Stone Houses of Amherst - Table of Contents  ............................  Williamsville - Table of Contents

Overview - The Stone Houses of  Amherst, New York
By
Deborah Cohen
Patricia Lerner
  Jacqueline Simon

1997

This research focusses on the early stone houses in Amherst that have survived until today. By tracking back through town records, we discover who first bought the land from the Holland Land Company and who lived in these houses, and we learn where these early settlers came from, why they came here, and why they built where they did, how they built, and why the houses look as they do.  

All of these discoveries permit us to recreate a little of the daily life in the early settlements that were to become the bustling hamlets of Amherst, including Williamsville, Snyderville, Eggertsville, and Amherst Center in the first half of the 19th century.
   
Finally, a close look more than a dozen houses, a school, and a meeting house -- the remaining representatives of the many stone houses -- gives us an architectural appreciation of these structures and how they have survived and/or changed over time.


Text © 1997 Deborah Cohen, Patricia Lerner, and Jacqueline Simon
Color photos and their arrangement © 2017 Chuck LaChiusa

Page created by Chuck LaChiusa in 2017
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