Land Purchases and Subdivisions

braham Wagener sold off much of his inheritance, particularly in the northeast quarter of Lot 37 but also to some extent in the southeast quarter (the two through which Main Street runs) not in individual dwelling or store lots but in larger parcels which were then subdivided; some few were large enough to be subdivided again. To a degree, the history of these purchases and subdivisions is the history of the earliest settlement of Penn Yan. The people who made these purchases were those who saw a future in the grubby little settlement that stretched for nearly a mile between a muddy stump-filled crossroads and a millsite.

Visitors to this part of the site can follow these transactions down to the individual structures that were built and survived their portion of the the intervening two centuries. The bicentennial of Penn Yan's of permanent settlement went unobserved in 1991, in the wake of the sesquicentennial of its incorporation in 1983. These political celebrations nearly always get more notice than the merely social ones. However that may be, the streets and buildings of the village are memorials of its history.

To navigate this section of the site, the visitor can use one of the buttons at right to go to the "top" level, which is in this case one of the quarters of Lot 37. That page will have similar buttons for the subdivisions, which will take you to pages about further subdivisions or about individual lots. It is hoped that actual navigation will be easier than explaining it.