North Main Street Historic District

North Main Street in Canandaigua is a nearly mile-long corridor of houses, churches and civic buildings stretching from the railroad tracks to Buffalo-Chapel Street. Houses fill the northern three-quarters, while churches and government buildings cluster near the southern end. Notable buildings include the 1824 City Hall, built as the second Ontario County courthouse, the Greek Revival county courthouse with its dome, the First Congregational Church and Chapel, the Peter Porter House, and the Granger Homestead, now a house museum. The district shows Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic and Victorian styles, with a consistent standard of quality and a conservative, restrained taste suited to a lawyers' county seat. The street's width and the deep setbacks of the buildings soften the effect of heavy traffic. Its history reaches back to the Phelps and Gorham land purchase of 1788, and several buildings were erected by their heirs. Public construction peaked in the early twentieth century with churches, a hospital, courthouse wings and a post office.