The stately brick home at the corner of Main Street and Park Avenue in Brockport is getting a facelift. The historic gem with a unique roof and cupola is shedding its flaking paint and getting a fresh coat, thanks to the work of more than 25 members of the Brockport High School wrestling te am. This is the second year the wrestling team, assisted by booster club members, has done a community service project. Head coach James Cannon says the team selects someone in the community who might not have the means to do such a major home project and is "a long time resident and valuable community member." Cannon credits assistant coach Mike Ferris with the idea of having the team serve the community. Ferris attended Brockport High School and was an All-American wrestler at SUNY College at Brockport in 2000. He lives in Brockport and teaches fourth grade in the Hilton School District. Beatrice DeRuyscher owns the home chosen for refurbishing. She has lived in it for 40 years beginning in high school, and then all her married life, raising four children with her husband Howard. She says the home was once a stage coach stop and it appears on an 1861 map of Brockport that hangs in her living room. DeRuyscher says the house, with its ten-foot ceilings was built with square nails, has four kinds of plaster and the floor joists in the basement are full logs with hatchet marks. She recalls that the house was last painted in the 1950s. Bill Andrews, former village historian, admires the house which he says was built by Sanford Goff. "It's a handsome home in such a prominent village location and it needed this exterior refurbishing," Andrews said. "Besides aiding Ms. DeRuyscher, the wrestling team is providing a great service to the community in restoring it." Submitted by Doug Hickerson June 18, 2006 |
