William Cornwell's three-acre plot
pparently not content with the house he built at the north end of his five-acre parcel, William Cornwell acquired yet more land adjacent to it. One was what he called the "small lot" on which the Vosburgh house stood (#327) and the other was to the south, the rest of Meredith Mallory's road frontage on Main Street. When he bought this parcel in 1819 he was still living at #325, his first house; by the time he sold the five acres to John VanPelt, he was living in his second house, now #311.
He held onto this land, or most of it, for the rest of his life; and his heirs held on to it right into the 20th century. Cornwell had a law office where #309 now stands, and his daughter's husband being his partner, he made this lot over to his daughter shortly before he died in 1848. He had already sold a narrow strip to the trustees of the Presbyterian Congregation that is now part of #307. He also added about 50 feet to the north end of his home lot to enlarge it, from John VanPelt's agent in 1834, so it remained one of the biggest lots in Penn Yan for a great many years.
Use one of the buttons below to find out more about the individual lots and structures derived from this plot:
Abraham Wagener sold 18 acres east of Main Street to Meredith Mallory in 1808.
Mallory sold this three-acre parcel to William Cornwell Jr. in 1819.
The map above will furnish an approximate idea of the relationship between the various land purchases along this part of Main Street. The pale yellow area shows almost the whole of that length of Main Street passing through the northeast quarter of lot 37. The slightly darker yellow shows Meredith Mallory's 18-acre plot, or at least the western end of it where it fronted on Main Street. The darkest yellow area is where William Cornwell's three-acre plot was located. Together with his five-acre parcel immediately to the north, it formed the entire Main Street frontage of Mallory's acreage. The next parcel to the south was a four-acre piece acquired by John Dorman.
