43 South Street

A notice in the local paper in March 1886 noted that Mary Ross had moved into her house on South Street. A deed search showed that the paper was referring to 43 South Street. A later deed indicated that she sold it to Dr. and Mrs. Frank E. Welles in 1890.

Dr. Welles came to Geneseo as a student in the fall of 1871, along with four other members of the senior class at Brockport State Normal. They followed their teacher, Dr. William J. Milne when he came here to open the Geneseo State Normal as its first president. All five graduated in June of 1872 as members of the first class of G.S.N. After graduation Dr. Welles taught in Nunda and later in Utica before returning to Geneseo to accept a teaching position here.

In 1916 the house was sold to John Scondras.  John Scondras was born in Greece in 1886. When he was eight years old, he stowed away in a ship’s coal basket and came to America. With his homeland at war, at age 24 he joined the Greek Army, was wounded twice, and returned to America. He worked in Rochester and Fairport before coming to Geneseo in 1913 where he opened a soda fountain and ice cream store on Main Street, which he later expanded to include a restaurant next door on the north. John Scondras died in 1937, but the business was continued by his wife, his brother, and later his son.