aken in 2004, by Anonymous

William Martin Mansion, large old stone house outside of Lafargeville on Route 180, submitted anonymously.  Owned later by Manford and Lousie Jerome and now owned by another landowner.

Update 03/06/08: Unfortunately this entire building has been torn down.  The only thing that remains is the wind mill tower (still turning). See pic below.

Anonymous writes "I believe this is the backside of the house. It is located on the left side as you drive from Stone Mills to Lafargeville."  According to an e-mail from 'Eric' the house belonged the Bretsch family when he was young, and the family had a huge dairy barn to the right of the house (see photos of ruins below).
From JuneNY (via Flickr.com): "Very nice picture!"
David S. writes "The windmill was dismantled in 2008 and will be restored."

Taken on 12/29/06

For an old photo of the intact building and some history of the Lafarge Mansion check out this page.  For another great photo from the heyday of this mansion click here.   This was built in 1833 by John Frederick Lafarge, a Frenchman from New Orleans who made his fortune in the West India trade.  According to the now-defunct Stonehouse.org by C. Bonney - the Master Mason was Hial Cook and the stucco relief work was by Thomas Drake.  At one time this building was the St. Vincent de Paul's Seminary.
One account mentions that when the stone part of the mansion was demolished the stone (likely crushed of course) was used for a base for Route 180.



A person previously wrote: "The one across from the farm has an underground tunnel to the big high house across the road, next to the barn.  It was part of the underground railroad.  The cellar has collapsed onto the tunnel."

Eric, who lived there as a kid, writes: "The original mansion had 40 (one article says 42 - M.) rooms. The wing we lived in had only a few rooms. I visited the house in the 1970's when it was still standing but empty. The ceilings were 13 feet high and the windows were long, almost to the floor, and the walls were 4 feet thick. One could sit in the window seats. The windows were framed in wood and there were shutters inside."
Paul P. says that the decision was made to tear down the mansion for safety reasons as there was evidence of trespassers, here are some photos that he sent:

The barn was built by the late Tom Anthony between two hills and was 250 feet long and 60 feet from the roof to the ground. Horses and wagons loaded with hay could enter either end near the roofline and the hay was dumped down into deep mows on either side, which saved a lot of time at a time when most farm work was done by hand.  The cows and horses were stabled in the bottom part of the barn, in the stone part.  In front of the barn was the farm-house, also long-gone.  These photos are of the limestone ramp at the north-west end, there was also one at the other end with a trail leading up the hill to it.

To see the spring house for this farm go to page 3 and to see some more pics from this farm go to page 18.  More info about this barn and old pictures of the intact structure at these Nan Dixon pages:  barn, barn1, barn2, barn3, & barn4. 
<Click here> for the page with all the Anthony Farm/Cooke Road Pictures and info on one page.