Mendon Archives - Chris Carosa

Save The Barns: Why RG&E’s Upgrade On Canfield Road Shouldn’t Undermine Mendon’s Rural Heritage

By Chris Carosa on March 18, 2025

In the last few years, I’ve perused old texts covering the Town of Mendon. I find the words useful for research. The pictures, however, captivate me. They allow me to effortlessly go back in time and immerse myself in the bucolic beauty of the town I call home. It’s like a time machine. Diving into those pictures gives me the feeling of tranquil bliss.

I didn’t know about these historic books thirty-odd years ago when I served on the Mendon Town Board. No doubt others, wiser than me, did. Despite my naivete, I played a role (albeit a minor one) in realizing a modern-day homage to those pleasant nineteenth century illustrations.

And you can experience the fruits of that realization every time you drive down Route 64 from Pittsford into the Town of Mendon. Just north of the Thruway bridge, look to the west on Canfield Road. You’ll see a peaceful array of agricultural buildings straight out of the late 1800s. As you pass it, if you think about it at all, you think, “That’s so… appropriate.”

Now, imagine that same spot occupied by an industrial eyesore of steel pipes and smokestacks oozing white clouds. Very shortly, if RG&E gets its way, that’s what you’ll see. As part of its upgrade project, the energy company hopes to strip away forever the barn façade and reveal the hulking gas transfer station concealed within it.Continue Reading “Save The Barns: Why RG&E’s Upgrade On Canfield Road Shouldn’t Undermine Mendon’s Rural Heritage”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged 1993, 19th century, agricultural age, Canfield Road, Empire State Pipeline, gas transfer station, industrial age, Jeanne Loberg, Joanna S. McCarthy, Mendon, Pittsford, pubkic hearing, RG&E, Sentinel, Town Board

I’ve Seen My Lifetime Disintegrate Before My Eyes

By Chris Carosa on November 5, 2024

I’ve seen my lifetime disintegrate before my eyes.

Do you have a recurring dream that you just can’t understand? No, I’m not talking about the one where you realize the final exam is today and you haven’t cracked open the textbook. Nor am I talking about the one where the giant ape is slowly chasing you, but try as you might, you just can’t run.

Those are typical anxiety dreams. They have nothing to do with final exams or giant apes. They’re more likely related to something in your daily life (usually work or some other stress-inducing environment).

Here’s the kind of dream I’m talking about: it involves a familiar landscape, maybe current, maybe from your past. It’s “familiar” in the sense that it evokes the real thing except it’sContinue Reading “I’ve Seen My Lifetime Disintegrate Before My Eyes”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged 187 Abbott Parkway, 83 Victory Avenue, Abbott Parkway, Blasdell, Blasdell Bowling Academy, Blasdell Junction, Carthage, Erie Railroad, George S. Patton, hamburg, Honeoye Falls, Ingham Avenue, Lackawanna, Lave Avenue, Lehigh Valley Railroad, Mendon, New York Central, Nickel Plate Road, Our Mother of Good Counsel, Patton, Pennsylvania Railroad, Roman Triumph, Salvator's Pizzeria, South Park, St. Anthony's, Victory Avenue, Woodlawn, Woodlawn Elementary, Woodlawn Intermediate

Remembering Father Latus

By Chris Carosa on September 10, 2024

Father Charles Latus presides over the first Wedding Mass celebrated at the new opened St. Catherine’s Church in the hamlet of Mendon, NY on September 28, 1991.

My father and brother erected the family estate with their own hands. After a long search my parents found a perfect parcel on which to build. While I toiled away deskbound in some distant cubicle, the other men in the family conveyed materials in a beat-up Ford pick-up to the site. Reminiscent of “Carosa and Son” (the masonry business started by my grandfather with my father riding shotgun), the two constructed a home of their dreams.

Oddly, it wasn’t their dream home. That would come decades later.

Coincidentally, they located both homes in the Town of Mendon. The first was the ideal family home. The second was the ideal home for retirement.

That first home was more than the “ideal” family home, it was the last home that housed the entire family – Mother, Father, two adult sons, a high school daughter and an elementary school daughter. We were all there. Until the company my father worked for decided to shut down the Rochester office and transfer him to Albany.

But that’s another story. This is a story about melding into a community.

We quickly adopted Mendon as our home. There are three things that make a community a Continue Reading “Remembering Father Latus”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Andrea, Betsy Carosa, Carosa and Son, Catholic, Charles Latus, Chris Carosa, Chuck Latus, Dad, Father Latus, Hamlet, Heidi, Kenny, Mary Lee, Mendon, Mendon Community Preschool, Mendon Fireman's Carnival, Mendon Youth Baseball, mom, Monsignor Schnacky, Monsignor Schnacky Players, Pack 105, Pre-Cana, St. Catherine's, wedding

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Canandaigua Anxiously Waits Before Jubilation And An Elegant Supper

By Chris Carosa on July 2, 2024

Previous: John Greig Lives The American Dream

Blossom Hotel as it appeared at the time of Lafayette’s visit. Source: From the collection of the Ontario County Historical Society

The young boy was no different from anyone else in the town of Canandaigua. Anxious, fretting, full of anticipation, on the morning of Tuesday, June 7, 1825, they all waited for the word they knew was coming but feared it might not.

Located on the northern tip of the lake that bears its name, Canandaigua housed the first land office in Western New York. This former Seneca stronghold sat on the old Genesee Trail, or Central Trail, that cut through the heart of the Iroquois Confederacy. Today we know it as Routes 5 & 20. Back then it had various names, from the Great Genesee Road to the Seneca Turnpike to the Ontario and Genesee Turnpike. Whatever you called it, it was the road everyone heading east or west traveled on.

Lafayette would soon be one of those travelers.

Or would he?Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Canandaigua Anxiously Waits Before Jubilation And An Elegant Supper”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Amos Read, Blossom House, Canandaigua, Canandaigua Hotel, Captain Ira Merrill, Captain James Lyon, Central Trail, Colonel William Blossom, Erie Canal, Genesee Trail, Great Genesee Road, Iroquois Confederacy, John Greig, Judge Moses Atwater, Kingsley's tavern, Lafayette, Mendon, Ontario and Genesee Turnpike, Ontario Bank, Ontario Brass Band, Rochester, Routes 5 & 20, Samuel Greenleaf, Seneca Turnpike, Western New York

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Dispelling Mendon Myths

By Chris Carosa on June 25, 2024

Previous: Timothy Barnard, A Soldier’s Story

Lafayette’s probable path from Rochester to Canandaigua, 1840 Map of New York State by Henry S. Tanner. Source: oldmapsonline.org

By 1825, the road from Rochester to Canandaigua was a well-travelled road. Samuel Hildreth saw to that, although he didn’t live long enough to see it first-hand.

Hildreth might be considered a first generation Western New Yorker. He was born on March 20, 1778, in what would become the town of Phelps in Ontario County. His parents had moved there from New Hampshire.¹ He moved to Pittsford in November 1814. There, he quickly established himself as a mover and shaker. He ran a store, rented to others, and operated a tavern. More important, he set up the Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Dispelling Mendon Myths”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Augustus Porter, Ball Tract, Beach's Tavern, Brighton, Canandaigua, East Avenue, East Bloomfield, Ebenezer Barnard, Eleven Thousand Acre Tract, Fishers, Hamlet of Mendon, Hoard's Tavern, Honeoye Falls, Kenneth B. Keating, Kenneth Barnard Keating, Lafayette, Mendon, Mendon Hotel, Monroe County, Norton's Mills, Ontario Brass Band, Ontario County, Peter B. Porter, Phelps, Phoenix Hotel, Pittsford, R. 5, Robert F. Kennedy, Rochester, Samuel Greenleaf, Samuel Hildreth, Silas Pardee, Stagecoach, Stone Tolan House, Timothy Barnard, Township 11, Victor, Wangum Mills, West Mendon, Zebulon Norton

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Timothy Barnard, A Soldier’s Story

By Chris Carosa on June 25, 2024

Previous: Competing Memories Turn Lafayette’s Rochester Visit From History To Mystery

Siege of Yorktown (1781), by Auguste Couder (1789–1873) Rochambeau (center L), Washington (center R), Marquis de La Fayette (behind Washington, L), Marquis de Saint Simon (behind Washington, R), Duke of Lauzun (L, mounted) and Comte de Ménonville (R of Washington). Source: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“Another Revolutionary Patriot Gone.” That was the lead, buried at the very bottom of the third of seven dense columns on page two in the Tuesday, April 13, 1847, edition of the Geneva Courier. Three perfunctory sentences followed.

“Hon. TIMOTHY BARNARD, father of Hon. DANIEL D. BARNARD, the distinguished ex-member of Congress of the Albany district, died at Mendon on the 29th inst. Judge Barnard took an active part in the revolutionary struggle, and for his services he drew a pension until his death. For many years judge Barnard was associate judge of the old county of Ontario, and after Monroe county was set off; he held the same office in the latter county.”¹

That was it. That was the sum total of nearly 91 years of life.

But there was more to Timothy Barnard. He represented all that made America great; that first generation of rebels turned heroes turned pioneers turned nation-builders. In a way, Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Timothy Barnard, A Soldier’s Story”

Posted in History, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Anah Babcock Yates, Ashley Sampson, Barnstable, Battle of Yorktown, Bloomfield, Canfield Road, Connecticut Colony, Daniel D. Barnard, Ebenezer Barnard, Eleven Thousand Acre Trac, Forrest Gump, Fran h. Barnard, George Washington, Hartford, Hoard's Tavern, Jeremiah Wadsworth, Lafayette, Massachusetts Colony, Mendon, Monroe County, New York City, Ontario County, Ontario County Agricultural Society, R. 5, Revolutionary War, Roger Newberry, Sarah Williamson, Timothy Barnard, Township 11, Valentine Hill, Valley Forge, West Bloomfield Road, Yorktown

The Day Lafayette Touched Mendon

By Chris Carosa on October 3, 2023

His full name was Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette. For short, he’s called the Marquis de La Fayette. If that doesn’t speak “wealth,” then what doesn’t? At least in his native France.

In traditionally egalitarian America, we know him simply as “Lafayette.” Coming from a family with a strong military tradition, he came to the New World in 1777 at the age of 19. Seeing the American Revolution as a noble cause, he joined the patriots and was immediately commissioned as a major general.

The title reflected more a sign of respect than of actual duty, for he was given no troops to command. Lafayette understood in America, one isn’t born to status, one must earn it.

And earn it, he did. He received his red badge of courage at the Battle of Brandywine. There, though wounded, he led an orderly retreat. His brave actions in the Battle of Rhode Island Continue Reading “The Day Lafayette Touched Mendon”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged American Revolution, Amo Kreiger, Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Rhode Island, Ben Franklin, Buffalo, Canandaigua, Continental Army, Cornwallis, Daniel Barnard, Erie Canal, Freemason, Geneva, George Washington, Judge Timothy Barnard, Lafayette, Marian Powell, mason, Mendon, Mendon Hotel, Monroe County, Rochester, Yorktown

The History Of Local Historians

By Chris Carosa on September 12, 2023

James Sullivan, New York State Historian (1916-1922), source: New York State Archives

“The love of one’s locality and a commendable pride in its achievements lie at the basis of true patriotism. It is difficult, nevertheless, to love something about which you know nothing. One who knows the history of the place in which he is living is far more likely to venerate it than he who is entirely ignorant of its story. To preserve this history is the function of the local historian.”

Those words belong to James Sullivan, New York State Historian. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle published them (as part of a bigger article penned by Sullivan) on page 17 of the Sunday, March 26, 1922 edition of the paper.

Sullivan used the piece to explain the nature and purpose of a relatively new law. It was passed by the State Legislature and signed into law by New York Governor Al Smith on April 11, 1919. Technically Section 57.07 of the New York State Arts and Cultural Affairs Law, it’s known more familiarly as “Local Government Historian Law” or simply the “Local Historian” Law.

The first paragraph of the law states “A local historian shall be appointed, as provided in Continue Reading “The History Of Local Historians”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Amo T. Kreiger, David K. Maloney, Honeoye Falls, James Sullivan, Local Historian, Marian Powell, Mendon, Mendon Historical Society, New York State, The Anaconda Standard, World War I

Ode To An Iconic Public Servant

By Chris Carosa on April 25, 2023

Jeanne

I don’t remember the first time I met Jeanne Loberg, but I remember how I felt. She immediately struck me as the new kid on the block. What did that make me? The newer kid on the block.

This may sound ironic, but her knowledge and wisdom overshadowed all that “new kid” stuff. She was “new” because she hadn’t lived in Mendon her whole life. I was new because I had just moved into town. And because I wasn’t yet thirty years old. Despite my obvious youth and inexperience, she took it upon herself Continue Reading “Ode To An Iconic Public Servant”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Bill Fletcher, Carl Foss, cell tower, Chris Holliday, Chuck Meisenzahl, Empire State Pipeline, Environmental Conservation Board, Jack Leckie, Jeanne Loberg, Jeanne Loberg Park, Lehigh Valley Trail, Lucy Parsons, Mendon, Mendon Foundation, Mendon Planning Board, Mendon Station Park, Mendon Town Board, New York State Public Service Commission, Paul Kehoe, RG&E, Rochester Junction Park, Rochester Telephone, Route 64, Thruway, Zoning Board

Thoughts On Trains, Natural Gas, And The Interstate Highway System

By Chris Carosa on April 11, 2023

It was a lonely vigil.

And by “vigil” I mean Easter Vigil on Saturday night.

And by “lonely” I mean I was by myself, all alone in a church I never went to before. Betsy was staying with her recovering father and Peter was not feeling well.

Only I wasn’t alone. Parishioners packed St. James (aptly named because it’s in the City of Continue Reading “Thoughts On Trains, Natural Gas, And The Interstate Highway System”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged 1956, 1960s, Car and Driver, church, Class One, Easter, Eisenhower Interstate System, electric, Fredonia, hydro, Jamestown, John D. Rockefeller, Kathy Hochul, Lehigh Valley Railroad, Mass, Mendon, national defense, National Fuel Gas, national security, New York State, nuclear, power, public safety, rail, Railserve, renewable, Schuyler County, solar, St. James, Standard Oil, Vigil, Western New York, William Hart, wind