The Greystone Inn - a bunting story

Photo: Cathy Pisarski

What is more American than flying the flag on the Fourth of July? For this past Fourth of July 2019, Cathy and Tony Pisarski decided that hanging bright red, white, and blue bunting on their long second floor verandah was the way to celebrate not only the founding of America, but of the Town of Clayton. Their Greystone Inn, built around 1815, has much history to celebrate.

 It was here, where five roads meet on the highest spot in the town of Clayton, that the Clayton Charter was signed on June 4, 1833. The document drew borders separating the Clayton from the towns of Orleans and Lyme. The charter also created an overseer of the poor in the district, a commissioner of schools, and several "pathmasters" whose duties included filling mud holes in the town's roads. Greystone Inn at that time was owned by early settler Isaac L. Carter and the site was called Carter's Corners, later renamed Clayton Corners. The house itself is of very evenly coursed blocks of local limestone. Windows and doors are topped with large lintels. The gable ends boast fine stone chimneys and there is a wooden addition at the rear. The entrance to its center hall has side lights that brighten the interior under the long second floor verandah.

 In 1983, to honor their 150th anniversary, the Town of Clayton Board members re-enacted the signing of the charter on an oak table in the front room of the inn. Town Supervisor Gordon D. Cerow, Jr. wearing a top hat and lacey cravat, used a quill pen to sign the parchment charter copy. Others, also dressed in period costume, looked on with approval. The Watertown Times noted that Councilwoman Vivian Black, in long gown and bonnet, was the first woman in the history of the town to sit on the council. In 1833, "women were 90 years away from being granted the right to vote, let alone be on the council." Today, women are prominent in town leadership.

Francis and Geraldine Kirkey, new owners of Greystone Inn in 1983, rushed to repair and refurbish the front room and porch for the commemorative event. The house had been unoccupied for two years and the Kirkeys planned to turn the old inn into a bed and breakfast. The ballroom would become bedrooms. The inn which had functioned as a stage coach stop, a post office (at the rear), and a tavern, would have a new life.

 Today the Pisarski's are the good stewards of this fine old stone inn. They paint the trim and see to the well. They keep alive its stories of travelers watching from the verandah for a coach to take them to Depauville or Watertown. They know where the outside door used to be for men to enter the tavern directly. Women used the front door of the inn and had their own seating area. Then they point across the road to the fields that were cultivated for the farm. They cherish the inn's historic connections, family memories, and that great long wooden verandah that proudly flies the bunting.

 Information supplied in part by Town of Clayton Historian, Thomas F. LaClair