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There used to be a beautiful three-story hotel where the Blue Heron and the Chaumont Laundromat now stand. The building was originally a mansion built by Oren Schuyler Wilcox (1833-1906). Wilcox was born at Point Peninsula Village, which was then called Wilcoxville. As a young man Oren worked as a sailor on Lake Ontario, and then as a store clerk in Detroit and New York City, before he returned to Lyme. He used his mercantile experience to open two successful stores on Point Peninsula and Three Mile Bay. In 1875 he moved to Chaumont and opened a store in the village. He built his elaborate, 17-room home for the tremendous sum of $6,000. Unfortunately, the Chaumont store did not meet with the success of his others. He was forced to file for bankruptcy and to sell the house. In 1889 Clark Wilday bought the Wilcox residence and reopened it as the National Hotel. It passed through a number of owners and operators, including Mark S. Morehouse, A.J. Shepard, O.P. Reed, Delos Reed, George Diefendorf, Harry Wells, Lewis Ells, Claude Phelps, R.J. Saxe, and Grace Adams. In 1945 Miss Adams sold the building to George M. Carney and John C. Boulier, who combined their last names to re-christen it as “The Carlier Hotel.” The Carlier contained a bar room and lounge in the basement, two dining rooms and kitchens on the main floor, six bedrooms for guests on the second floor, and living quarters for Mr. Carney’s family on the third floor. On March 31, 1957 Leo Bourn, the bartender, opened the bar at about 1 p.m. and found flames shooting out of the registers from the basement. Former volunteer firefighter, Glenn Dodge (now 102 years old), recalls that day: On April 1, 1957, I was at George Brothers Hardware store when the fire siren sounded. At that time, I was fleet of foot and so I ran to the fire hall on Mill Street, opened the doors and proceeded to take the old Ford pumper to the cistern on Horse Creek. I had already hooked up one section of suction line with the second section ready to connect when Leo West came running up yelling that they need the ladder at the hotel. It so happened that Lyle and Danny Warner were first on the scene and rushed up the stairs to check if there were people in any of the rooms. By the time they had reached the top floor, the stairwell was filled with fire and smoke. Luckily, they were able to reach the cupola on the top of the roof. The ladder was carried on a rack on the pumper. It was a wooden extension ladder with three 20’ sections. It took four men to handle it. It required two men at the base of the ladder to pull the rope to extend the two top sections and two men with pike poles to steady the ladder, keep it away from the building and rest it above the eaves. Thankfully, Lyle and Danny were able to come down the roof, grab the rails and escape down the ladder. Just two weeks before the fire, we had trained on handling he ladder at the old fire hall. I’m so glad we had that training. This fire is the only time that I know of that the ladder was ever used. The response to the fire was tremendous. Firefighters reported from Chaumont, Cape Vincent, Three Mile Bay, Black River, Adams Center, the Town of Watertown, Clayton, Depauville, LaFargeville, Brownville, Dexter, and Glen Park, with Sackets Harbor standing by. Victor Bourn, Chaumont Fire Department chief (and son of the bartender, Leo Bourn), oversaw all fire-fighting operations. The fire was later determined to have started in the furnace. In 1958 the Carneys built a one story, cement block building on the site, but nearer to Main Street. They called it the “New Carlier Restaurant.” They were able to move the bar, which Maurice and John Carney had built, from the ruins of the Old Carlier Hotel into the new restaurant. In 1968 the Carneys sold the restaurant to Lyle Warner. Subsequent owners have been George Pound, Steve Borden, and William and Laurie Borden. The current owner is Cari Greene, who re-named the restaurant The Blue Heron. Sources:
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