The DeLand Family Develops Fairport's Four Corners

In 1876, Fairport industrialist Henry DeLand built a mansion for his family on one side of South Main Street and specified aspects of the design of the First Baptist Church on the opposite side. DeLand made his fortune manufacturing baking soda in Fairport and lost it in a Florida orange grove freeze in the 1890's. His Second Empire house, with a tower, porches, and many fireplaces, was one of the grandest private residences in western New York. After several private owners, including the Clark family, the DeLand Mansion opened as the Green Lantern Inn sometime after 1928 and has since served as a restaurant, speakeasy, rooming house, and banquet hall. The First Baptist Church was built at the same time as the mansion, and the DeLand family donated the rose window and paid more than one-third of the church's construction cost, stipulating that the church doors and mansion doors be directly across from one another.

Fairport, New York · United States