The iconic wishing well that was located on the front lawn of the well-known Wishing Well Restaurant and Party House, which stood for decades at 1190 Chili Avenue, will be rededicated at its new location on the front lawn of the Gates Community Center, 1605 Buffalo Road, on Saturday, June 10 with music by members of the Gates Chili High School band at 10 a.m. and the rededication ceremony at 11 a.m.
Gates Police Officer Lance Duffy will serve as master of ceremonies.Kimberle Ward, Superintendent of the Gates Chili Central School District, will be the keynote speaker. The Gates Police Color Guard will present the colors. Deacon Angelo Coccia, chaplain of the Gates Police Department, will deliver the invocation.
“Everyone is welcome to the rededication ceremony,” said Gates Town Historian William A. Gillette. “We’re especially hoping that couples who had their wedding receptions at the Wishing Well – and who had their wedding pictures taken outdoors at the wishing well itself – would be able to be with us and have their photos taken again at the well – a real ‘then and now’ experience for everyone.”
A new owner with other plans purchased the Wishing Well restaurant property in 2016 and began demolishing the structure. Gillette intervened and asked the wrecking company if the town could save the wishing well as a remembrance and a historical treasure. Gillette loaded up the pieces of the well and brought them to the Gates Community Center where local craftspeople and Town of Gates staff have been reconstructing the artifact.
Gates Supervisor Mark W. Assini said that the town encourages couples who had their wedding photographs taken at the wishing well to send them to the historian’s office for a display in the Town Hall.
The history of the Wishing Well dates back to shortly after the Civil War when New York State sold the land on Lot #8 in Gates to a developer. On the 1872 map of the town, no structure is shown on the lot. But by 1902, the combined Lot #8 and Lot #20 are listed as 80.75 acres owned by Helen A. Smith and Elmer Place. A structure is depicted on the site of what would become the Wishing Well Restaurant. By 1924, the property had been subdivided; about a nine-acre lot remained.
According to an article written in 1997 by Carol Ritter and published in the local newspaper, the Rice family owned a mansion on the property until the turn of the century when the structure was transformed into the Peacock Inn. At the time, Chili Avenue was a dirt road that extended to Buffalo. In 1919, the inn was remodeled and the famous well was dug.
During Prohibition, the establishment was a speakeasy. It is said that a tunnel from the cellar to the adjacent Barge Canal (as it was known then) was used to sneak in shipments of liquor and beer. But Muriel (“Bobbie”) Wakil, whose family owned the restaurant from 1971 to 2001, said that was just a rumor.
On Wednesday, January 13, 1960, at about 3 a.m., fire broke out at the Wishing Well. Emmett J. Dailey, the owner of the restaurant at the time, estimated the loss at more than $200,000. Gates-Chili Fire Chief Edward VerWeire reported that the building was a total loss. Dailey had just invested $110,000 to remodel the restaurant in 1959.
Dailey, his wife Katherine, and their two children, who all lived in an apartment over the restaurant, were trapped on a roof and had to be rescued while still wearing their nightclothes. Their feet were bare and onlookers provided their shoes and coats to the family at the scene. The Daileys were treated at Strong Memorial Hospital for burns and smoke inhalation.
Investigators believed that the fire began in the bar area where windows and bottles were melted by the heat. More than 200 firefighters were called to the scene.
Edward and Muriel Wakil purchased the restaurant in 1971 and operated it with their son and two daughters for 30 years. They discovered menus and memorabilia from the early days of the establishment which they framed and displayed in the restaurant. The framed menus have been preserved and will be on display at the Gates Town Hall.
Among those who have worked on the restoration of the wishing well are Vinnie Schiano, who restored the stone masonry; carpenter, Fred Kilpatrick who rebuilt the wooden supports and the roof; electrician Shawn Kelly; David Chamberlain of the Town of Gates building staff; Lee Cordero, a member of the Gates Town Board; and Mark Gillette, who painted the restored construction. Town of Gates highway department staff prepared the site on the front lawn of the Gates Community Center.
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