Hop Heritage Trail - Madison County Tourism

Madison County Historical Society
Hop Fest Committee
Corey Alter
Barb Chamberlain
Harold Chamberlain
Kate Fisher
Michael Flanagan
Sydney Loftus
Florence Meakin
Jack Meakin
Tom O’Shea
Patrick Traynor
Cindy Whipple
Fred Whipple
Dot Willsey
HOP HERITAGE SOURCES
Barbara Giambastiani Bartlett
Al Bullard
Ron Neff
Michael A. Tomlan, Ph.D
Property Owners
HOP HERITAGE TRAIL
Sydney L. Loftus
Dot Willsey
Nell Ziegler
Madison County
Hop Heritage
Trail Guide
Madison County Bicentennial
Hop Heritage Trail
Inaugural Tour: Sunday, September 17, 2006
The Hop Heritage Trail is one of four Madison County Bicentennial
Heritage Trails funded by a Central New York Community Foundation
grant, fundraisers by the Architecture and Preservation Team and the
Madison County Historical Society, and private donations for the
county’s 200th birthday in 2006.
In 1983, under the direction of the Executive Director Barbara
Giambastiani Bartlett, the Madison County Historical Society sponsored
a study with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation to identify and evaluate hop houses in Central New
York. Dr. Michael A. Tomlan, Historic Preservation Planning at Cornell
University, completed the study that led to his comprehensive text,
Tinged with Gold: Hop Culture in the United States in 1992. We recommend his book to those who seek more information. Tomlan was named
King of the 3rd Madison County Hop Fest in 1998, and Bartlett will be
recognized as the Queen of the 11th Hop Fest in 2006.
For 40 years, Al Bullard of Otsego County has been collecting hop
artifacts, locating hop structures, and presenting information on hop
heritage. Bullard was named King of the 7th Hop Fest in 2002.
Ronald E. Neff, past president of the Town of Madison Historical
Society, keeps close tabs on the history of his hometown and has shared
information for this trail.
Since 1996, owners of structures that are vestiges of the hop industry have contributed to preserving this agricultural history by sharing information, time, support, and documents, and allowing visitation
to their properties. To these people, we owe a great debt of gratitude
for stewardship of this heritage so important to our county.
The text herein comes primarily from works by Bartlett, Bullard,
Neff, Tomlan, and the owners of hop structures. To these sources, we
credit the information on the Hop Heritage of Madison County.
Please respect the property of the private owners. Do not trespass. During self-guided tours. Appreciate the site from your auto or
from the roadside.
- Nell Ziegler and Dot Willsey
“Those were the days when “the hop was king,” and the
whole countryside was one great hop yard, and beautiful. It was the hop that built many of the big farmhouses,
now abandoned. Many a farmer made the value of his
farm out of a single good year’s crop.”
James Fenimore Cooper in
Reminiscences of Mid-Victorian Cooperstown
I
n the 1880s, New York State produced 80 percent of the nation’s
hops, and most of those hops came from Madison, Oneida, and Otsego
counties. Madison led hop production in the 1820s, but within two
decades, the production center
moved to Otsego County.
Hops were the first cash
crop of the region. Madison
County was “one great hop yard”
for a century. Downy mildew,
aphids, richer soil in the Northwest, Prohibition, decreases in
hop prices, and the less speculative dairy farming industry
contributed to the decline of
hop farming in the county.
Madison County’s last crop of
hops was dried in Lenox Furnace
in 1953.
The stem of the hop plant is
a bine (as in woodbine). A bine
twines itself, whereas a vine has
tendrils that attach the stem to a
pole as it grows. The hop bine
follows the sun around a pole.
The bine can grow as much as 12
inches a day in June, and will
grow between 20 and 30 feet in
one season after it is established.
Madison County Hop Fest
21
City of Oneida
Madison County Historical Society 435 Main Street
Oneida, NY 13421 • 315-363-4136 • www.mchs1900.org
The Madison County Historical Society created the Madison County
Hop Fest in 1996 to raise awareness of hop culture in the county and to
raise funds. Each year, the Fest includes presentations, demonstrations, and exhibits on the history of hops. In addition, there is a showing of the video When Hop Was King, representation by local historical
and preservation organizations, musical entertainment, a guided coach
tour of hop related sites, a Hop Shop, and a sampling of microbrews for
visitors to indulge their palate. “Bouckville Olde,” rhizomes are also
available in the Hop Shop for those interested in growing their own
Madison County Hops.
Those who share the spirit of John Alden Haight, who was honored
as the first Hop Fest King for his passion for sharing his knowledge of
hops, are bestowed the prestigious title of Hop Royalty.
The Northeast Hop Alliance (NeHA), a broad based coalition established to explore the feasibility of reestablishing commercial, specialty
hop production in New York State and the Northeast, provides demonstrations and information on growing and harvesting hops during the
Hop Fest. NeHA grew from activities at the Annual Hop Fest through
coordinated efforts of Morrisville State College and Cornell University.
The Annual Madison County Hop Fest is held the Saturday following the Madison County Historical Society’s Annual Craft Days in September, which is held the weekend after Labor Day.
Hop Plants drawn by Belle Hodgson, c. 1890
(From Tinged with Gold: Hop Culture in the
United States by Michael A. Tomlan, Ph.D.)
Picking hops from the stems is labor-intensive. Hop growers hired
local pickers and transported pickers from the cities during late August
and early September. The provisions needed to house and feed these
pickers were a boost to the local economy, and recreation by pickers
after long days in the fields established social customs.
Artwork Created by Sennah Loftus, Masters Graduate of Syracuse
University’s School of Architecture and Project Architect for Voith
and MacTavish Architects in Philadelphia.
Ball Common Hop House
Town of Lincoln
6681 Tuttle Road • Canastota, NY 13032
Darrin Ball
19
The hop house is behind the house and across the small stream. This
common hop house has a fieldstone and cut stone foundation. The framing is hand-hewn, and
the exterior is finished in
board and batten. The
furnace room has a
wood floor, lath-andplaster walls, and a
brick chimney with a
stovepipe hole. The
drying room has a slatted floor that has been
covered over. The storage room floor is two
feet below the floor of
the drying room. No chute presently exists between the store room
and the press room.
Stewart Common Hop House
20
City of Oneida
Fair Hill, Inc. • 1390 Fairview Avenue • Oneida, NY 13421
Bill Stewart’s
great grandfather,
John, grew hops
and strawberries
on this site. Bill’s
grandfather,
George, had a dairy
operation and also
grew hops.
Evidence of the
four processing
rooms remains in
the structure.
HOP HOUSES
The New England hop farmers first looked to England for models of
kilns to dry hops. Farmers kept up with developments abroad by reading
agricultural literature. Although there was information on constructing
the sophisticated oast house, the early North American kilns were simple.
The first hops to be dried in a charcoal-fired kiln were cured in
Massachusetts in 1791. The next year, many more hop growers had
built kilns. Remnants of New England kilns do not exist. The kilns of
Central New York State architecturally represent the 19th and early
20th C. hop industry in the Northeast.
Early drying arrangements used open fires. Earlier kilns with furnaces stood alone, but by the 1850s, fires were enclosed in stoves and
progressive farmers had adopted a frame structure to cover the major
areas of processing hops—the hop house. A hop house has four sections:
1. Stove room: The heat
for drying the hops
came from a room
with a high ceiling
and a stove below. A
system of stove
pipes heated the
slatted floor above.
Vent windows at
ground level and
cowls in the roof
assisted in providing
proper drafts.
2. Drying room: Lath
and plaster often
Diagram of a hop house.
covered the drying
room walls. The hops (From Tinged with Gold: Hop Culture in the United
were placed 12 to 24 States by Michael A. Tomlan, Ph.D.)
inches deep on a fabric—usually burlap, muslin, or cotton—that
covered the slatted floor of the drying room, which was located
above the stove room. The hops were turned and moved to ensure
they dried evenly over several hours without scorching or burning.
3. Storeroom: Workers shoveled the dried hops into the storeroom
to cool, and then pushed the cooled hops through a hole in the
floor into the baling room below.
4. Press room: A hop press usually stood in the baling room below the
hole in the store room floor. The hops came through the shoot hole
directly into the fabric-lined press where they were bundled into
bales, then shipped worldwide.
Bittersweet: The Story of
Hop Culture in Central New York
1
Madison County Historical Society Hop Exhibit
435 Main Street • Oneida, NY 13421 • 315-363-4136
www.mchs1900.org
9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday - Friday
and by appointment
The hop exhibit in the carriage barn at Cottage Lawn, headquarters
of the Madison County Historical Society, is an excellent introduction
for the Hop Heritage Trail. Bittersweet: The Story of Hop Culture in
Central New York was developed in 1997 by former MCHS director
Tom Kernan with funds from New York State Assemblyman Bill Magee.
The 2-room
exhibit introduces the hop industry, explains
tools and processes, displays
equipment and
includes When
Hop Was King, a
video developed
by Kernan with
funds from the
NYS Council
on Humanities, the CNY
Community
Arts Council,
and
the
C h a p m a n
Charitable Corporation. The
film has been
shown on the
History Channel.
The Madison County Historical Society, the Northeast Hop Alliance, the New York State Barn Coalition and private donors and volunteers worked with the New York State Agricultural Society’s Daniel
Parrish Witter Agricultural Museum in 2003 to develop and host a hop
exhibit at the New York State Fair.
Eisaman Common Hop House
18
Town of Lincoln
6925 South Court Street • Canastota, NY 13032
John Eisaman
This common hop house shows clearly the four processing rooms, as
well as remnants of the last crop of hops dried in the kiln in 1953. At
that time, the
price was so
low that Keith
Eisaman’s father did not
sell the hops he
had dried.
The field
across
the
road was the
last commercial hop yard
in Madison
County.
Keith Eisaman was crowned King of the Second Annual Madison
County Hop Fest in 1997. He participated in the Hop Fest every year as
a speaker and a host. His accounts of the last days of hop farming were
featured in the video When Hop Was King. Keith reminisced about how
“Mother and Dad” and their two sons would drive around the area on
summer Sundays, checking out the status of other hop yards. He also
remarks in the video that it was amazing that hop farmers did not kill
themselves with all the sprays and dustings used to try to thwart the
Downey Mildew in the dying days of hop farming.
Keith loved Hop Fest, and the Hop Fest loved Keith. Very sadly,
Keith died two days before the Tenth Annual Hop Fest in 2005.
Cody Hop House
16
Town of Fenner
Fenner Road • Cazenovia NY 13035 • Ken Cody
Kendall Cody built this large hop house in 1884, and most of the
interior remains the same. Cody’s grandson, Ken, operates a dairy
farm on the property now.
The kiln is in the
rear, away from the road
and the small embankment. The kiln is 20 feet
wide and 60 feet long.
The foundation is fieldstone and cut stone, with
two vents. The framing
has sawn heavy timbers
and stud construction.
The furnace room chimney is brick with one
stovepipe hole.
The drying floor has been unmodified. The slats (1/2” x 2” wide) on
the floor are one inch apart and are covered with burlap. Evidence of a
ventilator cowl remains.
Fanning Common Hop House
Town of Smithfield
5000 Peterboro Road • Morrisville NY 13408
Leland Fanning
17
This building has many easily visible evidences of its use as a common hop house.
The stone foundation
has evidence of vents.
The furnace room still
has lath and plaster, and
the storage room has a
chute hole that leads to
the press room.
Marshall Oast House
Town of Stockbridge • 5667 Valley Mills Road
Munnsville NY 13409 • Ron and Holly Marshall
2
This conicalroofed draft hop kiln
with a circular limestone oast and a high
English cowl has
been lovingly cared
for by the Marshall
Family.
George Potter
purchased this farm
in 1860 and had the
hop kiln built in
1867 at a cost of
$840.20. When Fred
Marshall purchased
the farm in 1893, hops were the only income for the farm. Pickers came
from Cleveland, NY, and earned 25 cents per box—along with room
and board.
The pole pullers earned $1.25 per day.
The last crop of hops grown on the farm was in 1911. It sold for 11
cents per pound, which was below the cost of growing the crop. George
Potter’s accounting book shows that in 1864, one bushel of hop roots
sold for 75 cents. (History provided by the Marshall Family)
Foothill Hops
Town of Stockbridge
5024 NYS 46 • Munnsville NY 13049
315-495-6217
www.foothillhops.com
Larry and Kate Fisher
3
Foothill Hops is a family-owned business established in 2001 to
preserve and promote the hop growing agricultural heritage of Madison County. Foothill Hops consists of approximately ten acres of land.
The Fishers planted a
small field of hops in
2001 and expanded
their hop fields in
subsequent years to
the present size of
nearly two acres with
over a dozen varieties
of hops.
Foothill
Hops
welcomes visitors
throughout the year –
to walk or work the
fields. In April grubbing hop rhizomes
Larry Fisher sprays hops growing on a trellis at Foothill
and planting new hills Hops in Munnsville.
begins. In May the
trellis is strung and the foot high hop plants are trained to the trellis
strings. Rapid growth in June, July, and August requires watering, weeding, thinning, and maintenance as the hops reach heights of 20 feet or
more. Harvest time comes in late August and early September. The hop
bines are cut from the trellis and the blossoms are hand-picked and
dried using methods similar to those of the 19th century. The leaf hops
are then pressed, vacuum-sealed and frozen for freshness.
Foothill Hops have been sold to herbalists and home brewers and
have inspired a line of hop products available only from Foothill Hops.
Products include hop soaps, beer, hop shampoo and conditioner, hop
nuts, hop tea, hop lemonade, beer-can chicken rub, Italian seasoning,
beer and hop mustard, and hop pillows. There is hop-inspired art, including stained glass, pottery, textiles, and Christmas ornaments. In
late 2006, Foothill Hops will open a gift shop at the hop yard.
Stearns / Forward Hop House
Town of Nelson
3568 Stearns Road • Erieville, NY 13061
Carl D. Stearns
15
This hop house was originally located on the south side of Scenic
Route 20, just east of the village of Madison. The hop house belonged to
G.T. Forward, one of the principal hop growers in the MadisonBouckville
area. (The Forward name is
stenciled on a
post.) Owner
and preservation architect
Carl Stearns
carefully relocated the structure in the mid1990s.
The
cobblestones
were numbered
and relocated
accordingly. This hop house features a cobblestone kiln and a timberframe processing space.
Carl Stearns presents “The Evolution of a Hop House” each year at
the Annual Madison County Hop Fest. Stearns was crowned the fifth
King of the Annual Hop Fest in 2000 for his hop preservation efforts.
He was further honored by the New York State Barn Coalition for his
rural preservation efforts.
Parfitt / Dodge Common Hop House
Town of Hamilton • 2927 Smith Road
Hamilton, NY 13346 • Chris & Meg Parfitt
13
This common kiln has been altered through the years, but the
tell-tale foundation vents and tall configuration add it to the architectural vestiges of
the once-prosperous hop industry
along
Smith
Road. The barn
dates to 1869.
The map from
D. G. Beers’ 1875
“Atlas of Madison
County,New York”
shows a structure
at the location
(H.H. Crittendem)
(Steven J. Tuttle
August 29, 05)
Grey / Gulch Pyramidal Kiln
14
Town of Eaton • Gulch Road • Morrisville NY 13408
Kevin Luther
This single pyramidal-roofed kiln with an attached barn, is the silent remains of a prosperous hop and dairy farm operated by the grandparents of the
owner.
Descendants of the
farming family have donated
the
kiln, which is
being moved
to the Heritage Park now
under development. The
park will highlight hop culture and will commemorate the ancestors who used the hop house.
Shwartz/ Borden/Haight
Double Pyramidal Kiln
4
Town of Hamilton • Borden Road
Earlville NY 13332 • Eve Ann Shwartz
This is the former family farm of John Alden Haight. The Madison
County Hop Fest King and Queen chosen each year are those people who
most closely emulate
John Alden Haight’s
passion for honoring
the heritage of hops
in Madison County.
Haight was honored
as the first Hop King
of the first Hop Fest in
1996. He taught horticulture at Morrisville State College for
24 years. The college has created a scholarship in his name.
Lipsey/Drover Hill Double Pyramidal Kiln
Town of Hamilton • 1014 Earlville Road
Earlville NY 13332
William Lipsey
5
The property is now part of Drover Hill Farms, owned by Bill Lipsey.
Volunteers from the Madison County Historical Society and students
from Historic Preservation at Cornell made emergency repairs to the roof
in November 1999.
In 2000, the
owner received a New
York State Barn Rehabilitation and Preservation Grant. Also
that year, the Lipsey
double kiln became
the first “poster barn”
to be used on the annual Hop Fest posters. Bill Lipsey has planted hops
in front of the structure and in 2003 took one pole of hops to the New
York State Fair for exhibit at the Daniel Parrish Witter Agricultural
Museum.
1840 Cobblestone House, Barn & Hop
House
Town of Madison • 3822 Canal Road
Bouckville, NY 13310 • Jerry Schmidt
6
James and Silas Howard built Cobblestone House between 1840 and
1842. The stones were laid in horizontal rows with straight horizontal
mortar joints. The huge stones, one large one on the front porch and
Rugg -Tuttle Pyramidal Hop House
Town of Eaton
2697 Smith Road • Hamilton, NY 13346
Linda Rugg & Steve Tuttle
11
This hop house dates to
1869. The map from D. G.
Beers 1875 “Atlas of Madison County, New York”
shows a structure at the location. (H.H. Crittenden)
(Steven J. Tuttle August 29,
05)
Early inspiration for the
pyramidal hop kiln probably
came from the sophisticated design of English malt kilns. (Tomlan) It is
not know when growers in this area adopted the pyramidal roof form to
assist the draft. Tomlan found one source that indicates the pyramidal
roof was adopted near Waterville about 1850.
Merkt Hop House
three on the side porch, were brought by flat boats on the canal from the
quarry at Oriskany Falls. James had a canal boat named the “Madison”
and probably brought the large corner stones and the one above the front
door for the house on that boat.
Stairs lead upstairs to a large room where hop pickers slept during
hop picking season in late August. The hop house still stands to the north
of the Cobblestone House.
12
Town of Eaton • 2881 Smith Road • Hamilton, NY 13346
Keith Merkt
Early kilns were usually banked for easy access to load the hops to
the drying floor. This framed large common kiln used the bank access to
the drying room. The
drying room has a slatted floor with 1½inch spaces between
the slats to allow the
heat to dry the hops,
which workers laid on
a fabric that covered
the slats.
The foundation is
made of fieldstone and
cut stone, and has the
typical four vents. The
framing is stud construction and a clapboard exterior. The gable roof
shows evidence of an earlier ventilator. The furnace room has a wood
floor and a brick chimney. The storage room floor is three feet below
the floor of the drying room floor, with three chutes to pass dried hops
to the press room.
Ye Olde Landmark Tavern
6722 Scenic NYS Rt 20 • Bouckville, NY 13310
www.yeoldelandmark.com 315-893-1810
Steve Hengst
10
The Landmark Tavern was built by the Coolidge family between 1849
and 1851.
Lewis T. Coe and H. D. Brockett bought the building in 1896. After
Coe died Brockett sold it to Charles M. Coe, the son of Lewis. In 1940,
Robert H. Palmiter bought the Landmark for his antique business and
Coolidge Gravesite
7
Town of Madison
Town of Madison Cemetery • Indian Opening Road
Bouckville, NY 13310
James Coolidge came from Stow, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
to Bouckville, New York, in 1806. Coolidge became determined to buy
a good farm, and did so in
1808. He bought the Niles
farm, which once took the
Madison County Agricultural
Society’s premium of a silver
cup (Neff).
That same year, Coolidge
planted the first recorded commercial hop yard in New York
State with root stock from
Middlesex. In the fall of 1816,
Coolidge took the first New
York hops to the New York City
Market. In 1817-18, hops sold
for $1,000 a ton.
home. After his death in 1968, the Hengst family bought the special
structure and opened the Landmark Tavern.
In 2000, Ye Olde Landmark Tavern was placed on the State and
National Register of Historic Places. The New York State Preservationist (Spring 2001) described the Coolidge Stores Building
“as an outstanding example of cobblestone construction and as
associated with the development of Bouckville as an important center
of hop culture in Madison County. Distinguished by its unconventional
wrap-around façade and hexagonal cupola, the building’s design reflects
elements of the Octagon style and is detailed with elements derived from
both the Greek and Gothic Revival styles. Built during the initial boom in
Central New York’s hop culture by the family credited with introducing
the crop to the area, the Coolidge Stores Building expresses Bouckville’s
mid-19th century prosperity as a focal point for the export of hops by
turnpike and canal.”
The first white settlement
in the area was at Indian Opening in 1792. The first church
building was erected in 1801
near the cemetery. It is in that
historic cemetery visitors can find the gravestone of James D. Coolidge.
The modest gravesite gives little indication of the impact Coolidge had
on the history of our state before his death in 1844 at the age of 83
years and 6 months.
Coolidge Hop Farm
Town of Madison • Deerhill Farms
3631 NYS 12B • Bouckville, NY 13310 • Steve Dow
8
Chenango Canal Cottage Museum
Chenango Canal Association
Scenic Rt 20 & Canal Road • Bouckville, NY 13310
9
The farm James D.
Coolidge bought in 1808 is
a half mile southeast of the
hamlet of Bouckville. The
hop yard where Coolidge
planted New York’s first
commercial hops lies
where the main field of the
Madison-Bouckville Antique Show takes place
each year.
The cobblestone oast
house with a later frame
kiln was built on the farm
after Coolidge’s death. The
kiln was razed in the late
1970s.
Coolidge’s agricultural and business talents put Bouckville in the
center of the county’s activities. Solomon Root and Ezra Leland were
soon raising more hops than Coolidge. The Woodhull, Forward,
Edgartons, Philips Brockett and Livermore families were Bouckville families that had hop yards.
The Cherry Valley Turnpike was chartered in 1803. When the turnpike
was completed in 1811, the Hamlet of Madison came into existence.
The church and John Lucas’ store at Indian Opening were moved to
Madison to be on the turnpike.
Photo courtesy of Diane Van Slyke, President of the Chenango Canal
Association
The Chenango Canal Association developed and maintains the Cottage Museum, with displays and information on the Chenango Canal
and the history of Bouckville. The Chenango Canal Association hosts
activities throughout the year.
Hops was a cash crop that provided profit for everyone from the
growers and harvesters to the shippers, ‘canalers’, wholesalers, and
retailers. The Chenango Canal served as a transportation route for hops
shipments during the “heyday” of hops.
The following hand-written note was kept by a local resident in
Bouckville:
Mr. White,
Sir, a part of your hops were shipped last evening; the
balance of them will be put on board of a boat which will be at
Solsville about 9 o’clock this morning. If you have any in bales
at home, by taking them down immediately, you can get them
on board this morning.
Respectfully yours,
A.B. Coe
Madison, Monday morning, Sept. 28, 1866