Former cold storage building recognized

21 Sep

In our daily lives, we frequently walk by or drive by things of historical significance without even realizing it.

Such is the case with the building at 206 North Ave. in the Village of Webster. Most of us know it as Climate Controlled Self Storage, or “that place where you can rent U-Hauls.” Fewer of us realize the building has a long and rich history in our village, a history that recently earned it recognition as the Webster Village Historic Preservation Commission’s September Site of the Month.

In the early 1920s, the building at 206 North Ave. was known as Webster Cold Storage, a cooperative created by local apple growers including Louis Kittelberger, George Hosenfeld, William Stokes, George Dunn and Earl Wright. In her book Webster Through the Years, Esther Dunn reported that the building had about 400,000 cubic feet of space, enough for 50,000 barrels of apples.

Over the next four decades, the Cold Storage building saw many changes in both the facility itself and the products stored there. In 1923, an addition was made to install an ice-making tank, and years later, more than half of the space was converted from coolers to locker space. The variety of produce stored there over the years is impressive: apples, cherries, grapes, peaches, prunes, berries, currants, all sorts of vegetables, and even seafood.

Before it closed in March 1965, Webster Cold Storage had become a true community business. Even individual residents leased some space for their own use.

But the building’s history is not the only reason it was recognized by the Historic Preservation Commission. Members of the commission choose their Sites of the Month based not just on the site’s history, but also what its current owner has done to maintain and improve the property.

The building’s present owner, Dimitri Stefanou, has made significant improvements since purchasing it in 2002. It needed a lot of repairs, and when Stefanou started planning how to redevelop the property, he decided to return it to its original purpose, storage, saying that he hoped “to once again make (the) building a landmark.”

Stefanou put windows along the front of the building and added an office, and even managed to build the storage units around existing pillars. But the top two floors were still empty, and rather than turning them into storage units as well, Stefanou decided to take the renovations to a whole new level and create luxury apartments.

The Lofts of Webster was created, 20 luxury units on the third and fourth floors, complete with a private resident entrance, a porte cochere, a new elevator and fitness area. Outside, he added a vegetable garden, a flower garden, and a huge picnic table for the residents to enjoy.

The improvements are kind of a reincarnation for this historic building, assuring its position once again as an vital part of the Webster Village community.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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(posted 9/21/2022)

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Sloppy, muddy, mucky fun at the Rec Center

18 Sep

Webster Parks and Recreation did it again, devising a very successful, tremendously fun and unique event that the whole family could enjoy.

I’m talking about last Saturday morning’s second annual Mud Run, held along the lawns and walking paths behind the Rec Center on Chiyoda Dr. The two-hour event drew several hundred children and adults of all ages, who payed $5 each for the privilege of scrambling over obstacles, wading through muddy streams and combat-crawling through pits filled with about six inches of muck.

I was one of those hundreds of people, and boy was it a blast. To the Rec Center’s credit, there were ways around most of the obstacles or mud pits for anyone who really wanted to take advantage of them. But most everybody embraced the opportunity to go a little crazy and get as muddy as they could. Several groups went through three or four times. (I only did it twice.)

Fresh from their success at the Mud Run, Rec Center staffers have turned their attention to this year’s Third Annual Pumpkins on Parade, scheduled for Saturday Oct. 29.

This is an amazing, family-friendly Halloween-time event, when the Chiyoda Trail is lined with creative, scary, and downright funny jack-o-lanterns. Community members and businesses are encouraged to carve up some pumpkins, drop them off at the Rec Center that morning, and then come back that evening with the family to look for them along the mile-long trail which winds around the back of the property. Afterwards, everyone gets free donuts and cider.

More info to come about this in the next few weeks, but start thinking about now about how you want to carve your pumpkins!

Thank you to my friend Patty Wyble for the photos above.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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(posted 9/18/2022)

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Webster’s very own “My Evil Twin” to perform at the Fringe Festival

15 Sep

Two former Webster Schroeder students (class of ’74) are teaming up at the Rochester Fringe Festival to perform a funny, fast-moving mini-musical, based on their lives growing up as identical twin brothers.

Jim and John Demler are both opera singers, so the show, which they call My Evil Twin, will naturally include a little bit of opera. But it will be blended with elements of Broadway and pop and (according to the Facebook event page), will “provide the twins the chance to unleash their virtuosic basso voices with madcap energy and emotion.”

The page describes My Evil Twin the show as

an intimate musical …. Funny, poignant, and adventurous, My Evil Twin exposes tenderness and vulnerability beneath masculine bravado as the twins tell the story of their lives in words and song. It is a tribute to sibling love.

Members of the Class of ’74 may remember Jim and John Demler, especially since John wrote they were both “above-average athletes,” albeit only “mediocre students.” They both played in the Ridgecrest Elementary orchestra under the baton of Jeff Frasier, and both went to school not to study music, but to become teachers.

The show we are performing at the Fringe Festival was written for us, and is a funny, brief chronicle of our lives as twins and performers. We have remained best friends throughout our 65 years, but this essentially the first show we’ve ever done where we’ve sung duets together.

My Evil Twin will be performed at the Geva Theatre Center on Wednesday Sept. 21 at 5:30 p.m. and Thursday Sept. 22 at 9 p.m. Tickets for the 75-minute show are $18 for adults, $12 for students. They can be purchased online here, by phone at (585) 957-9837 (fees apply), at the door or at the box office at the corner of Main and Gibbs.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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(posted 9/14/2022)

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Webster community mailbag

14 Sep

I’m going to begin today’s mailbag with lots of stuff from the Webster Public Library. I haven’t blogged about them much recently, but it’s NOT because there’s nothing going on over there. Actually, there are so many new programs happening at the library, I’m just going to kind of list them, and you can get even more detail from the flyers posted below.

  • Thursday Sept. 15, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.: Classical Guitar Salon. Bring your guitar and meet other guitarists of all ages to socialize, share and perform. Registration is requested.
  • Saturday, Sept. 17, from 2 to 3 p.m.: a parenting program from Parent to Parent called Understanding OPWDD Support Services (Office for People with Developmental Disabilities). Especially for parents of children with developmental disabilities.
  • Tuesday, Sept. 20, from 2 to 3 p.m.: Practical Tips for Aging in Place, a discussion offering practical tips, strategies and home modifications to allow you — or your loved ones — to age in place. Registration is required.
  • Thursday Oct. 6 through Saturday Oct. 9, the Webster Public Library Fall Book Sale returns, with an incredible variety of books at more incredible prices. More to come about this, but check out the flyer below for more information.

Here are some follow-up reminders about some things I’ve already blogged in more detail about. If you’re interested in any of them, click through to the original blog.

  • The Webster Recreation Center has two family-friendly events this week. The first is a concert at the Arboretum on Thursday Sept. 15 at 6 p.m., featuring the wonderful folk/pop duo Doctor’s Orders. Bring chairs, a blanket (it’s getting cooler in the evenings) and a cooler if you want. There’s no admission fee.
  • On Saturday Sept. 17, from 10 a.m. to noon, the Rec will hold its second annual Mud Run, a fun one-mile, non-competitive run through mud and obstacles. I’m definitely going to be there this year. Cost is $5/person for lots of laughs.
  • The Red Hot and Blue Band will hold a benefit concert at the village gazebo on Sunday Sept. 18, beginning at 3 p.m. There’s no admission fee, but free will donations will be taken at the concert, with all proceeds to benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
  • Get your German on at the Challenger Miracle Field Oktoberfest, Friday and Saturday Sept. 16 and 17, Webster Firemen’s Field. The two-day event runs from noon to 10 p.m. each day and will have lots of great German bands and German food. Admission is $9, free for children 12 and under.

And finally, don’t forget about two big garage sales happening this weekend.

The Webster Hope, Inc. Garage Sale is going on today through Saturday Sept. 17 at Holy Trinity Church, 1460 Ridge Rd. Webster. And the annual Webster Museum Barn Sale runs Thursday, Sept. 15 through Saturday Sept. 17 on Phillips Rd. Click here to read about this incredible sale, which is the museum’s largest fundraiser of the year.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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(posted 9/14/2022)

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It’s FINALLY Barn Sale time!

13 Sep

I’ve long been impressed by the volunteers at the Webster Museum. The challenges they tackle every week curating, organizing, sorting, setting up displays, serving as docents — all designed to keep Webster’s history alive for us all — take a lot of work and incredible dedication. But all that pales in comparison to the monumental task these volunteers tackle every year at Barn Sale time.

For weeks, the museum invited community members to drop their donations off at the barn on Phillips Rd. in anticipation of the sale, which takes place later this week. When I drove by a few weeks ago to drop some stuff off, I had a chance to pop into the big barn.

The sight was overwhelming. Toys and dishes and tools and books and dolls and home decorations were EVERYWHERE, stacked on tables in piles and boxes. I’m sure the barn sale volunteers could see some method to the madness, but all I saw was an organizational challenge of monumental proportions.

Over the last couple of weeks, however, these amazing folks tackled that challenge and turned confusion into orderliness, evidenced by the email I recently got from museum volunteer Kathy Taddeo. She provided a tantalizing example of some of the beautiful items shoppers will find at the sale: an elegant teacup and saucer collection, and a Boyd Bears collection.

They’re just a few of the thousands of items shoppers will discover, so many that they’ll not only fill the big barn, but also the carriage house and two adjacent barns, and even spill out onto the lawns.

Shoppers will find glassware, crafts, ceramics, lamps, dolls and jewelry, holiday wares, outdoor and garden care, books, music, electronics, paintings, toys and games, sports equipment, furniture, bikes and trikes, auto, tools and hardware and more, at really low prices.

The sale will run Thursday and Friday Sept. 15 and 16 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday Sept. 17 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 394 Phillips Rd.  Please bring your own shopping bags and small bills!!!! This is the Webster Museum’s biggest fundraiser of the year, so come ready to shop!

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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(posted 9/13/2022)

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Bonus gazebo concert this weekend will benefit St. Jude

12 Sep

Anyone who loves good music and good causes will want to hear about this weekend’s concert at the gazebo.

I’m calling it a “bonus” concert because it’s not one of the regular Friday-night gazebo concerts sponsored by the Webster BID, but a brand new event developed by the very popular Red Hot and Blue Band, featuring Village of Webster resident Doug Pucci.

Red Hot and Blue will be performing at the village gazebo on North Ave. on Sunday afternoon Sept. 18 at 3 p.m., to benefit St. Jude Childrens’ Hospital.

Pucci told me the band decided to host a St. Jude benefit concert for a couple of reasons. For starters, his daughter-in-law worked as a nurse for St. Jude for several years, and during that time the band grew close to the organization. But mostly, it’s just a terrific cause that everyone can get behind, especially this month, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

The band’s Facebook page explained,

Thanks to you donors like you, no family ever receives a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.

Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago.

Admission is free; donations in any amount will be taken during the show. The band will also have t-shirts and stickers for sale, with all profits going straight to St. Jude. If you can’t make the show, you can also made donations directly by clicking here and then the “Find Tickets” button.

So grab your chairs, blankets and coolers, and enjoy some sweet, late-summer music by the Red Hot and Blue Band this Sunday. (Remember, the Bills aren’t playing until Monday. You’ll need something to do.)

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 9/12/2022)

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The Rec Center brings you music and mud this week

11 Sep

The Webster Parks and Recreation Center has got a couple of fun and entertaining events coming up this week.

The first is the Rec Center’s next Music in the Park concert at the gazebo at the Arboretum, 1700 Schlegel Rd. This week’s concert will be presented by Doctor’s Orders, featuring my good friends Dave and Patty Wyble.

Doctor’s Orders is an acoustic folk and pop duo playing a variety of songs from the Beatles to John Prine, and pretty much everything in between. They’re a delightful duo which everyone will enjoy.

The concert will be held Thursday Sept. 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Arboretum. It’s free and open to the public. Bring a chair or a blanket, fill a cooler with dinner and drinks, and enjoy a pleasant evening of music.

Click here to find out more about Doctor’s Orders.

Then, don’t forget that this Saturday Sept. 17 is the second annual Webster Recreation Center Mud Run.

The Mud Run is a a non-competitive, untimed, one-mile run/walk along the Recreation Center’s obstacle course/fitness trail which loops around the back of the facility. Some of the run will be through water and mud, and there will be some challenging obstacles. What’s really neat about it is that kids and their adults can do it together. It’s only $5 per person, and the organizers promise that there’ll be swag, fun and food.

Click here to register. You can sign up for any 15-minute wave between 10 a.m. and noon. The Webster Recreation Center is located at 1350 Chiyoda Drive, off of Phillips Rd.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 9/11/2022)

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A new business is moving into the village: My Roommates Closet

10 Sep

You know how sometimes you search the stores forever looking for that perfect outfit for your big night on the town, and you finally find it in your friend’s closet? That’s the thinking behind the Village of Webster’s newest shop, My Roommates Closet, opening in October at 19 East Main St.

The new clothing store, located in the former Village HandWorks storefront, is owned by 23-year old Nicole Iorio, a recent St. John Fisher graduate with a degree in business marketing. A self-described shopaholic, Nicole’s vision is to share her love of clothing and fashion with women of all ages, help them discover new and different styles to add to their closets and to find that “missing piece” they’ve been looking for.

Her plan is to offer a mixture of styles, from street wear to lounging-around clothes to going-out clothes, much like what you’d find in, well, your roommate’s closet. But more than anything else, Nicole wants the women who wear her clothes to feel confident and comfortable at all times.

At just 23 years old, this is Nicole’s first experience at opening a storefront, but not her first experience in running a successful business. She actually created My Roommates Closet a little over a year ago as an online store, which she’s also taken on the road to several flea markets. Even from the beginning of that venture, she knew she wanted to eventually combine her marketing degree with her love of fashion and open a brick-and-mortar shop. But no way did she expect it to happen so soon.

It was actually a haircut that put things into motion.

“I get my hair done right next door at Main Street Beauty Lounge,” Nicole remembered. “I was sitting there back in May, and I saw that 19 East Main St. opened up. I was thinking about moving my business into a store, but not this soon. I was going to wait a bit, but the place opened up and this area is so cute.”

“When I saw that location, I thought yeah, I think I want to do this.” So she got in touch with the landlord, took a look at the space, and just three months later had signed the lease.  

Nicole hopes to open her new shop sometime in October, but there’s still a lot to do. Newly-painted ceiling tiles have to be reinstalled, lights have to be swapped out, changing rooms built, walls painted and floors redone. She’s discovering that opening a new business is a complicated endeavor, involving a hundred little unforseen details from getting on Google to replacing outlet covers. And on top of all everything else, she’s taking a night class to complete her Master’s degree in Business Marketing.

Fortunately, she’s getting a lot of help and support from her family and friends. “I’m here for it,” she said. “I love it. I love the whole process, It’s very stressful, but I love it.”

My Roommates Closet is located at 19 East Main St. in the Village of Webster. It doesn’t look like much yet, but stay tuned for updates. In the meantime, you can check out the shop online. You’ll find My Roommates Closet here on the website, and also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Pinterest.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 9/9/2022)

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The Village Quilt Shoppe is celebrating their 3rd anniversary!

9 Sep

I know, right?

It sure hasn’t seemed like it’s been three years since Vanetta Parshall and Monique Liberti opened their cute, friendly little Village Quilt Shoppe at the corner of East Main and Lapham Park in the village. It might seem like that to them, though, since it wasn’t always smooth sailing.

Just three months after they opened their doors in August 2019, and just days before the Village of Webster’s White Christmas celebration, disaster struck when a water leak from the apartment above the shop came through the floor and destoyed much of their merchandise. They had to close for almost a month to regroup and restock. But, determined not to lose their dream shop, they persevered and survived that early setback.

Then COVID struck, and they had to close again for three more months.

Somehow (well, we know how: loyal customers), the little business navigated a global pandemic and came back stronger than ever.

So this week they’ve been celebrating their last three somewhat difficult years and their bright future, by offering special sales on fabric, a By Annie trunk show, and gifts and cake for everyone who walks in the store on Saturday Sept. 10.

The trunk show has a waiting list right now, but all of the By Annie products will be in the shop for the rest of the month, so you can still check them out.

Make sure to check out the Webster Quilt Shoppe website for all of the latest news and class schedules. And be sure to stop in this Saturday Sept. 10 to congratulate Monique and Vanetta on their third anniversary.

The Village Quilt Shoppe is located at 21 E. Main St. in the Village of Webster. They’ll be open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Check out some of these then-and-now photos. I took the first ones in August, 2019. The last three are from this week, three years later.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 9/9/2022)

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The Ukraine still needs our help

8 Sep

As always, the town’s Webster This Week newsletter, published online every week, was a wealth of information. I’m often grabbing mailbag notices from there or finding out about something important that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. (Kudos to Karen Buck for doing an outstanding job with the newsletter every week!)

This week’s newsletter was no different. It featured, across three pages, a reminder that the crisis in the Ukraine continues, and the people there still need our help desperately.

Specifically, RocMaidan, who has taken the lead in collecting and shipping supplies to the war-torn country, is looking for medical supplies, clothing, sleeping bags, diapers and wipes, small toys, water bottles, and more.

Rather than just regurgitate everything that was in those pages, I’ve posted them below. Please take a moment to click through to each of them and see where you might be able to help out.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 9/7/2022)

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