41 South Street

The lot on which this house is located was owned, prior to 1876, by Martin Brimmer. Martin Brimmer was a resident of Boston, a prominent man of considerable wealth and one of the founders of the Boston Museum of Fine Art. His father had married Harriet Wadsworth, a daughter of the pioneer James who settled here in 1790. After his parents’ deaths he inherited property in Geneseo and continued an attachment to the village, especially the Wadsworth Library of which he was a founding trustee. It was he who gave the library the bronze statue of “Theseus Slaying the Centaur” by Antoin-Louis Barye in 1869.

A deed shows that he transferred this lot to the Wadsworth Library in 1876. In an 1885 copy of the Livingston Republican it was reported that “Ground has been broken for a new house on South Street just east of Judge Hubbard.” (The Hubbards lived at 39 South Street).]

A map from 1902 indicates that this property was occupied by the Presbyterian Society. A deed dated 1918 records the transfer of 41 South Street from the Wadsworth Library to Isabelle Valle Austin. Mrs. Austin and her husband had built Sweetbriar on the Mt. Morris Rd. in 1887-98. After they divorced in 1910, Mrs. Austin purchased 39 South Street for her residence. In 1945 she sold her residence (39 South Street) to Mr. and Mrs. Donald Sanders and 41 South Street to Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Culbertson.