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From the Gowanda PennySaver News "Reflections" series compiled by Mary Pankow. issue date - May 6, 2001

circa 1890

The Mansion House, R.H. Irish Groceries - Around 1836, Phineas Spencer builds the Mansion House at the corner of Jamestown and West Main streets. Managed by Zebedee Macomber, the Mansion House is a three-story square building with a basement. On April 4, 1840, a "large meeting of those friendly to the election of William Henry Harrison" is held at the hotel and the Tippecanoe Club is formed. Seeley Blackney buys the Mansion House in 1852, but the Great Fire of 1856 takes its toll not only on the hotel but on much of the village as well. A strong draft causes the flames from the wooden covered bridge to shoot over to the square, destroying the Mansion House. The April 1, 1859 edition of the "Gowanda Reporter" states "Orlando Allen, E.S. Griswold and the Messrs. Blackney are erecting new buildings on the site of the old Mansion House. The frontage will be 45 feet on West Main Street and 93 feet on Jamestown Street." Eventually R.H. Irish Groceries sets up at the location. An ad in the 1909 Carnival of Flowers booklet reads: "This space belongs to R.H. Irish, the Corner Grocer, who guarantees everything he sends out, and if it is not right, he will make it right. Yours for business, R.H. Irish on the corner. PS ... He sometimes tells the truth." (Photo courtesy of the Gowanda Area Historical Society.)