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From the Buffalo News, Tuesday 10/8/02 (this article is online for a few days):
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20021008/1008065.asp
George Coit is my wife's 3rd great grandfather. Here is the article:
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Oldest house gets new life
$50,000 grant to help complete exterior work
By TOM BUCKHAM
News Staff Reporter
The effort to save Buffalo's oldest house got a firm boost from the state Monday.
A $50,000 Restore New York grant will help complete exterior work on the 1813 Coit House at 414 Virginia St., including the renovation of exterior walls and windows, replacement of foundation beams, painting and mortaring. In addition, the clapboard siding will be refurbished and the rear house reroofed.
Secured by Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, the money gives the ongoing project "critical momentum," said Elizabeth Licata, president of the Allentown Association board of directors.
Added board member Jonathan White, chairman of the Coit House Restoration Project: "This assures that the house will survive into the next century."
George Coit, a businessman, built the two-story frame house near the corner of Pearl and Swan streets, in what is now the downtown business district, in the aftermath of the fire that devastated Buffalo during the War of 1812.
Coit later was instrumental in the creation of Buffalo Harbor and in locating the Erie Canal's western terminus there - events that spurred the city's growth into a late-19th century hub of commerce and westward migration
The house was moved to its present location on Virginia just east of Elmwood Avenue in the 1870s. It fell into disrepair by the 1960s and was used as a rooming house for the elderly. Preservationist Appleton "Tony" Fryer salvaged the house in 1970 and sold it to a private family.
When it came back on the market in 1999, the Allentown Association bought it. It is currently headquarters of the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier.
The Allentown Association began a restoration campaign in May 2001, but fund-raising has been slowed by the economic slump and the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Deterioration of the Coit House's exterior was partially remedied last fall through a collaborative effort by the Landmark Society, contractors, suppliers and labor unions to replace the roof, gutters and downspouts.
Even with new state money in hand, completing the restoration and turning the building over to an independent nonprofit group - which would operate it as a tourist attraction - will be a stiff challenge, the association acknowledges.
The budget for the interior renovation "is about $250,000," White said.
Nevertheless, preservationists hope the project can be finished by 2004, the 200th anniversary of Joseph Ellicott's street plan for the city, said Clinton E. Brown, Landmark Society president.
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