“The village is very pretty, and many houses in that, and at a distance on the borders of the lake, are built with taste and environed by shrubbery, as houses in the country always should be.

“But there was one grand mistake made in building this village, which has marred its beauty exceedingly. The main street was laid out so as to sweep round the margin of the lake, at its foot. On the northern side of the street and fronting on the lake, the houses of the citizens were erected; and one would have supposed even the Goths & Vandals would have had good taste enough to have preserved an open view to the lake, by having a smooth lawn of green-sward, planted with locusts and the willow, between the road and the lake.

“But contrary to every principle of taste or beauty, one of the churches and several blocks of stores and artisans’ workshops, have been erected upon the shore which in most cases entirely intercept the water-prospect! So that but for the privilege of taking now a sail, and now a mess of fish, the good people might as well have no lake at all. The stores should be burnt by the common hangman, and the church taken quietly down and reared in a more suitable place.”

From New York to Niagara: Journal of a Tour, in Part by the Erie Canal, in the Year 1829 by Col. William Leete Stone

While in Skaneateles, the author dined, walked and visited with the Burnett family of our congregation.