LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - APRIL 09, 2023 by Lynne Belluscio Some of you might have noticed some stone pillars along West Bergen Road. There are several on the east side of the road, and four on the west side. Someone asked about them on LeRoy Then and Now and I responded that I was pretty sure they were part of the Butler farm that was in the area. I knew I had written a Pennysaver article about them and luckily Lori Merica had kept the article. Tom Dreyer who lived at the Cheshire Cheese on Randall Road, was interested in early golf courses in LeRoy and he found some information in the LeRoy Gazette which he shared with me quite a while ago. The LeRoy Gazette mentioned a golf course on West Bergen Road. It had been built by Edward Butler, owner of the Buffalo Evening News. He had grown up in LeRoy and when he owned the Buffalo Evening News, he lived in Buffalo, but he had purchased the huge Lampson mansion on West Main Street for his country house (This house was located where the Save A Lot is now.) He owned several carriages, which included a coach which he kept in LeRoy on his farm on West BergenRoad. His brother,Ambrose, maintained the farm. Tom Dreyer had talked with Charles and Betty Habgood about the farm and the golf course. They remembered the large cement pillars that marked the entrance to the golf course. Tom also talked with Charlie Hines who lived on the West Bergen Road. Charlie told Tom about the “club house” which was on the west side of the road where the trailer park is now. The club house had been built of materials from the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo. The materials had been loaded onto a railroad car in Buffalo and unloaded near the overpass on Route 19 at the railroad station (Near today’s Crockers’s Hardware Store) and then carted to West Bergen Road. According to an article that Tom found in the 1919 LeRoyGazette, the club housewas the former Dominican Building (I’ve been told that Larry Munt has a photo of the club house.) In 1901, Edward Butler asked if he could rent the village steamroller for his golf course. He was told it would cost $4 and that the village would pay the engineer. Apparently, that didn’t set too well with the Village Board who questioned the advisability of renting the machine for private purposes but since the deal had been made, Butler had the use of the steam roller. The golf course – or at least the club house had a bad reputation and was known as the “course of ill repute”, known for the ladies of the evening. There are other pillars in LeRoy. There are several along North Street at Machpelah Cemetery. These pillars are built of carved “rusticated” local limestone and are capped with carved large balls. The pillars are like the pillars on East Main Street that are at the entrance to Woodward Drive. These pillars mark the entrance to the former Woodward estate owned by Orator Woodward and his son Ernest. Don Woodward’s estate, on East Main Road, now known as Mercygrove, are marked by brick pillars. There are several cement pillars on the East side of Route 19 as you travel south to Pavilion. These pillars mark the boundary of the house behind which was completely built of cement now owned by Bob and Anne Walters. It was believed that the house would be fireproof if built of cement. There are some new pillars in the village, including the entrance to the former home of Helen Woodward on East Main Road next to the golf course. Further up the street are the new pillars at the entrance to the newly renovated Schuyler Wells house. Pillars in Our Community
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