Cheshire School

The Cheshire Union and Company Store is a lively gathering place for residents of Cheshire as well as the surrounding rural district and the west side lakefront. When it was built in 1915, it was a different kind of gathering place - the District #5 School. The four-room "modern" schoolhouse replaced four rural one-room schoolhouses within a few miles of Cheshire. It served grades one through eight. The school's modern conveniences included indoor bathrooms, a woodworking shop, and school bus service. In the winters of the 1940s, children were invited to bring a potato to school and carve their initials in the potato. The potatoes were baked through the morning and eaten at lunch time.

When Canandaigua consolidated its rural schools in 1954 and built the central Elementary School, the Cheshire School became obsolete. It was vacant for about 20 years until John and Barb Rose purchased it to move and expand their grocery business, the Company Store, at the lower level. The four upper level classrooms have housed a host of small businesses since then - antiques and gift shops, art galleries, wines and spirits, and others. The original wood floors and trim, tin ceilings and cloakrooms remain intact.