Historic Lake Avenue

In 1884, Heman Blasdell of North Collins came to the developing Lake Avenue community and built a four-story hotel on the north side of what was then a crude dirt road near the Erie RR tracks. The construction of the Blasdell Hotel set in motion events that led to the emergence of the village's first commercial district. By 1890, the Lake Avenue strip, bounded by LaBelle Avenue on the east and the Erie RR tracks on the west, was complete. By the time the village was incorporated in 1898, the main commercial buildings on the south side included the Stambach Block, housing a grocery and several apartments, the Stutts hardware store and a separate stove shop, the W.F. Salisbury building, housing a real estate office and the village post office, and the Grange hall, containing a grocery and an undertaking business. On the north side were the hotel, a barber shop, two private residences, and a house that later became the site of the village post office.

Blasdell, New York · United States