Sonnenberg Gardens repair work begins

Andrea Deckert//June 14, 2013//

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A major roof repair project has begun at the Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park in Canandaigua, the Finger Lakes Economic Development Council said Tuesday.

The project is supported by a $43,000 award Sonnenberg received through Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s regional council initiative to strengthen the historic park’s place as a leading Finger Lakes tourism destination.

Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park is a late 19th-century Victorian estate with a Queen Anne-style mansion and nine historic, themed gardens of the world.

Sonnenberg is the former summer home of Frederick Ferris Thompson, a prominent banker in New York City in the late 1800s, and his wife, Mary Clark Thompson, the daughter of New York Gov. Myron Holley Clark.

The project continues the stabilization of the Roman bath, a pool and enclosing structure built on the mansion grounds for Mary Clark Thompson in 1914. The roof repair will replace the clay roof tiles and gutter system to save the structure from further decay. The original tile maker, Ludowici Co. of Ohio, manufactured all the replacement tiles for the project.

This past February the non-profit organization that operates Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion was awarded a $15,000 grant from the Davenport-Hatch Foundation of Pittsford to secure the remainder of the matching grant for the $86,000 project. The project is expected to be completed by the end of July.

"This 50-acre estate is one of the few remaining in the United States distinctive for extraordinary collections of period architecture, statuary, floral displays, fountains and a conservatory greenhouse complex," said David Hutchings, Sonnenberg’s executive director, in a statement.

"The non-profit is very excited about being able to secure funding through the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council to restore this structure for Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park as we steward the legacy of the Canandaigua Thompson family estate," he said.