse purposes. Ashbel Symons was awarded the lighthouse contract, which included a tower, a twenty by thirty-four foot, two-room keeper’s cottage, and a well, and the construction project was completed during a seven-month period in 1822 at a cost of $3,301.
The forty-foot tower was built of native sandstone and topped by an eight-sided iron lantern, containing 144 panes of glass and supported by 2 ½-foot-long square posts that extended six feet into the tower’s stonework. A separate contract had been awarded for fitting the lighthouse with patent lamps and reflectors in the same manner Winslow Lewis had equipped other U.S. lighthouses. www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=304
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image by Photo George
copyrighted: ©2016 GCheatle
all rights reserved
locator: GAC_1168_Default
The Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse 05
The light is the second oldest in the U.S. and the oldest government building in the county of Monroe. www.lighthouse.boatnerd.com/gallery/Ontario/charlotte-gen...
++ ++ ++ ++ ++
In the 1500s, the Genesee River was a popular waterway for the Seneca Nation, a tribe of the Iroquois confederacy whose war parties held sway over territories from New England down to North Carolina. Jesuit missionaries and French adventurers found their way to the region in the late 1600s, and in 1788 the land around the future Port of Genesee was purchased from the Seneca Indians. Soon thereafter, trader William Hincher, along with his wife Mehitabel and their eight children, arrived in the area via an ox-pulled sled and acquired a few acres on a hill overlooking the west bank of the Genesee River.
In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson decreed that the seventy-mile stretch extending along the southern shore of Lake Ontario from Oak Orchard to Sodus Bay, would become an official port district, centered at the juncture of Genesee River and the lake. Samuel Latta was appointed Customs Collector, and in his first year he managed collections of just $22.50 while incurring $24 in expenses. The port was destined to grow in importance, and soon Genesee River became home to five boat-building yards, three railroads, three grain elevators, a dry dock, and numerous ferries. Just six miles to the south of the port and the Village of Charlotte stood the City of Rochester, which, having access to three waterfalls, became a vital flour-milling center.
Ships entering the port were originally guided by either a torch on a large pilot tree or a lamp atop one of the region’s early hotels. In 1821, the recently widowed Mehitabel Hincher was paid $400 for a four-acre plot to be used for lighthouse purposes. Ashbel Symons was awarded the lighthouse contract, which included a tower, a twenty by thirty-four foot, two-room keeper’s cottage, and a well, and the construction project was completed during a seven-month period in 1822 at a cost of $3,301.
The forty-foot tower was built of native sandstone and topped by an eight-sided iron lantern, containing 144 panes of glass and supported by 2 ½-foot-long square posts that extended six feet into the tower’s stonework. A separate contract had been awarded for fitting the lighthouse with patent lamps and reflectors in the same manner Winslow Lewis had equipped other U.S. lighthouses. www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=304
++ ++ ++ ++ ++
image by Photo George
copyrighted: ©2016 GCheatle
all rights reserved
locator: GAC_1168_Default