The Le Roy House and Union Free School are located on East Main Street (New York State Route 5) in Le Roy, New York, United States. The house is a stucco-faced stone building in the Greek Revival architectural style. It was originally a land office, expanded in two stages during the 19th century by its builder, Jacob Le Roy, an early settler for whom the village is named. In the rear of the property is the village's first schoolhouse, a stone building from the end of the 19th century.
Le Roy expanded the small land office into a large house, with finely decorated interior. After its completion, he hosted the reception following Daniel Webster's second marriage, to one of Le Roy's sisters. Later it served as a residence for educational administrators of both Ingham University and the local public schools. During the late 19th century it was subdivided into a boardinghouse for faculty and students at Ingham and the Le Roy Academic Institute, an early secular private school. Upon the establishment of the Le Roy Historical Society in 1941 it became the local historical museum.
The school was originally an addition built on a frame building, first for the Le Roy Academic Institute and then the local public school district, which it served as a high school. Its educational use ended in the early 20th century. For several decades afterward it was used as a factory for the manufacture of patent medicines. Since the 1940s it has been a property of the historical society.
Museums The Le Roy House is today owned by the Le Roy Historical Society and operated as historic house museum, with 19th century period rooms, a room with Morganville Pottery items, and exhibits of local history.
The school has also been converted into the Jell-O Gallery, devoted to the history and marketing of Jell-O, which was invented and first manufactured in Le Roy.Upstate, Where It Was First Made, Unwavering Devotion to Jell-O, New York Times, May 4, 2008
Buildings and grounds
Both buildings are located on a lot along the north side of East Main Street, 500 feet (150 m) east of Oatka Creek. Across the street is a small park and Le Roy's current elementary school, built in the early 20th century. The surrounding neighborhood is otherwise mostly residential, with other large houses from the 19th century and the First Baptist Church at the creek. The deep lot has the house on the street, followed by a small parking lot, the school and a Little League baseball field in the very rear. A line of trees delineates the property boundaries.
In 1997 both buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
House
The house is a two-and-a-half-story stucco-faced limestone structure with a raised foundation and side-gabled roof shingled in asphalt. Two brown brick chimneys with concrete caps pierce it at either end. The roofline has broad overhanging eaves on the north and south and a dentilled pedimented cornice on the east and west. On the north (rear) elevation is a full-width one-story porch on a concrete foundation with limestone steps. Its hipped roof is supported by round Tuscan columns and louvered panels at the sides.
Exterior
Its south (front) facade frames the centrally located main entrance in a hip roofed portico with classical entablature supported by paired fluted Doric columns with indented capitals. All windows on the facade are tripartite, with 12-over-12 double-hung sash flanked by three-over-three sidelights on the first story complemented by eight-over-eight and two-over-two on the second. All have plain lintels and wooden shutters for the sidelights. At the basement level a window on the west side provides light; the corresponding opening on the east has been bricked in.
The side elevations are asymmetrically fenestrated, reflecting the house's phased expansion. Both have a six-over-six window flanked by quarter-round windows in the pediments. On the east are three six-over-six windows in the northern bays, and two on the first in the two northernmost bays. The west face's second story is fully fenestrated, but with an eight-over-eight in the second bay from north dropped a half-story. Below it, the first story has, from the south, a six-over-six, eight-over-eight, six-over-six and four-over-four, all with stone sills. The north elevation has tripartite windows like those on the opposite face surrounding the rear entrance, a six-panel door with narrow six-light sidelights and four-light transom. The second story has three six-over-six windows aligned with the first-story windows.
Interior
Paired paneled pilasters flank the six-light sidelights aside the main entrance, topped by another four-light transom. The six-panel wooden door opens into a central hall running the depth of the house. In the middle an elliptical arch with molded soffit panels and reeded wood trim and keystones. A similar arch on the adjacent wall leads into the stair hall. Flooring throughout the first story is four-inch (10 cm) wooden board with the plaster walls covered by reproduction wallpaper.
On either side of the center hall are two large rooms. The southwest room is decorated to approximate the building's original function as a land office. Wooden shutters for the 12-over-12 at the center of the tripartite window are on the adjacent interior walls. The doors and windows have reed surrounds with molded corner blocks. The west wall's fireplace mantel has a classical entablature, Doric columns and a glazed brick hearth. Next to the chimney breast are French doors leading into the northwest room. A closed portion in the northeast corner houses the original circular stairway.
The northwest room is currently the Le Roy Historical Society's office. Another six-panel wooden door with molded surround opens into it from the center hall. Its west wall fireplace has a wood mantel with reeded pilasters and molded square corner blocks. To its north a built-in bookcase spans the wall. The east wall has a kitchen unit, and the room is floored in linoleum.
East of the center hall, the two parlors have the greatest degree of decoration. The smaller southeast one has ornate wooden surrounds and plaster cornice moldings at the ceiling. The tripartite window is recessed and flanked by fluted pilasters. On the east the fireplace mantel has a classical entablature and engaged Ionic columns.
A ten-foot-wide (3 m) cased opening separates the two eastern parlors. It has some of the same decorative motifs seen elsewhere on the first floor, such as reed molding and molded corner blocks, along with a molded inset panel at the center. From the front, a classical entablature and Tuscan columns frame the view to the tripartite window in the rear. Along its sides, lined with shallow molded wood paneling, are shallow closets.
In the northeast parlor, the tripartite window is similarly recessed and flanked by pilasters. The fireplace mantel has an inset molded panel, classical entablature and engaged Tuscan columns. On either side are the six-over-six windows with reeded pilaster finish and molded corner blocks. Another six-panel wooden door opens into the center hall.
On the second floor, an identical arch spans the center hall south of the top of the stair. The decoration is more restrained, with simpler door and window surrounds and a ceiling medallion in the north section of the hall made of concentric circles. The same wide flooring planks are used everywhere on the floor except for the bathroom. All rooms are accessed by six-paneled wooden doors with half-glazing consisting of hand-painted frosted glass depicting landscapes, ruins, birds or animals.
A storage space has been created from part of the southeast bedroom, which has a fireplace with plain wood mantel. It is currently used to exhibit a collection of period children's toys. The similar bedroom across the hall is now used as a research library. Its northeast corner has also been partitioned to create a bathroom with wooden wainscoting along its walls.
The largest of the second floor bathrooms, the northeast one, has a fireplace with a Federal style mantel featuring classical entablature, inset molded panel and flanking pilasters. The molding on the door surround is the most detailed of any on the floor. It is currently used for storage. The bedroom across the hall has period furnishings and is used as an exhibit. Its mantel is similar.
Upstairs, the third floor is closed to the public and used for storage of collection material not currently on exhibit. It has a center hall dividing three small rooms on the west side from a large ballroom on the east. A small alcove projects from the west side of that room. There is extra storage space beneath the eaves on the north and south. The walls and ceilings are done in plaster.
From the rear of the stair hall on the first floor, another set of stairs leads down to the basement. It, too, has a center hall with six rooms. Three are open to the public and used for exhibits. In the southeast is a kitchen exhibit, in accordance with the bake oven in the open fireplace and open shelving along the east and north walls. It has a stone floor, plaster walls, and wooden shiplap ceiling.
In the southwest corner of the basement is the oldest room in the house, used for cold storage. It has a stone floor and vaulted brick ceiling, with walls of mortared limestone. To its north is a smaller vaulted room with a brick vault on the main floor, formerly the site of the cistern that collected rainwater from the roof.
The northwest room houses a ceramics exhibit, and has exposed blue shale in its west wall. Opposite, in the northeast, is the boiler room. The remaining room, in the center of the west side below the stairwell, is a small bathroom.
School
The school building is a three-story five-by-eight-bay limestone building with wooden interior framing. It is topped by an asphalt hipped roof with flared eaves and exposed rafter tails. Its raised basement has larger blocks and is separated by a water table.
At the south end of the west elevation is the current main entrance. It has a porch with a concrete deck, metal staircase and guiderails. Its roof is done in beaded wood paneling similar to that once used inside the school. The surrounding masonry work is different since the door was added later. Fenestration on that side consists of three aligned pairs of double-hung sash windows, one-over-one at the basement and first story, and two six-over-ones flanking a wooden door on the second.
On the east (rear) are aligned windows, likewise six one-over-one on the first story and seven six-over-one on the second. The basement windows have been bricked in, as has the first-story window at the north end. The same pattern of six-over-one above one-over-one obtains on the north side, with the three windows to the west being narrower. At the first story's northeast corner is a secondary entrance with a vinyl siding enclosure. It leads to the basement. The south, the side facing the street, is similar to the other faces except for having two narrow windows in the westernmost bay. All its windows have rock-faced lintels and smooth sills.
Interior
The paneled main entrance door, with single-light sidelights and transom, opens into a hall running along the west side. It is currently used as a gift shop and admission area for the museum. In the wider central portion of the hall is the freestanding chimney, its breast faced in plaster, with turned wooden cornerbeads and beaded fir wainscoting. A small administrative office is in the southwest corner.