Audio Tour
Apple Dry House &
Bean Mill
Presented by
Bob Corby
Samuel Hutchinson had a produce business in Pittsford, which was relocated when the canal was widened in 1911 to 1912. The business was located on this site and, a substantial part of it was in the processing of fruit: apples and pears.
He operated an apple dry house that burned in 1921. Dry houses were made obsolete by the popularization and introduction of refrigeration in people's homes.
The small building was the office and weigh house for the operation. That was built in about 1915. There's a truck scales there that survives today where farmers brought their produce, had it weighed, dumped the produce and then weighed the truck again to determine how much they should be paid.
Behind that is a building known as the apple house where the apples were processed.
The former apple dry house was located to the west.
This was expanded with the addition on the west side and the wing that is now the home of RPS Printing was a warehouse where the apples were stored before shipment.
After the business was sold to Ted Zornow the frost in 1932 killed most of the local orchards and the produce business in Pittsford essentially died. Ted had the vision to change the business to deal in commodities and particularly red kidney beans and was tremendously successful selling kidney beans to the troops in World War II.
The business was expanded and he needed more space, so the barn on the east end of the complex was moved here in 1940. The barn was originally built in 1896 and was located next to the railroad siding in the village of Geneseo. Two carpenters in two weeks, dismantled it and reconstructed it here.
Part of it is sided with novelty siding, which is wood. The rest is sided with vertical steel when they ran out of the reused material from its prior location. A spectacular structure and it's amazing that it survives here today.
Eventually Ted's business grew even larger and he purchased the flour mill visible to the west and expanded his operation here. T.J. Zornow Inc., operated in its last years by Ted's son, my uncle, Theodore H. Zornow, continued until 1996.