23 Center Street

The original clapboard house on this site was purchased in 1864 by James and Isabel Oliver Park. They lived here for over 20 years where they raised three sons and a daughter. Mr. Park died in 1887 and his wife a year later. By this time the property was owned by their son Fred who that same year sold the existing house and erected a new one on the site. He occupied it only a short time when his health forced him to move west where he became eminently successful and eventually became lieutenant governor of Colorado. George Perkins purchased the house in 1894 and in 1897 he sold it to Louis and Alice La Roulette. Mr. La Roulette was associated with E. J. Forbes, a prominent Geneseo contractor. In 1922 they sold the house to Bertha Smith. In 1928 she purchased a house on North Street and sold this one to Ralph and Bessie Shumway. At the time it was advertised as an “8 room house and lot on Center Street, 5 bedrooms and all modern conveniences.”  In 1944 the Shumways sold the house to Temple Hill Cemetery Association, which held it for two years before selling to Pearl Scott, who conducted a beauty shop here until 1961.