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NOW & THEN: 2 WEST MAIN STREET, WEBSTER, NY
Now — The Mary Wee Pub
The Mary Wee Pub exterior at 2 West Main Street, showing the stone-faced entrance, black awning, pub sign, and outdoor seating.
Today, 2 West Main Street is home to The Mary Wee Pub, which opened in 2024. The small pub occupies the southwest corner of West Main Street and South Avenue, one of the village’s Four Corners.
As you look at the building today, imagine the different businesses that have occupied this corner: a plumbing shop surrounded by gardens, a service station with pumps beside the street, and an earlier cobblestone store. The address connects these chapters, even though the original stone building is gone.
2011–2023 — Barry’s Old School Irish
Danny and Jessica Barry opened Barry’s Old School Irish here in 2011. Live music, Irish celebrations, and conversation made the small pub a gathering place for residents and visitors. Barry’s closed this location in September 2023, before the space was renovated for its next occupants.
A gathering outside Barry’s Old School Irish at 2 West Main Street, with musicians, drums, Irish flags, and the stone-faced pub exterior.
2008 — Living Water Plumbing
Before the Irish pubs, Robert Richards operated Living Water Plumbing here. A 2001 advertisement identifies the business as “The Living Water Plumber” at 2 West Main Street.
The exterior photograph supplied as May 12, 2008 shows an arched “Plumbing at Its Best” sign, a stone-faced entrance, and peaked roofs. Trees, shrubs, flowers, and a small garden occupied the area where gasoline pumps once stood. A Mother’s Day message beside the sidewalk added a personal touch to the busy corner.
Living Water Plumbing exterior. Date supplied with the photograph: May 12, 2008.
By 1970 — Rick’s Citgo
A November 4, 1970 advertisement in The Webster Herald lists Rick’s Citgo at 2 West Main Street, “At The 4 Corners.” The station offered cooling-system service, antifreeze, snow tires, and batteries.
The exterior photograph shows the red-and-white Rick’s Citgo sign, gasoline pumps, and an open service bay. Cars stand outside the garage, including one with its hood raised. This was a working automotive corner before its later conversion to a plumbing storefront.
Rick’s Citgo at 2 West Main Street. Photograph date unconfirmed; the business is documented here in November 1970.
1960 — Don Quinn’s Cities Service Station
By November 17, 1960, a Webster Herald advertisement identifies the business at this address as Don Quinn’s Cities Service Station. Its promotion offered free gasoline when the pump stopped on selected dollar amounts, inviting customers to stop in for “service with a smile.”
The advertisement documents another operator in the corner’s service station history, between the Hamel and Rick’s Citgo chapters.
1940s–1950s — Hamel’s Service Station
Jerry Hamel operated the corner station for about a year before entering military service in 1942. Before taking over, he had worked there for former owners Clem and Tim Wahle. Following four years in the Army Air Corps, he returned to operate the business, known as Jerry’s Esso Station.
An undated newspaper profile describes Jerry and coworker Tom McCormick working twelve-hour days, their red caps a familiar sight at the Four Corners. Friends and relatives stopped at the station to talk and watch village life through its large windows.
The supplied exterior photograph shows three gasoline pumps and displays of motor oil. A promotional banner refers to the “generation of 1954,” providing a clue to its period without establishing the exact photograph date.
Hamel’s Service Station. The banner references 1954; exact photograph date unconfirmed.
1937 — A New Esso Service Station
After the cobblestone building was demolished, a new Esso station brought gasoline sales and automotive service to the corner. An opening advertisement announced Saturday, November 13, 1937, as opening day.
The station was owned by Webaco Oil Company and was to be operated by William Kielon of Webster. It advertised Esso products, Atlas tires, batteries, and accessories. The photograph in the advertisement shows the low brick building, large windows, garage bay, and pumps that defined this new chapter of the site.
The new Esso service station, pictured in its 1937 opening advertisement. William Kielon was named as its operator.
After 1900 — The Cobblestone Corner
Before the service station, a two-story cobblestone building stood here. The supplied photograph labeled “after 1900” shows its storefront facing South Avenue and its longer side along West Main Street.
Notice the trolley tracks crossing the foreground, overhead utility wires, and bicycles near the entrance. The view records the earlier building within a village streetscape already being changed by transportation and new infrastructure.
The former Reynolds and Hendee building. The supplied image is labeled “after 1900”; exact date unknown. Based upon the (silient) movie poster for "The Deadwood Coach" starring Tom Mix, this photo would have been taken some time after December 7, 1924.
1800s — Hendee’s Store
Robert F. Hendee and his son operated a general store in the cobblestone building. A local historical account also records that Hendee made and sold simple coffins and served as postmaster beginning in 1873.
The photograph credited to George Wall shows the Hendee storefront beside George J. Sager’s Domestic Bakery. Large display windows, steps up to the entrances, and American flags mark the two businesses. Sager’s sign advertises groceries, fruit, and confectionery.
A second, undated view shows the same building from the corner, with barrels stacked beside its cobblestone wall. Together, these images preserve a village shopping destination that disappeared when the site became a service station.
Hendee’s store beside George J. Sager’s Domestic Bakery. Photo credited to George Wall; date unknown.
Another view of the cobblestone Hendee store at the southwest corner. Date unknown.
Early 1800s — The Reynolds Building
Local historical accounts associate the cobblestone building with Dr. Oliver Reynolds, a physician, inventor, and postmaster. A historian-assisted account dates its construction to around 1830, although the precise construction year remains unconfirmed.
Reynolds served as postmaster from 1834 to 1849. The building later housed Hendee’s store, and local history records Webster Masonic Lodge meetings here from 1864 to 1884.
The Reynolds and Hendee names refer to different chapters of the same building’s history. Though the cobblestone structure no longer stands, its photographs help us picture the commercial corner that preceded today’s 2 West Main Street.
SOURCES
The Mary Wee Pub — Webster Chamber of Commerce
https://websterchamber.com/members/the-mary-wee-pub
A brief history of Barry’s corner — Missy Rosenberry, with assistance from historian Lynn Barton, October 17, 2023
https://websterontheweb.com/2023/10/17/a-brief-history-of-barrys-corner/
The Penny Farthing — Historian’s Corner by Lynn Barton, March 2025
https://webstermuseum.org/front/The_Penny_Farthing_March_2025.pdf
New Irish pub coming to the village of Webster — Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, March 11, 2024, republished by AOL
https://www.aol.com/news/irish-pub-coming-village-webster-162802926.html
Supplied newspaper clippings: Esso opening advertisement, 1937; Hamel’s Service Station advertisement, July 10, 1947; undated Jerry Hamel profile; Don Quinn’s Cities Service advertisement, November 17, 1960; Rick’s Citgo advertisement, November 4, 1970; Living Water Plumber advertisement, July 18–19, 2001.
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