| THE ORIGINAL CARRIAGE HOUSE IS REBORN |
| WE ARE HAPPY TO REPORT THAT on October 26, 2006 THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE REPLICATED 1865 CARRIAGE HOUSE Was FINISHED. "A Carriage House is History's Garage"(1) "Transportation-related outbuildings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries included chair houses and an occasional one- or two-horse stable. The chair house provided shelter for the riding chair or carriage, which was drawn by one or two horses. Chair houses also sometimes incorporated stable functions. Little is known about the appearance of early examples of these structures, but by mid-1800s, carriage house builders were raising functionally complex structures that stabled two to six horses, garaged one or two carriages, stored riding gear, and provided hay lofts and feed bins." (2) "The carriage house was a status symbol. ... As an adjunct to the residence it served, a carriage house was usually built in a related architectural style and with consideration for style." (3) The rebuilt carriage house at the Cherry Creek Inn resembles the massing or size, setback and architectural detailing, particularly the arched or hooded window frames, or the original structure. It is not located in precisely the same place due to the grove of grown fir trees. Its measurements were taken from similar structures in the Village of Cherry Creek, most notably the barn on the old Richardson homestead on Main Street. The original structure was struck by lightening in late July 1949. The Buffalo Evening News headline read: "Farmer's Life Saved by Mayor of Cherry Creek: Milspaw Drags Raymond Gooseman Out of Blazing Barn; Victim Knocked Out Trying to Rescue Horses." When Ray Gooseman visited the Inn on the occasion of a reunion dinner celebrating the 60th anniversary of his graduation from Cherry Creek High School, he related the story of trying to untie the horses and after succeeding being overcome with smoke and then stumbling over the bodies of the felled horses. Mayor Irwin Milspaw, a member of the Cherry Creek Volunteer Fire Department, rushed into the burning building to drag the 23-year old to safety. According to the article, "The mayor suffered shoulder bruises and the effects of smoke inhalation." (4) The gooseman family farmed the land around the George Nelson Frost home which was owned at the time by James McLaughlin. The current structure, created by J. Schoening and Co., a young firm of Salamanca carpenters, is basically a two story pole barn, reinforced for the weight of a 3500 volume library on the second floor. The concrete foundations were poured by Countryside Landscape Borders, owned and operated by the Kirk Brumagin family of Cattaraugus who also created the stamped concrete patios and the gardens. All of the interior work is hand-crafted including the kitchen cabinets and handicap bathroom. The library space is sheathed in beadboard, applied one random length at a time following the staining process. No longer smelling of "timothy, horses, neat's-foot oil, leather, oats, salt hay, unpainted wood, lacquered carriages, kerosene, and tallow,' (5) the elegant library reflects the tastes of devoted bibliophiles. Sherlock Holmes and King Tut guard over the various subject groupings. This space may be rented for small conferences, for scrapbookers, quilters, poetry readings or musical events. The antique Portland Cutter sleigh embellished with G-clefs, holds the musical entertainment center while an elegant hand-crafted stone fireplace dominates the great-room, (1) Small Homes: Design Ideas for Great American Houses by Fine Homebuilding. (2) Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic by Gabrielle M. Lanier and Bernard L.Herman. (3) Portraits of American Architecture by Harry Devlin. (4) Buffalo Evening News, July 27, 1949. (5) Devlin. |