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History · Fair Haven

Fair Haven’s post office opened in 1852, and 45% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1870.

1852first post office
1on the National Register
45%homes built before 1940
5old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Fair Haven’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Fair Haven began

When was Fair Haven founded?

1852

The Fair Haven post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 532 in 18702020 census: 760174 years
Founding year: the first Fair Haven post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Fair Haven’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

On the map since 19004 editions of the USGS map, 1900 to 1960. Watch Fair Haven change.Old housesHalf of Fair Haven’s homes were built before 1943.
★ What stands out · On the map

Fair Haven on the map, 1900 to 1960

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fair Haven. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Fair Haven on the 1900 USGS mapFair Haven on the 1943 USGS mapFair Haven on the 1954 USGS mapFair Haven on the 1960 USGS map1900Oswego sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fair Haven.

The story

How Fair Haven came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fair Haven.

Read it all →

The village first gained prominence as a port on the south shore of Lake Ontario. The openings in the sand bars on Little Sodus Bay were widened and protected by jetties in the middle of the 19th century, thus improving the shipping capabilities of Fair Haven. The west pier was later marked with a wooden outer lighthouse with a fourth order Fresnel lens and in 1873 a light keepers house was built on shore which still stands. Sometime later an inner lighthouse was added.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Fair Haven in 1879

Passages that mention Fair Haven, cut from the printed page as they were published.

The first store at Fair Haven was started by Garrison Taylor, about 1825, in the building he now occupies, on Lake street.
History of Cayuga County, New York1879Read the page →
Read the text

The first store at Fair Haven was started by Garrison Taylor, about 1825, in the building he now occupies, on Lake street.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Joseph Bunnell and John Turner, from Long Island, settled in 181 1, the former a little west of Peter Dumas, and the latter at Fair Haven. Turner traded his possessions in L. I. for a farm of 140 acres in Sterling, in 1804, and induced his son, Isaac, who was then becoming of age to accompany the f…
History of Cayuga County, New York1879Read the page →
Read the text

Joseph Bunnell and John Turner, from Long Island, settled in 181 1, the former a little west of Peter Dumas, and the latter at Fair Haven. Turner traded his possessions in L. I. for a farm of 140 acres in Sterling, in 1804, and induced his son, Isaac, who was then becoming of age to accompany the family in making the settlement.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Fair Haven, 1875 to 1923

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1875In the archiveGaines Town of Business Notices.; Fair Haven (Village); Gaines (Township); Eagle Harbor (…
  3. 20th century
  4. 1900In the archiveHigh School
  5. 1900On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1923In the archiveFair Haven NY Presby PHS791
By decade

Fair Haven, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1870s–1920s4 items
Gaines Town of Business Notices.; Fair Haven (Village); Gaines (Township); Eagle Harbor (Village)1875Gaines Town of Business Notices.; Fair Haven (Village…High School1900High SchoolCayuga County, Left Page (Map of village of Fairhaven)1904Cayuga County, Left Page (Map of village of Fairhaven)MapFair Haven NY Presby PHS7911923Fair Haven NY Presby PHS791
1930s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Date unknown1 to date
Fair Haven (Village)Date?Fair Haven (Village)
Today1 recent
Public meeting Fair Haven, New York, 10 June 2019, for proposed Lake Ontario National Marine Sancturay2019Public meeting Fair Haven, New York, 10 June 2019, fo…
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Gaines Town of Business Notices.; Fair Haven (Village); Gaines (Township); Eagle Harbor (Village)
Retake this viewGaines Town of Business Notices.; Fair Haven (Village); Gaines (Township); Eagle Harbor (Village), 1875

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Fair Haven’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Fair Haven

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Fair Haven, census by census

02004006008001,00018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 976

Between 471 and 976 people in every census since 1870.

16 censuses, 1870–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fair Haven’s Wikipedia page.

Help out

Start Fair Haven’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fair Haven’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewGaines Town of Business Notices.; Fair …: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Sterling3 historic placesA

Questions about Fair Haven’s history

What year was Fair Haven founded?

The Fair Haven post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.