THE COTTAGE HOTEL

20 The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel • Thursday, November 2, 2023

SENTINEL LIFESTYLES

Life with the (Word) Smiths

CELEBRATING THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE COTTAGE HOTEL

BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
The Cottage Hotel celebrated

its 200th anniversary over the third weekend in October in a four-day event that brought a lot of laughter and a mountain of memories, as well as some tears of reflection regarding the venerable local gathering spot which has anchored the northeast corner of the hamlet of Mendon for the past two centuries.

We thought we’d reprise our opening of the series of articles we began in the beginning of October leading up to the anniversary celebration. Our opening harkened back to a meeting between author Karen Mireau and Cottage owner Hilary Stott in October of 2022 which was significant because had that not taken place, the 2023 anniversary celebration may or may not have happened, but even if it did, it would not have been replete with the accompanying release of the book The Cottage Hotel: The History & Untold Tales of Mendon Hamlet’s Legendary Stagecoach Inn & Tavern.

We began this series with the following two paragraphs of mood- setting ambiance by writing...

As the sun slowly set at the Rush end of Rush Mendon Road, the fleeting rays of autumn sunshine began to creep below the protection offered by the fire-red umbrellas dutifully standing sentinel over the tables at The Cottage Hotel of Mendon. The two kindred and free-spirited women engaged in conversation on that fateful fall day were the current owner of the Cottage, Hilary Stott, and a former employee of the Cottage, Karen Mireau.

Among the many hats worn by Karen, it is in her current capacity of poet and author that the Spirit of Mendon’s past has called her home from California to deliver on a destiny lying dormant for decades. This is a story both sparkling and spiritual, a tale we felt compelled to tell.

So getting back to that story, Karen’s 2022 visit had been arranged so that she could connect with the Mendon people who could help her put the final touches on the book of poetry she had written which was titled Tell Me Again That the Dead Do Dream – The Mendon Poems. This collection of poems had been inspired by the people and events that Karen had experienced while living in Mendon and working at the Cottage during the late 1970s and early ‘80s.

The personal impact of these people and events was effectively terminated on October 19, 1981 when John Urquhart Ross, Karen’s mentor and boss at the Cottage, lost his life to suicide. John Ross was universally known and addressed as “Burdock” – it was a different era.

About this tragic turn, Karen said, “It was 20 years before I could bring myself to drive down Route 64, no doubt because there were so many memories lying in wait. It took another 20 years to be able to set those experiences down in writing.” She was finally able to accomplish this in her Mendon poetry book.

At any rate, during Karen’s October 2022 visit to Mendon to put the finishing touches on the book, she engaged in the aforementioned meeting with current Cottage owner Hilary and at this point we’ll invoke Karen’s own words to pontificate upon what happened at that meeting... “I never expected to be writing this [newest] book until I had lunch with Hilary while I was researching a book of poetry about the Cottage and Burdock last October. In that meeting, she looked at me, tilted her head in typical Hilary fashion and said, ‘You

should be writing a @*$%* history of The Cottage Hotel.”

“In that moment of epiphany, it was as if a light had suddenly come on. That very day on October 19th (the anniversary of Burdock’s death), I started doing the research, and voila, some nine months later, here we are! Rather like birthing a baby... without the epidural.”

So now fast forward and you can’t help but marvel at how the karma of Father Time aligns on this; it would be October 19, 2023, the 42nd anniversary of Burdock’s death, that Karen would once again find herself at the Cottage to celebrate the release of her local history book about “Mendon Hamlet’s Legendary Stagecoach Inn & Tavern.”

The opening bell tolled on the four-day gala at 3:00 that Thursday with the Cottage hosting a gathering of special guests including musical acts that had performed over the years, former owners and their friends and family, local luminaries, and an array of collective Cottage cohorts. Every living former owner was in attendance.

Reflective of the lustre that luminated this celebration from beginning to end, things started with a bang. Karen had let us in on a superlative secret we’d been sitting on for a few months leading up to this event. As a special gift for Hilary and husband Dave Stott, she had written a third book about Mendon and the Cottage in which she compiled the lyrics and stories behind five different musical artists who had written songs about the Cottage over the years.

Called The Cottage Songbook, it is a 42-page tribute with lyrics you love because they’re local and we will be excerpting select passages throughout the course of this article. We so wanted to share this storyline with our readers on the lead-in to Karen’s visit but, of course, we couldn’t because obviously Hilary was following the articles and this wonderful surprise would have been lost.

So now that we can put the whole Karen Mireau’s Mendon Mania into perspective, the bottom line is that the girl has published three books about Mendon in the past year! You can pluck the titles out of the previous paragraphs and they’re all available at Lulu.com. The first book is already available at Amazon.com and the next two will be in upcoming weeks.

Whether your genre of choice is music, poetry or history, Karen has you covered. She writes beautifully and the fact that all three of these books feature content from our hometown clearly enhances the local level of interest.

On Thursday afternoon, October 19th, when we first arrived at the Cottage, we joined Sentinel owners Chris and Betsy Carosa at the table nearest to the front door. We were greeted by Denise Dillman, the Cottage’s longest tenured employee, who also happens to be one of Tim’s favorite former students. Denise, in the dual role of off-duty employee as well as invited guest, went to the author’s booth to get her copy of the book and came back by our table where she induced a round of laughter by saying, “It’s a good thing I had such a wonderful English teacher who instilled in me a love of reading!” It was a humorous, yet sincere, acknowledgement of Victor High School moments spent decades ago.

When we asked Hilary for confirmation of our thought that Denise was the employee that had been at the Cottage for the longest time, she offered the following comment... “Yes, she started in 2006! She is for sure my

longest employee and her family has strong ties to the farming community in Victor! She is truly rooted here in community and the land we walk on!” We continued to see Denise throughout the weekend’s proceedings and it would be her that would snap the pictures of us with the band at the closing of Friday night’s Buffalo Rose concert.

After a few hours of socializing, the “official” program began with Karen reading some passages from her books. This was a great way to set the tone for the evening as she began by saying, “It was over 40 years ago that I was bartending here and this book is my love letter to The Cottage Hotel.”

Karen went on to recognize the previous owners and their families who were in attendance. Acknowledged were Rosemary Heckman-Lewis who lived at the Cottage from the ages of 4 to 21 when her parents owned and operated the business from 1950 to 1972. The Heckman family lived on the second floor and as Karen wrote in her book, “Photos show that they had a very comfortable apartment with a fireplace in the living room and pretty curtains at the windows.”

Rosemary, who will appear as a guest musician later in this story, was taken on a trip down Memory Lane when Hilary took her on a tour of the second floor. As Rosemary walked through with her two cousins, they were giddily marveling at how much smaller the rooms seemed to be now. “The hallway seemed so much longer!” Keep in mind that back in the day the Cottage was literally a hotel so the floorplan of the upstairs is that there is one long hallway that runs the entire length of the building, with a series of “guest” rooms off to each side. There was an office and nine guest rooms on the second floor of The Cottage Hotel and the staircase is located behind the bar.

Also acknowledged was Paul S. Gordon “Buzzy” Bronson who operated the Cottage from 1972-1975. A couple notable aspects of this tenure are that Buzzy originated the “Cottage Burger” and is “rightly credited with building the music scene in Mendon hamlet.”

This brings us to the era of John Urquhart “Burdock” Ross and Karen Mireau. At this point we’ll defer to Karen’s “In Memoriam” Dedication in the book. She writes, “This history of the Cottage Hotel is inspired by the special soul we came to know as Burdock. When I was young, Burdock encouraged me to follow my fledgling dream of becoming a writer. Without him, my life would be vastly different. I will always be profoundly grateful to him for that, and for the love and care he gave so freely to so many others trying to find their way.”

After Burdock’s death in 1981 ownership passed to his younger sister and her husband, Ann and Renier Chaintreuil who were also present at the event. They would maintain ownership until the final passing of the baton. The Cottage Hotel was sold to Hilary and Dave Stott in 2005. “Because they respected our goal of turning the place into a family- oriented establishment,” Dave told us, “they turned down an offer that was $50,000 higher than ours.”

All of the ownership acknowledgements having been accomplished, by 6:00 master-of- ceremonies Paul Strowe was assuming his role as “the human jukebox.” Paul has been playing at the Cottage since the 1970’s making him the ultimate choice to man this position. From his opening tune, Paul had the audience

Karen Mireau presenting The Cottage Songbook to Hilary Stott.

Photo by Deb Smith

Keith Baker and Paul Strowe. Photo provided by Karen Mireau

joining him for a trip to “Carolina in My Mind.”

The general game plan for the evening was to have Paul call on stage a wide variety of guest musicians who had graced the Cottage stage at various times over the past 5 decades. Hilary had told us that, “This should be an adventurous musical evening because I am giving all the musicians total freedom to improvise. Things should go in many interesting directions.”

The first guest performer was the aforementioned Mary Heckman-Lewis who performed a song she had written called “The Boca Rotunda Rag.” Next up was Hilary and Dave’s son-in-law Harout Babigian who rocked the house with his version of Sturgill Simpson’s “You Can Have the Crown.” One of the highlights of Harout’s performance was the classic dancing duet of Hilary and her grandson Emrys (see picture).

The next guest performer to join Paul Strowe was Keith Baker who, as a member of Paulsen, Baker & Garvey, had also been playing at the Cottage since the 1970’s. Keith was one of the local songwriters whose “This Song” had been written about the Cottage in 1978 and is included in Karen’s book. Lyrics which detail the layout of the bar back then say...

Then, this song goes out to you,
in the back room, by the back door,
by the Foosball table, by the juke box, by the bar.

During his performance, Keith addressed the Cottage’s lavatory logistics and one significant change that has occurred. During Baker’s earlier years at the venue, the bathrooms were located at the east end of the building, right next to the stage. This resulted in sometimes comical excursions when patrons, both male and female, would have to almost make an on-stage appearance to make it to the restroom.

That somewhat awkward scenario was rectified during the 1980’s when the bathrooms were relocated to the other side of the building, on the western wall which would be the one closest to the four corners. After Keith and Paul wrapped up their set with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Mr. Bojangles” we heard hamlet resident Sharon Hurley deliver one of the evening’s more interesting lines when, upon her departure, she showed her support of the Cottage by declaring, “I’m 78 and I’ve never walked into a bar alone in my life.”

Local attorney Jeff Clark was the next to join Paul collaborating on some tunes that would include Jim Croce’s “Operator” and Dave Mason’s “We Just Disagree.”

Next up were a pair of songs with a few quirky connections in terms of artists, as well as title, we heard the Guess Who’s “These Eyes” and the Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes.” In a pun of a joke that never seems to grow old no

Continued on Page 8

8 The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel • Thursday, November 2, 2023

Cottage Hotel

From page 20

matter how many times you’ve heard it, Paul said, “Those are my two ‘Eye’ songs because, you know, they always come in pairs.”

Next Brian Venton joined the stage to make it a trio. At this point we will defer to Karen’s The Cottage Songbook for her concise bio backstory on these last two men who have joined Paul Strowe on stage...

In 1977, when he was 17, Brian Venton began performing at The Cottage as the lead of the group Autumn Skies. That spring the band made a 45 record that attracted an agent, Pelican Productions, and for two years they played all over New York state. The Cottage was their first professional gig, and later on, they also played regularly at the Mason Jar, and numerous other venues across western New York.

From the early ‘80s, Brian created a succession of bands such as NIK & The Nice Guys, The Boss Street Band, and Keys to the Caddy. But his favorite gig was always the Cottage Hotel.

A chance meeting with Jeff Clark in 2018 led Brian to form the acoustic- rock Venton Clark Band, that now play at The Cottage once a month along with Steve Krauss (of Mendon) on drums and sometimes additional musicians.

Venton, Clark and Strowe started with America’s “Ventura Highway” and then, at least in terms of dancing, filled the floor with the evening’s most infectious audience participation number. It was Pure Prairie League’s “Amie” (... what you gonna do?, I think I could stay with you, for a while maybe longer if I do). Don Shaffer joined the festivities next with a British shout-out including The Moody Blues’ “In Your Wildest Dreams” and the Beatles’ “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl.”

As Paul worked his way through the roster of guest musicians a personal highlight was when singer and harmonica player Billy Lee ascended the stage. Billy is a Vietnam vet who cut his musical teeth on a soulful Chicago upbringing. Billy and Paul

harmonized on a moving rendition of the Temptations’ “My Girl” and closed their duet with a rousing version of Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally.” No one was going to slow that Mustang down!

Next, responding to the demand of, “We need some John Prine,” Bob Spiegle brought some down-home country classics to the stage next with his versions of “Knockin’ on Your Screen Door” and “Please Don’t Bury Me.”

Paul was next joined by his younger brother Chip Strowe who had everybody rockin’ around the clock with “Blue Suede Shoes.”

One of the more endearing performances of the evening came when Janet Burgwardt accompanied Paul doing a sign language version of the Tommy James and the Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now.” Those of a younger generation may recall a later hit version by pop star Tiffany.

One of Paul’s last numbers was a toon that we always love to hear him do, namely the Tokens’ “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” It’s not just the vocal precision you hear when he hits all the high notes, it’s also the way he recreates all of the jungle sounds and the hootin’ & hollerin’ you hear on the original record. Probably took a quartet of singers and a synthesizer to get that sound in the studio, but for “the human jukebox” it’s just a song in the life of a one-man band.

At this point the stage was turned over to the legendary local group Slipton Fell. Again, we will defer to Karen’s The Cottage Songbook for a concisely well-written band bio... Slipton Fell was formed by Pittsford- Mendon High School students Chris Cady, Steve Anderson, Mark DeAngelis, Dave Knight, and Jeff Decker, who added many original tunes to their repertoire. Their original songs plus excellent covers of Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, and Little Feat songs kept us all rocking. When Mark and Dave left the band, Joe West and Don Torpy became members. Sadly, Jeff Decker died in 2004 and Mark DeAngelis in 2021. Dave’s daughter, Jessie Knight,

joined them in 2012, as did Chris’ niece, Kit Cady. Their newest member since 2022 is Korie Pettee. Slipton Fell officially played as a band from August 13, 1978 to New Year’s Eve in 1981— only 3 1/2 years—but since 1982 they have played reunions and continue to do so today.

Steve Anderson led off with the acknowledgement that “Playing at the Cottage was the best idea I ever had in my life! We have played on this stage since 1978.” And in tribute to that legacy the first song they played was “(You Never Feel Alone) at the Cottage Hotel” followed by another local classic “Powder Mill.” We plan on closing this article with some lyrics from “(You Never Feel Alone) at the Cottage Hotel” so we’ll share a snippet from “Powder Mill” down below. But we will at this point share the fact that Karen Mireau was literally brought to tears by Slipton Fell’s performance of their “Cottage” song. She had never heard them play it live before and it made for one of the more memorable moments of the weekend. So here’s a Memory Lane moment from the other local song...

Walk with us into the summer.
Meet us down at Powder Mill.
We’ll drink some beers, count the years. We love you now, and always will.

FRIDAY ~ After such an eventful Thursday evening we woke up Friday looking to put together a time frame for Friday’s component of the 200th anniversary festivities which was to be headlined by thebandBuffaloRose.Theyareanational touring band who defines their genre as “Americana Folk” and, although we had never seen them live before, an exhaustive analysisoftheirmanyYouTubevideoshad put us in the position to know that they were really good.

They are based in Pittsburgh, and their very unique connection to The Cottage Hotel is that their dobro and guitar player Malcom “Mac” Inglis grew up on Parrish Road. When he sauntered onto the stage Friday night he was returning to the venue that was, “my very first time ever performing on stage.” Those historic

performances occurred during Sunday “Open Mic Nights” when he was actually tending bar at the Cottage so everyone in attendance was truly witnessing one of those magical “Circle of Life” moments.

We sent an email to band leader Shane McLaughlin asking about the Buffalo Rose setlist and schedule for the day. He wrote back, “Hey Tim and Deb, We don’t have a setlist quite yet, but I will send it to you once our bass player writes one up! We are going to do one long set, probably between 75-90 minutes. Hoping to start between 9:00 and 9:30. We will be kind of rushing to get there so we will start as soon as we are set up and sound checked. Thank you so much for taking the time to run and write this story. It is making the show even more special!”

Everything came off pretty much as scheduled and everyone there, including many of Mac’s friends and family, enjoyed yet another stellar evening being added to the Cottage’s legacy of live music. Buffalo Rose is a charismatic six-piece modern folk/Americana band. They take the singer- songwriter tradition to a new level by crafting original songs which are emotive, meticulously arranged, and inspired by a world of idiosyncratic influences that never let a dull or predictable moment creep in. Delicate and wild, thorny and untamed, Buffalo Rose weaves spiraling harmonies and gorgeously layered instrumentation into a captivating tapestry.

While we had seen Mac perform at the Cottage Open Mic Nights back in the day, and spoken with him on the phone during the process of writing our articles that preceded the show, we had never had the opportunity to sit down for aface-to-faceconversationwithhimwhich was a nice bonus to the evening’s events. The entire band was excited about having had the opportunity to participate in this specialhomecomingeventforMacInglis. After the show they pulled everyone back on stage for the picture of us with the band which you see here.
SATURDAY ~ When we walked into the Cottage on Saturday evening the joint was already hopping. Slipton Fell had returned to the stage where they first played in 1978 and were surrounded by a throng of their fans, friends and families who have supported them over the years. Their

rendition of “(You’ll Never Feel Alone) at The Cottage Hotel” had everyone in the bar singing along. The line, “The prettiest girls are at The Cottage Hotel” prompted shout-outs of virtually unanimous agreement.

They were followed by the Son Henry Band who, joined by Slipton Fell’s Chris Cady, delighted the crowd with their raucous set of classic rock and country. The dance floor was filled and the conga line was weaving throughout the room.

While sitting with Hilary Stott, she noticed Chris Cady on stage and made the comment, “This is what the Cottage is all about. It’s a generational thing; it’s all about family. Chris is up their playing with his second band of the night. His daughter Emily has come from Irondequoit to see him and has brought his granddaughter Nava Murgatroyd.” At that point Hilary orchestrated the tri-generational photo seen here.

Continuing to share her thoughts, Hilary went on to define her vision of what is the prevailing philosophy of The Cottage Hotel. “Let me explain the perception I instill in my employees during training,” Hilary said. “I tell them, ‘the people sitting in the chairs here are not the guests, you are. The Cottage belongs to its patrons. Their parents came here before them, they’re here now, and if their children aren’t here with them they will be someday. It is the philosophy of The Cottage Hotel that its patrons are the true owners.’”

As promised, we are going to fade out of our 200th anniversary celebration with select lines from Slipton Fell’s “(You’ll NeverFeelAlone)atTheCottageHotel.”

Hey, it’s me. I’m at the Cottage.
Yeah that’s right. I know, big surprise. So many roads we have travelled, Thechildrenhaveallgrown
But sittin’ here at this bar,
it still feels like home.

So raise your glass.
A toast to our lost loved ones.
May they always walk among us.
Be our shining light.
Every person here tonight has a story to tell. You’ll never be alone at the Cottage Hotel.