© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan, March 2012. All rights reserved.
Archibald D. and Abigail Cook Owners: circa 1850s to 1860s
Archibald D., or “A. D.” Cook, his wife Abigail and daughter, Louise, lived in this house in 1860, according to Federal Census and village maps. “A. D.” by that time was retired and listed his occupation as “Gentleman.” We know little else about this family except that they migrated to this area from New England. Both “A. D.” and his wife died in 1865 and are buried in the Brockport Cemetery. Their daughter, Louise, isn’t listed in the burial records there so we can only surmise that she either married or moved from the village and was buried elsewhere.
Mark, Annis Dunekin and Mary A. French Owners: mid-1860s to mid-1900s
Mark and his family were also New England transplants who came to the area and purchased land from Heil Brockway. The 1840 Federal Census listed the family of three
with one member employed in agriculture. By the 1860s, however, they had moved into this Park Avenue home, which would remain in the family until their daughter, Mary’s departure in 1913, when she moved to Coldwater, Michigan, to live with her cousins.
Mark French, for all the years he was a village resident, was employed as a carpenter and joiner. At this same time, the Cooley family owned and operated a window and sash business and several residents in the Park Avenue area were also carpenters and joiners. Other than his occupation, little is known of French. He apparently held no village offices; served on no committees and was only mentioned in the press when he passed away in 1873 at the age of 79, having reportedly been a village resident for 42 years. His daughter, Mary’s funeral service was held in the Presbyterian Church, to which he and his wife may or may not have belonged.
Following the death of Mark French, his widow and daughter continued to live in the family home. Neither ever listed an occupation other than “keeping house.” Mary French lived alone in the house following the death of her mother until she left the state to live with her cousin. Even with information from her death certificate, nothing could be discovered to trace the history of her family, which remains as much a mystery as the details of her life. A large marble monument in the Brockport Cemetery marks the family’s final resting place.
John Wesley and Mary L. Burroughs Owners: circa 1920 to 1924
John W. Burroughs was a Brockport native. His father, a shoemaker, died at a relatively young age. Burroughs, his second wife, Mary, mother and son, Wesley Raymond, however, didn’t live here long. By the 1930 Federal Census, we find that John had passed away and Mary was living on Park Avenue but with her sister, Phoebe Palmer. Burroughs was a railroad employee who later became a “real estate dealer.” Son Wesley, the only surviving child of Burroughs’ first marriage, had already left home by the time his father died. He was a talented and nationally acclaimed organist who at first made his living playing music to accompany silent pictures in Rochester’s first movie theaters. He was an organist for various Rochester churches and gave numerous local recitals.
Several generations of the Burroughs family are buried in the Brockport cemetery. Wesley, the one surviving child, lived a long life, died in Rochester at 86 and is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery.
Kenneth and Ada Cook Heinrich Owners: mid-1920s to mid-1930s
Kenneth Heinrich was a Brockport native and Rochester businessman. Newspaper photos show him as a young man on the Brockport Normal and Brockport Independents basketball teams, where he was a substitute forward and the Brockport Normal School served as the local high school.
Heinrich’s first occupation was listed as “office supply salesman.” He started in business during the 1920s with “The Pencraft Shoppe” and eventually became Chairman of Heinrich-Seibold Stationery Company. His wife was a public school teacher.
In addition to his business, Heinrich was a member of the Lakeside Hospital Board of Directors and was elected secretary of the board multiple times during the 1950s. He and his wife remained village residents but not at the Park Avenue house. They are buried at Lakeside Cemetery.
Epilogue 2012
As with many other village residences, the house at 107 Park Avenue sits on a much smaller lot today than it originally had when it was constructed. It retains all the charm and character of an older village residence that has been carefully tended through many years. Today, it looks out over the carefully landscaped and tended public park that calls on us to remember our cherished past.
© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan, March 2012. All rights reserved.
Editor's note: 107 Park Avenue is currently owned by Sunny and Gary Levandowski, is zoned single family and is assessed at $133,300.00.
The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays. It is written and copyrighted by Carol Hannan and produced by Pam Ketchum. The historic houses of Brockport can also be seen on the ProBrockport web site at www.probrockport.org.
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