Photo of original building 101 South Main Street from the Naples Historical Society archives (date unknown)
The popular distillary is rebounding from May 12 total loss fire
The Naples Historical Society has sold one of their properties located at 101 South Main Street (corner of Main and Mill Streets) to Spirit Run LLC (Hollerhorn Distilling). The property consists of a small building called “the tin shop” and green space named Beth Flory Park after past president Beth Flory who was responsible for the restoration of the Historical Society’s Morgan Hose Building in the 1990’s.
Since Hollerhorn’s devastating fire earlier this spring, the Neubauer’s realized the importance in opening a satellite tasting room sooner than planned. They had been thinking about expanding in that direction for a few years. They also felt the importance of keeping the heart of Main Street Naples humming and vibrant not only for the community, but for the many visitors now and in the future. Plans were to be able to start the renovation/build out sooner, and open for fall tourism, but with all the work ahead rebuilding the distillery, expectations are being adjusted. These projects are a long-term investment in the community, and in our future, and they want to make sure all details are in place for this to be a success. Along with offering Hollerhorn spirits and merchandise for sale in the new tasting room, it will be a one stop shop for cocktail enthusiasts and cigar aficionados. Offerings will include all the necessary tools, shakers, strainers, glassware, bitters, amaros, vermouths, and many cocktail curiosities to keep everyone happy, along with an extensive offering of hand rolled cigars! This new space will allow the distillery to expand on all they had offered in their previous retail space, and they will be doing exclusive single barrel Spirit bottlings for whiskey enthusiasts as well!
The property’s history:
According to an 1874 map, (one of the earliest maps in the historical society’s archives), 101 South Main was owned by H. H. Watrous with a building listed as a hardware store. (The Watrous family lived in the house that formerly was the Orange Inn). Through the years, the property has served as the E. Wells & Company Hardware Store, Edgar Haynes & Company (Grocery) store, and an appliance store owned by Amos Ippolito (who also owned the 5 & 10 cent store on Main Street). The building was ravaged by fire in the 1970’s, torn down, and the space turned into a park.
The small “tin shop” building can be found on Naples Sanborn Fire Maps in 1886, listed as a wooden two-story frame building, however the building is believed to have been built before then. At some point the second story was removed. The building once served as an annex for Haynes Grocery. Dr. Paul Neidert purchased the property in 1979 and used the building as his Chiropractic Office. After closing his practice, the building has housed various businesses. In the 1990’s Greta and David Love offered massage therapy in the building (Finger Lakes Massage, later named Finger Lakes Natural Health). The Naples Historical Society purchased the property from Dr. Neidert in 2012 and since then, it has served as a storage facility for some of the society’s collections.
Naples Historical Society President, Trish Lambiase is pleased the historic structure will be restored and used again to bring vibrancy back to that corner on Main Street. A tasting room will add to the plethora of tourist activities in Naples.
Karl and Melissa state “We have always loved the tin shop and have often envisioned fixing it up to make that corner of Main Street shine a little more. We would like to reiterate our humble thanks for the incredible support of our entire community during the last 4 years, and especially in the months following the fire at Hollerhorn. Our hopes are high for Naples in the coming years, and our goal is to add to the vibrant and growing business district in the village moving forward.”
The Naples Historical Society owns three additional buildings – The Morgan Hose Building at 22 Mill Street which houses the society’s office, meeting space and archives; the Red Mill, 4 Wall Street, a storage facility for artifacts; and the Cleveland House, 201 North Main Street, which opened as a museum in 2019.
Read our original reporting on the devastating fire at Hollerhorn in May:
