House of the Week: Built in 1871, Skaneateles' former Mottville School can be either home or business
SKANEATELES, N.Y. – The brick building at 4202 Jordan Road near Skaneateles has seen a lot in its over 150 years.
Built in 1871, it began as a replacement for the small wooden structure, the Mottville School, which was the first public school in the hamlet designated by the Commissioner of Education, according to a history written by Skaneateles town historian Helen Ionta in 1994.
Financial records show that by 1883, two teachers were instructing 50 students at the site at a yearly salary of $752. The school’s yearly expenses for ink, a broom, and chalk cost $9.59.
The school closed in 1950 when students were transferred to the Skaneateles Centralized School District. The building was auctioned and for a time was owned by the Methodist Society.
It was an antiques shop and later a house.
“It was a very cozy and charming house,” its current owner Sue Rossi said this week. “Its previous owner did a good job making it into a house for their young family.”
Its historic character and charm appealed to Rossi, her husband, David, and son, Eric, who were looking for a new headquarters for their family business, Empire Technical Associates, in 2008.
Sue said working the thought of working in the two-story, 2,496 square foot building, where hundreds of schoolchildren had run around and learned in, gave them a “very warm feeling.”
Entering the building for the first time they found original chalkboards, textbooks, and old-fashioned rolled-up maps in the attic and decided to incorporate them into their designs. They used reproduced photos they found.
Sue visited antique stores for a student desk for the front vestibule and student lamps for the offices.
“Our clients are blown away,” Eric said. “It made a good impression on them. It was not what they were expecting.”
They converted the building for business purposes, made it handicapped accessible, restored the hardwood floors, added air-conditioning, refurbished the landscaping, and rehabilitated the school’s old cupola.
With the help of decorator Kathie Kitchner, Eric said his mother “put her stamp” on the new office.
“I did not see it at first,” Sue remembered. “But the building was so charming. It was exciting.”
Eric, a former history major, was impressed by the craftsmanship they found throughout the building.
“It will outlive me,” he said, “I know that.”
Any restoration efforts were done with a sensitivity to the building’s past. They definitely wanted to keep it “looking like a school.”
The Covid pandemic though changed the way their employees worked.
Eric said that the former schoolhouse “served us very well,” but with their employees able to work from their own homes, they have decided to sell their office of almost 15 years.
“It is bittersweet,” he admits.
The building is set up as a Class-A commercial site and the owners are willing to sell its office furniture.
But it could return to its days as a “nicely laid out” private home.
There is a large full bathroom, with a glass-enclosed shower, on the second floor and a half-bath on the first.
The first floor has an eat-in kitchen with exposed brick and refurbished wood cabinets. It needs a stove and oven though.
The large conference room on the second floor could returned to the spacious owners’ bedroom it was previously. Office space on each floor has the potential to be made into bedrooms, living, dining, or family rooms.
“Anyone who likes its historic charms could see it as a house,” Sue said.
For more information about this property, please contact Realtor Linda Roche of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. Her contact info is below.
THE DETAILS
Address: 4202 Jordan Road, Skaneateles, N.Y. 13152
Price: $659,000
Size: 2,496 square feet
Acreage: 0.70 acres
Monthly Mortgage: $3,305 (based on the national average rate of 6.42%, according to Freddie Mac on December 29, for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 20% down payment. Fees and points not included.)
Taxes: $7,735 (Based on assessed value of $321,100)
Built: 1871
School District: Skaneateles
Kitchen: An eat-in kitchen is located right off the front foyer. Owner Sue Rossi loves the kitchen’s exposed brick and refurbished wood cabinets. It will need a stove and oven to become a whole kitchen.
Living areas: This 2,496 square foot building has been a school, an antique shop, a home, and an office. It has the potential to continue as a place of business or return to being a home again. Rossi said the building’s previous owner “did a good job making it into a house for their family.” The present layout is for a business, but it could be reconfigured into a “cozy and charming” house. The current owners did a great job in restoring much of the building while maintaining its historic character and charm. Original school chalkboards, photos, and schoolbooks were incorporated into the design.
Bedrooms: The listing says there are three bedrooms, but this could be modified into whatever the new owner wants. The spacious second-floor conference room, with built-in bookshelves and glass cabinets, was once a very large owners’ bedroom. Both floors have space for new bedrooms.
Bathrooms: There is a half-bath on the first floor and a full bathroom on the second. The half bath features an original exposed brick wall. The second-floor bathroom has a restored antique sink and lamps and an enclosed glass shower unit.
Outdoors: The property is 0.70 acres, and it has been recently landscaped and made handicapped accessible. It is located just two-and-a-half miles from the village of Skaneateles and easy access to Syracuse and Auburn via Route 690. A Morton pole barn provides an incredible amount of storage, a workshop, and room to park one or two cars.
Agent: Linda Roche
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services
Address: 28 East Genesee Street, Skaneateles, N.Y. 13152
Phone: (315) 657-5353
Email: lindaroche@howardhanna.com
Website: lindaroche.howardhanna.com
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