June 10 – Fairport, NY

Fairport Town Dock

"Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.” ―Michael Palin

Our next stop on our western travels was Fairport. It's a wonderful little town that really caters to boaters on the Erie. It was a beautiful stop..we met a few very nice people, enjoyed a local brewery and had an amazing dinner at Mr. Dominic's. The Village of Fairport is a suburb east of Rochester. It's known as the "Crown Jewel of the Erie Canal" and was named as one of the "Best Places to Live" by Money Magazine in 2005. From what we could see wandering around and from the canal...I can see why. 

What became the village of Fairport was a swampy area until the 1820s, when it was drained during the construction of the Erie Canal. It quickly became a busy canal port with a reputation for being a "fair port." Legend has it that Fairport acquired its name in the mid-19th century from a traveler on the Erie Canal who was overheard at a tavern referring to the village as a fair port. It's also said that the same visitor vociferously complained the next morning that the Millstone Block Hotel had bedbugs, and he stormed out of Fairport, never to return. The name, however, stuck.

Typical countryside today.

We had two locks today...we went up 32'

The view from the top of Lock 29

A few of the little fishing homes we saw today

Fairport is much busier than the other stops we've made so far.

The Lift Bridge in Fairport has allegedly appeared in Ripley's Believe It or Not because of its unusual construction. The bridge is an irregular decagon, a ten-sided structure, and crosses the canal at a 32-degree angle. No two angles in the bridge are the same, and no corners on the bridge are square. It's one of sixteen vertical lift bridges located along the western portion of the Erie Canal between Fairport and Lockport. 

Looking east from the bridge...can you see The Pearl.

Fairport Village Hall built in 1906 

It was a wonderful afternoon so we sat on the patio of this brewery and enjoyed a few beers.

The dockmasters building used to be Stop 22's waiting station of the Rochester Syracuse Eastern Rapid Trolly line that operated from 1906 to 1931. 

The building that is now Mr. Dominic’s Restaurant and the Green Lantern Inn was originally built as a private home for the DeLand family in 1876. It became an inn in 1928.