Bullis, Charles, House

About this property

Charles Bullis House is a historic home located at Macedon in Wayne County, New York. The Federal style, cobblestone house consists of a 2-story main block with a 1+1⁄2-story frame wing. It was built about 1839 and is constructed of irregular, rough, moderate sized cobbles. The house is among the approximately 170 surviving cobblestone buildings in Wayne County. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The Charles Bullis House (1839–42) is a well-preserved, architecturally significant representative example of nineteenth century cobblestone residential architecture. Cobblestone construction in the pre-Civil War period is almost exclusively found in the Western and Central New York region. One of the 170 surviving cobblestone buildings in Wayne County, its design incorporates both Federal and Greek Revival style features, as was common in vernacular buildings of the 1830s. The location of the house reflects the typical pattern of nineteenth century settlement of Wayne County. The farm site is situated adjacent to the Barge Canal (originally, the Erie Canal) on a major historic north–south road linking the village of Macedon and Macedon Center with the Lake Ontario shore, and one-half mile from the principal and historic east–west travel route (Rt. 31) traversing the southern portion of Wayne County. The house remained virtually intact and under the ownership of the Bullis Family until 1984. Charles H. Bullis, his wife Ellen, and children, Abraham, Emma, and Keley, left Manchester Vermont in November 1838 to journey west to settle in Ohio. They traveled across New York State by canal boat on the Erie Canal and stopped at Macedon to visit Charles's sister. They decided to settle there, and, on April 1, 1839, Charles purchased a 59-acre farm adjacent to the Erie Canal from Charles and Lydia Smith for $2,631.64. Little is known about Charles Bullis. Like many farmers from New England, Bullis presumably left the rocky soils of Vermont to seek richer farm lands. In Macedon, Wayne County, he found a milder climate, fertile soils enriched by the nearby Mud Creek, which were favorable for growing wheat and corn and raising livestock, as well as the convenience of conveying produce to markets by canal. In addition, the property was only one-half mile from the main east–west road which ran between Pittsford and Palmyra, and situated on a major north–south road to the Lake Ontario shore. When the Bullis family first settled on the farm, it is believed that they lived in a small, one-story frame building that had been moved from a former Erie Canal work camp settlement located on the property near the canal to the site of the present frame ell on the west side of the main portion of the house. During the 1983 restoration, the east wall of the existing frame ell was removed, exposing the west wall of the cobblestone house. The outline of a one-story frame building was evident as large stones and rough mortar filled the space within the outline, indicating an inside wall; above the outline showed the finished cobblestone which was originally the outside wall of the main house.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Wayne County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Wayne County.

More historic places in New York

Browse all historic places in New York.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

New York history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.