Cobblestone Mystery
This is a bonus cache to Historic Cobblestone Drive (<- follow link) Adventure lab. Complete the adventure lab and you will get the coordinates for this cache.
Cobblestones
Cobblestone buildings were constructed for a short period of time from 1825-1860. In that time only 700-900 buildings were built with 90% of them within 75 miles of Rochester NY. It is a common belief that masons working on the canal built these homes after the canal was finished in 1825. However, many believe this to be false, as canal construction was on going for decades, being built not once, but three times and others point to the fact that however unique these homes were, there were similarities to construction methods used in England and that English masons who migrated to the area brought the craft with them.
The home above was built in 1835 by Philip P. Bonesteel. Bonesteel described his cost-efficient homestead in a letter to the editor of Buell's Cultivator and the Genesee Farmer, Vol. IX No. 7, 1842.
Messrs Editors:
In 1835 I built me a house of cobblestone, of the following description: front 45 x 83 feet, 2 stories, forming an "L" in rear of 65 x 23 ft., single story for kitchen, washroom and wood shed. My plan for thickness of wall was: the cellar wall 20 inches thick to first floor, drop off two inches to second floor, then drop off two inches, and extend out to top.
Sort your stones so as to have the outside course three or four inches, with straight lines for cement. Take the coarsest of sand for the stone, and a fine sand for brick. I used the common stone lime, one bushel of lime to seven of sand for stone, and the same kind of lime, one bushel to two of sand for brick.
I furnished all materials on the ground, and paid my masons $3.75 per hundred feet. He furnished his own tenders and made his own mortar, built his own scaffolds and tended themselves. I boarded them.
I think I have as good a house as can be made of the same materials. There is not a crack in the walls that you can stick a pin in as yet. The stone, I do not consider any expense as it frees the land of them. There is no painting to be done to it, as is required of brick or wood, it makes the strongest of walls, and I think the neatest and cheapest building that can be made.
You may calculate the expense of the building at so much a perch, according to the size you wish to build. I did not keep an exact account of my building, as the stone, sand, and lime were bought at leisure spells.
P. P. Bonesteel Victor-Ontario County March 1842.
This map shows the concentration of cobblestone buildings in the area. Most of them were built in Monroe, Wayne and Ontario counties and if you look closer, you see that many of these homes were built in towns that the canal didn't even pass through. I believe that this is where these English masons happened to settle. It was the canal that brought them here, like so many other immigrants, but if these homes were built by canal masons, you would think that they would be concentrated closer to the canal and built more evenly from Buffalo to Albany and not just around Rochester.
Who built these cobblestone buildings, is certainly a mystery and one that will be debated for as long as these buildings still stand. I hope you've enjoyed this short tour of a unique part of Western New York, as I have enjoyed sharing it with you.
What to look for
You're looking for a small container. Room for a few small travel bugs, some trade items and pathtags. If you've just done the cobblestone tour, then the custom container may be familiar.
Use stealth when searching for the cache and remember to place it back where you found it. I've included a regular sized logbook, write as much or as little as you want to and enjoy.