Liberty Village Historic District

Twelve buildings along North Main, Academy and Law Streets make up this small district in the Village of Liberty, New York. The group mixes religious, commercial and residential uses and ranges from modest vernacular houses to a Gothic Revival villa, a Romanesque bank building and a Greek Revival church with an 1890 tower and belfry. The village grew as an agricultural center, was incorporated in 1870, and gained a tourist trade after the railroad arrived in 1873, which prompted building around the turn of the century. Highlights include the Hillig Studio of 1914, with its tile facade, built for photographer Otto Hillig; the Keller house, the oldest surviving residence in the village; and the United Methodist Church, whose Akron-plan interior is described as the finest in the area. The district was listed because it preserves a period streetscape that has largely disappeared from the surrounding, more modern village.