
The Village Green Shopping Center
840 Hanshaw Road
Year Built: 1967
Architect: Robert Tallman
Some twenty years after the Corners Community Center was built, the Village Green Shopping Center added to the commercial vitality of the village.
Williamsburg Park developer Lagrand Chase and hardware store owner Fay D. Hewitt purchased the property at 840 Hanshaw Road in 1966.[1] At the time, the lot included the “Stone House” built by Dorothy Cornell. Chase & Hewitt Realty sold the Stone House to the Village for use as the village hall in 1969.[2]
840 Hanshaw Road
Year Built: 1967
Architect: Robert Tallman
Some twenty years after the Corners Community Center was built, the Village Green Shopping Center added to the commercial vitality of the village.
Williamsburg Park developer Lagrand Chase and hardware store owner Fay D. Hewitt purchased the property at 840 Hanshaw Road in 1966.[1] At the time, the lot included the “Stone House” built by Dorothy Cornell. Chase & Hewitt Realty sold the Stone House to the Village for use as the village hall in 1969.[2]
Architect Robert Tallman [3] designed the two-story modern strip shopping mall. The first floor was intended to house retail stores, and the second story offices. The plan included a full basement as well.[4]
From its inception, the Village Green offered a range of retail offerings and professional services for village residents. Hewitt’s Hardware was the first tenant, and Fay Hewitt also operated Post Office Substation #5 for a few years at the shopping center. Brooks Pharmacy anchored the Village Green for a decade, though the Village Market (known as “The Big M”) lasted only a few years. Robinson & Carpenter’s succeeded Hewitt’s as a quick stop for home-improvement products. The shopping center also had a sports store, as well as realty and insurance offices and several medical professionals.[5]
Beginning in 1969,[6] the Village Green housed the popular franchise Mister Donut, the main national sales competitor to Dunkin’ Donuts.[7] In a food era deemed “the donut boom” by The Washington Post,[8] the shop attracted customers for coffee and 31 varieties of the sweet treats, including the “Honeydip.”[9]
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To cut down on potential disturbances to neighboring homes, the owners of the doughnut shop promised to close before 10 p.m. and limit seating. "Most of the consumption of donuts would be off premises," the owner's lawyer promised village trustees.[10] Doughnut consumption must have proved a peaceful enough activity, because the Mister Donut store was a community institution for some two decades.
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In the early 1970s, the Savage Club of Ithaca transformed the basement space into a “rathskellar”[11] for club meetings. The club’s former president, George “Tim” Butts, constructed a stage for the popular performing group to rehearse their songs and skits.[12]
A men's social club since 1895, the Savage Club is made up of Cornell and Ithaca-area singers, musicians, jugglers, and other entertainers.[13] Members still perform some of the old numbers at Cornell reunions, including "Last Night on the Back Porch" (the title of the Savage Club's 1973 Reunion Show) and “There is a Tavern Known as Zinck’s,” about the Ithaca restaurant and student hangout run by Theodore Zinck on North Aurora Street.[14]
The Village Green meeting space played a leading role in the Savage Club's 1974 Cornell reunion show, with the opening scene "simulat[ing] a regular meeting of the SAVAGE CLUB at the Rathskellar."[15] The club moved its headquarters across the street to Community Corners through 1984, and then back to the Village Green for a number of years in the mid-1980s.[16]
A men's social club since 1895, the Savage Club is made up of Cornell and Ithaca-area singers, musicians, jugglers, and other entertainers.[13] Members still perform some of the old numbers at Cornell reunions, including "Last Night on the Back Porch" (the title of the Savage Club's 1973 Reunion Show) and “There is a Tavern Known as Zinck’s,” about the Ithaca restaurant and student hangout run by Theodore Zinck on North Aurora Street.[14]
The Village Green meeting space played a leading role in the Savage Club's 1974 Cornell reunion show, with the opening scene "simulat[ing] a regular meeting of the SAVAGE CLUB at the Rathskellar."[15] The club moved its headquarters across the street to Community Corners through 1984, and then back to the Village Green for a number of years in the mid-1980s.[16]
Today, the Village Green's updated storefronts house a mix of retail businesses and professional offices. An upscale hair salon offers spa services, and medical specialists provide allergy treatments and physical therapy. A pizza parlor, voted Ithaca’s Best Pizza by Cornell graduate students in 2008,[17] draws villagers and neighboring residents with its friendly atmosphere and hearty “pies,” calzones, and Mediterranean food. The small-scale shopping center continues to serve as a community meeting space in an era of bypass highways and “Big Box” stores.
ENDNOTES:
[1] Ithaca Deed Book 462, Page 995, June 1, 1966.
[2] Ithaca Deed Book 480, Page 979, April 30, 1969.
[3] Minutes, Regular meeting of the Village of Cayuga Heights Board of Trustees, May 9, 1966, p. 36.
[4] Minutes, Regular meeting of the Village of Cayuga Heights Board of Trustees, May 9, 1966, p. 42.
[5] Manning’s Ithaca Phone Directories, volumes for years 1967-1986.
[6] The Cornell Daily Sun, Volume 86, Number 33, 24 October 1969, p. 22.
[7] Fiedler, Terry G., “Ready for a Round of Change,” New England Business, 8.19, Nov. 17, 1986: p. 41.
[8] Frederic Hunter, “The Donut Boom,” The Washington Post, November 21, 1974, p. E8.
[9] The Cornell Daily Sun, Volume 86, Number 33, 24 October 1969, p. 22.
[10] Minutes, Public Hearing and Special Meeting, Board of Trustees of the Village of Cayuga Heights, Monday, July 29, 1968, p. 192.
[11] The Cornell Daily Sun, Volume LXXV, Number 5, 26 September 1958, p. 14.
[12] George S. Butts (1899-1975), Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement, http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/17813.
[13] http://www.savageclubofithaca.com/about/.
[14] Joyce H. Finch (ed.), As I Remember; Recollections of Allan H. Treman, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cornell University Libraries, Ithaca, New York, 1979, pp. 63-72; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPqEc-8x_Zs; https://www.alumni.cornell.edu/zincks/index.cfm.
[15] "Noinuer ta Segavas" Program, June 15, 1974, Savage Club of Ithaca, New York records, #37-6-1618. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
[16] Manning’s Ithaca Phone Directory, volumes for years 1972-1986 show the Savage Club at the Village Green in 1972 and 1973 and again in 1985 and 1986. From 1978 to 1984, the club headquarters are listed at Community Corners.
[17] http://nedspizzaithaca.com/.
[1] Ithaca Deed Book 462, Page 995, June 1, 1966.
[2] Ithaca Deed Book 480, Page 979, April 30, 1969.
[3] Minutes, Regular meeting of the Village of Cayuga Heights Board of Trustees, May 9, 1966, p. 36.
[4] Minutes, Regular meeting of the Village of Cayuga Heights Board of Trustees, May 9, 1966, p. 42.
[5] Manning’s Ithaca Phone Directories, volumes for years 1967-1986.
[6] The Cornell Daily Sun, Volume 86, Number 33, 24 October 1969, p. 22.
[7] Fiedler, Terry G., “Ready for a Round of Change,” New England Business, 8.19, Nov. 17, 1986: p. 41.
[8] Frederic Hunter, “The Donut Boom,” The Washington Post, November 21, 1974, p. E8.
[9] The Cornell Daily Sun, Volume 86, Number 33, 24 October 1969, p. 22.
[10] Minutes, Public Hearing and Special Meeting, Board of Trustees of the Village of Cayuga Heights, Monday, July 29, 1968, p. 192.
[11] The Cornell Daily Sun, Volume LXXV, Number 5, 26 September 1958, p. 14.
[12] George S. Butts (1899-1975), Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement, http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/17813.
[13] http://www.savageclubofithaca.com/about/.
[14] Joyce H. Finch (ed.), As I Remember; Recollections of Allan H. Treman, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cornell University Libraries, Ithaca, New York, 1979, pp. 63-72; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPqEc-8x_Zs; https://www.alumni.cornell.edu/zincks/index.cfm.
[15] "Noinuer ta Segavas" Program, June 15, 1974, Savage Club of Ithaca, New York records, #37-6-1618. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
[16] Manning’s Ithaca Phone Directory, volumes for years 1972-1986 show the Savage Club at the Village Green in 1972 and 1973 and again in 1985 and 1986. From 1978 to 1984, the club headquarters are listed at Community Corners.
[17] http://nedspizzaithaca.com/.
Patricia Longoria, Deputy Historian 2016