41 Second Street

About 1826, the house at 41 Second Street was built by Samuel Gardiner.  Samuel Gardiner came to Geneseo in 1823 at the age of 40 and became a successful cabinet maker with a shop on Main Street.  He retired at age 70 and sold his house to Alvenus Cone in 1851.

Mr. Cone operated a store on the west side of Main Street. He was the great grandfather of the late Esther Campbell.  He made changes and additions to the house and sold it to William Bond in 1853 for $4,250.00.  The cupola was thought to have been added at this time.  William Bond was a successful business man.  He died in 1865 and in 1866 his widow, Rhoda, sold the house to Hezikiah Allen, a land agent for the Wadsworth family.  In 1867, Mr. Allen sold it to Charles Bowditch, attorney for Mrs. Evelyn Wadsworth (mother of the late Craig Wadsworth).  He moved to Boston and Mrs. Wadsworth purchased the house.  In 1881, she sold it to Mrs. Robert (Sarah McBride) Sherlock.  Mrs. Sherlock was a Geneseo native who moved to Rochester when she married in 1876.  Her husband died in 1880 and she returned to Geneseo with her son, Robert, and daughter Hildegarde.  Robert later became a talented architect who designed several houses in Geneseo.  Upon Mrs. Sherlock’s death, the house became the property of her children.  Robert had moved to New York and Hildegarde resided here for a time. In 1947 she sold it to Dr. Alfred Hall, a Geneseo dentist.  Mr. and Mrs. John Mould purchased the house in 1961.  They removed the lattice work around the back steps.  Today, this house shows both the older Federal and later Italianate characteristics of a cupola and brackets.