Brighton Bicentennial

On Saturday, April 5, Charlie and I attended Historic Brighton’s re-creation of the first meeting of the Town of Brighton.  We were bused from a nearby church (courtesy of Wegman’s, after a lunch also graciously donated by them) to the Stone Tolan House, the oldest building in Monroe County.  It was originally a tavern, owned by Orringh Stone, and was where, on April 5, 1814, the newly formed town of Brighton (when the town of Smallwood was divided into Brighton and Pittsford) had its first meeting.  Even though Charlie grew up in Brighton, he’d never been to this museum, and I will have to return sometime just to learn more about the building itself (and make sure I got my facts straight…).

The reenactment in the tavern room was only a snippet, but it gave us a sense of the concerns of the time.  Four actors portrayed some of the town fathers, who were drawing up Brighton’s charter and electing officers.  Before calling the meeting to order, there was a good deal of discussion about the safety of the community and protecting it from potential invasion by the British – it had never occurred to me that the British were a threat to Rochester, but they had already made two raids on nearby Charlotte by 1814!

In 1814, only male property owners could vote.  (In 2014, every citizen can theoretically vote, although one party is making it more difficult for minorities and the elderly to exercise their rights.  Just as in 1814, money and politics go hand in hand today, especially with the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in the Citizens United case, which removed campaign restrictions on special interest groups, and the McCutcheon case, which overturned limits on aggregate federal campaign contributions.  So while each citizen has a vote, wealthy corporations or individuals retain an undue influence on the system. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…).

At the meeting in 1814, one of the gentlemen moved to table the election of officers until more “letters” were received.  I got the sense, from the meeting excerpt, that the election proceeded anyway (similar to Rochester’s mayor recently appointing a police commissioner without waiting for the resume submission deadline?).  And another gentlemen digressed to complain about his particular problem with his neighbors.

After the parlor, we were shepherded into the kitchen, where “Sally West,” who was helping care for the Stone’s 8 children after the death of their mother, offered to barter some dry goods for food, which they were in short supply of after the long winter.  Then “Olive,” the 15-year old daughter, took us to the parlor, where she complained a bit about her overprotective father, who was trying to keep Sally’s brother from wooing her. 

The reenactment, complete with costumes on loan from the Genesee Country Museum, was both charming and interesting;  I definitely left wanting to know more.  As we exited the house, we “reentered” 2014 and headed to the barn, which dates from the 1860s, when the Stones sold the property to the Tolans.  There, Brighton town supervisor, Bill Moehle, explained that Brighton is about 79% smaller than it originally was.  Much of the town was annexed into the city of Rochester, including Genesee Valley Park and, in 1905, the village of Brighton, which was at the corner of East and Winton (hence the location of the Brighton Post Office, and the Brighton Restaurant). 

I asked Mr. Moehle about the 624 local governments in our county, and he explained that  some of them are neighborhood districts for services such as refuse collection or snow removal, and that these require no extra staff or expenses.  He said he’s in favor of consolidating services when it can save money, but didn’t offer any suggestions. Someone else questioned the high percentage of Brighton property that is tax exempt (approximately 25%). Mr. Moehle cited some obscure town in New York that has some insanely high percentage, rather than explain, as I found from a quick googling of statistics for New York, that 25% is actually, incredibly, about average. A good portion of the property included in that figure is residences with STAR exemptions, but the impact is mostly from government and non-profit (religious, charitable, educational, hospital) properties. In any case, he did mention that local governments are working with the University of Rochester for payments in lieu of taxes to support the services they receive.

 

Another group was pressing behind us, so reluctantly, we let them enter.  Happy bicentennial, Brighton!