Asa Cole's store lot
sa Cole was one of the Coles who came to Benton Center in the early 1790s, with the related Hulls and Buells. Asa was most closely identified with community at the head of Main Street in Penn Yan, where he ran for several years the first inn on the northwest corner of the intersection; this place became a stage stop on the road to Canandaigua and was quite well known for many miles around. Afterward, Cole bought and removed to a farm which is now within the village limits, but was then north of it, on the road between that place and Benton Center (now North Main Street).
Other people had commercial interests early in the area around the head of the street, and one of them was James Smith. He was primarily a farmer, but he owned some commercial property, and in the years prior to 1815 acquired some more, about an acre of land on the west side of Main Street some distance south of the crossroads. He must have made his purchase either directly or indirectly from Abraham Wagener, though no deed was recorded. In any case he sold this lot to Asa Cole in 1815, just south of the two acres purchased earlier by John Dorman that would some day become the Academy Lot.
Cole sold his lot to John L. Cleaveland, also of Benton, in January 1819, for $200. At the end of the year Cleaveland sold the northern part of the property to two merchants from Albany, named Joseph Vanzandt and George Hanford. His price was $1000. Of the original 10 rods width along Main Street (165 feet) this parcel had 3 rods (48 1/2 feet); the rest of the property was sold back to Asa Cole the following July. For several years the two unequal halves following separate chains of title until James Armstrong reassembled them in a single lot and then later divided them again into two dwelling lots.
Asa Cole acquired this lot from James Smith, like Cole a resident and prmoter of the settlement at the head of the street. Cole built a store on the lot and leased it to a succession of mercantile companies. Later on it was subdivided, joined again and finally subdivided.
Asa Cole bought this one-acre lot from James Smith, built a store on it and
leased it first to Vanzandt & Hanford, an Albany firm, then to a succession
of other merchants.
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