Old Homer Village Historic District

Homer Village is a 19th-century community about 3 miles north of Cortland, New York, whose historic district takes in Main Street, sections of Cayuga, James, Clinton and Albany Streets, and the village Green. Houses are mostly two-story frame buildings with clapboard and gable roofs, alongside larger brick homes, while the commercial blocks are brick buildings with bracketed cornices. Notable structures include the 1908 Town Hall, the 1863 Jedediah Barber building with its original elevator and upper-floor opera house, the 1887 Brockway Block, the 1816 tavern known as Wisdom's Gate, and an 1853 octagon house. The Green, ringed by churches, reflects the New England origins of Homer's first settlers. The district matters as the product of a century of economic development, driven by merchants such as Jedediah Barber, and it preserves the look of a 19th-century country village in central New York, with a century's range of architectural styles.