about Greene home - recreation - walking tour

Walking Tour of Historic Greene

click for printable PDF version with map (660 KB file)

Genesee Street

1. 25 Genesee - The Sherwood Hotel
   The present building is the third hotel to stand on the site of Greene's first tavern (and first frame building), Wattles Tavern (1803). The original tavern was moved to 2 South Chenango Street in 1836 to make room for a larger inn, The Chenango House, which was destroyed by fire in 1905. The Sherwood Hotel was built on the site shortly afterward, but was gutted by fire in 1962. It was restored in 1982 after standing empty for 20 years.
2. 13-17 Genesee
   The site of the former home, store, and land office of Elisha Smith, the first local agent for land west of the Chenango River and the brother-in-law of Thomas Wattles. The original building, which was built in 1803, the same year as Wattles Tavern, was destroyed by fire in 1849. It was replaced in 1870 and until 1913 was the first and only department store in the Chenango Valley. 13 Genesee Street was added on in the late 1930s when the building was used as a funeral home.
3. Memorial Park
   Built in 1904 as a memorial to Civil War dead, the park originally included a public water trough at the eastern end, providing welcome refreshment to most horses, dogs and other animals crossing the bridge into Greene. Monuments to veterans of all wars up to the Vietnam War have been added, as well as a time capsule in 1992.
4. The Chenango River Bridge
   The first bridge over the Chenango River was built in 1807 as part of the construction of the Susquehanna-Bath Turnpike. Before the bridge was erected, settlers were forced to ford the river, raft across, or negotiate a tricky, floating log bridge built by Indians.
   
   
   Washington Street
   
   
5. 2 Washington
   Built by Joseph Juliand, the son of Captain Joseph Juliand, this pre-Victorian home, with its expansive wrap-around porch overlooking the river, was built in the early 1830s.
6. 4 Washington - The Depot
   Built in 1914 on the site of a former saw and grist mill, this is Greene's "new" depot. The original depot building across the way on Cherry Street was replaced in 1996 with a medical center.
7. 2 Juliand
   The fit who choose to climb the Washington Street hill will find Greene's oldest home, The (Captain Joseph) Juliand House, at the corner of Juliand and Washington Streets, overlooking the eastern entrance to the village. Built in 1810, the house originally served as an inn. The kitchen door, which is stored in the basement of this 19 room home, still bears tomahawk scars sustained during an Indian attack in the 1800s.
8. 1 Washington
   This 19-room Italianate home was built in 1851 for William Russell and his wife, the daughter of Joseph Juliand. The site was previously home to a toll house where, from 1807 until 1838, a gate-keeper collected tolls from all those crossing over the bridge to the village.
   
   
   North Chenango Street
   
   
9. 10 N. Chenango - The Zion Episcopal Church
   This classic Gothic-style church was built in 1887. More than half of the cost of the church was donated by J. H. Sherwood, for whom the Sherwood Hotel was named.
10. 15 N. Chenango is the oldest home on the north side of Birdsall Brook, having been occupied as early as 1875.
11. 17 N. Chenango
    Built in 1851 this 1 1/2 story Gothic Revival home, with its distinctive, ornate bargeboards and cross gable, belonged in 1868 to Col. Joseph Juliand, the grandson of Captain Joseph Juliand.
12. 32 N. Chenango
    Near the south side of Birdsall Brook, Stephen Ketchum, Greene's first settler built his log house in 1792, later replacing it with a frame house. In 1926, this brick house was built on the site of Ketchum's original frame house.
    
    
    North Canal Street
    
    
13. The Chenango Canal ran between North Canal Street and the cemetery, where Greene's first settler Stephen Ketchum was buried in 1810. Many of the houses on North Canal Street were moved there from other locations after the canal was closed in 1877 and later filled in.
    
    
    Genesee Street Revisited
    
    
14. 59 Genesee - The Moore Memorial Library
    Built in 1903 by the family of Nathaniel F. Moore, the library was originally planned to be a memorial to the war dead. By the time the building was finished, however, Memorial Park had been established, so the library instead became a memorial to the Moore family. The building, which is representative of Beaux Art architecture, cost the family $130,000 including a $50,000 endowment. The second floor houses a museum of local artifacts.
15. 49 & 51 -The Municipal Building (49 Genesee)
    Built atop the old canal bed, this was originally the Greene Fire Department, which also housed an opera house on the second floor. The first "moving picture" was shown in the opera house in 1915. The top of the building is graced with the striking town clock and a weather vane. Whether the bird atop the weather vane is a goose or an eagle remains in dispute. Greene is, however, situated directly in the flyway of migrating Canadian geese, which are far more common to the area than are eagles. The Eaton Block (51 Genesee), which houses the town offices, was built in 1899.
16. 41 Genesee
    The street's oldest wood frame building, serving as the Post Office until 1991, was doing business as early as 1821 and miraculously escaped two disasterous fires, the first of which wiped out all the wood buildings west of it to the Chenango Canal in 1848. The second fire, in 1885, did greater damage still, destroying all the replacement buildings and those beyond to Canal Street.
17. 62 Genesee
    Crossing to the north side of Genesee Street, four, two-story business blocks were constructed between 1882 and 1884 on the former canal basin. The Rosekran building boasts a stamped sheet-iron facade, one of the few of its kind still in existence.
18. 46 Genesee
    The Empire Block was built in 1849 and was originally a piano factory, with the Chenango American newspaper offices housed on the second floor. The Page Seed Company, one of Greene's oldest surviving businesses, started on the third floor of the building in 1896, but outgrew the quarters by 1902.
19. 42 Genesee
    The unique raised entrance into this shop reminds us that construction of the Chenango Canal raised the water table in the downtown area to about 3 feet below ground level. The raised steps were necessary to permit construction above the water table.
20. 34 Genesee
    This building was built in 1875 after a fire destroyed the previous structure.
21. 32 Genesee
    The Badger Building served as a drug store for over 100 years, so it is perhaps appropriate that it now is home to Greene's only chiropractic practice.
22. 30 Genesee
    The Hotchkiss and Driscall building was continuously operated as a hardware store from 1854 until 1997, and now houses a restaurant.
23. 28 Genesee
    The site of the Corner Restaurant was occupied from 1807 until an 1843 fire by a general store, after which it was replaced by the present brick structure.
    
    
    South Chenango Street
    
    
24. 2 S. Chenango
    This building is the oldest frame structure in Greene, the original Wattles Tavern, moved to this location from the site of the Sherwood Hotel in 1836.
25. 56 S. Chenango -Gowongo Mohawk
    An Indian princess, Carolina (Carrie) Mohawk lived in this house as a child. She later became an actress, often portraying Indian life in the then popular road shows.
    
    
    Willard Street
    
    
26. 17 Willard St. - The Ribbon Mill
    Operated as a silk mill from 1917 to present, the Ribbon Mill is now one of only two mills in the United States manufacturing hat bands and is the only mill in the nation designing its own patterns for the product.