union hotel

Tom Dix is looking for a little help from his friends as he and his mother carry on their mission of renovating the historic Union Hotel at the corner of Main Street and Maple Avenue in the Village of Corfu.

Dix, who owns Potter Lumber on Maple Avenue with his mom, Mary, is in the midst of the monumental task of bringing the restaurant, bar, eight-lane bowling center and, eventually, the 16-room hotel back to life.

Determined as ever, he said it’s a matter of “when” and not “if” the project is completed.

Purchased by Tom and Mary in September 2018 – they closed on the property on the birthday of Mary’s late husband, Bill – the 25,000-square foot, three-story building has had multiple owners over the years.

It was built in 1828 and served as a stagecoach stop for travelers passing through Western New York in the 19^th century. The facility has been closed since around 2013.

Tom Dix said he and his mom couldn’t stand by anymore and watch it deteriorate further.

“We would drive by every day, sometimes twice a day, and saw that it was dying and falling apart,” he said.

So, he decided to invest his time and money (likely $200,000-plus when it’s all said and done) into fixing it – starting with the exterior, which has taken on a new look thanks to local artists/craftspeople Charlie Flagg, Sue Weber and Mark Zimmermann.

Flagg and company are in the process of painting murals of scenes that depict notable moments in the village’s history, while Dix is fortifying the roof, installing vinyl siding and making other repairs to beautify the outside walls.

“Now, we’re just about ready to go to town on the inside,” said Dix, noting that reopening the restaurant and bar are priority No. 1. But to move things along at a quicker pace, he is appealing to community members to roll up their sleeves and help out – and he will pay them for their time on a per diem basis.

“I really don’t have a timetable; it’s just that we have been hindered by a lack of workers,” said Dix, adding that he has handled all of the engineering and design aspects of the project.

He said the electric and heating were upgraded by Shayne Poodry, who owned the building from 2007-2018, but much work needs to be done in the areas of insulation, drywall, doors and windows, the cupola, chimney, lanes and pinsetters (at the former Andrews Lanes).

Mary Dix said she is convinced that Union Hotel means a lot to village residents and the Pembroke area in general.

“It has been here forever,” she said. “The whole community is enthusiastic about what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Flagg, who has been painting for more than 40 years, said Tom Dix contacted him last winter about doing something on the outer walls.

“They called me because they knew of my reputation, I believe, of being a muralist in the area,” Flagg said. “And we got together and I told him, I’d think about it last winter, when I went to Florida. I thought about it down there. And I came up with the idea of bringing the history of Corfu around the outside perimeter of the building.”

Flagg, 78, said there are 10 murals on one side (facing Maple Street) and there will be more on the Route 33 side.

“That’s going to have the new Veterans Cemetery that is on Route 77 and the Fun Country (Six Flags Darien Lake) amusement park and large angel wings where you can stand up and have your picture taken – and you’ll become an angel,” he said.

The back (south side) of the building will feature old signs, such as “Buy a Chevy for $580” and “Sirloin Steak at 18 cents a pound,” Flagg said. “Nothing but signs and bricks on the back.”

He credited Weber and Zimmermann for their contributions.

“Sue is a fantastic painter – that’s why I wanted her to interject her thoughts into the project, and Mark has been a godsend. I wouldn't have got nowhere near as far as I’ve done without him.”

Flagg said that Zimmermann is going to step up to the lead role in the near future.

“I'm getting ready to hang it up because I'm getting pretty old. But he he's got the ability to take over,” he said. “Our plan is to finish it next spring when I return from Florida.”

The Union Hotel venture is just a start, Flagg said.

“If you look across the way you got Burling Drug Store, which is going to have five murals on it. And there are four or five other projects,” he advised.

“This town is going to be a picture town. You’ve got a million people that drive by 77 and 33 every year. We are trying to get them to stop here in Corfu …  to draw people in, to create some interest and, hopefully, when they’re here, they’ll spend a few bucks.”

Photo at top: Tom and Mary Dix on the front porch of the Union Hotel in Corfu; Photos at bottom: Murals on the outside of the building that illustrate the village's history (the bottom one is of the Dix family). Photos by Howard Owens.

VIdeo about the project from 2019:

As the restoration of the Union Hotel continues, work crews discovered a historic artifact: A billboard poster for the Ringling Brothers Circus and a performance one summer long ago in Batavia.

The advertisement was found paneling in the bar, said owner Tom Dix.

Dix said he doesn't know what will become of the billboard but "somehow it will be saved."

Below, Video from February 2019 about the effort to restore the Union Hotel.

First built in 1828 the Union Hotel in Corfu has certainly seen better days.

The hotel was a stagecoach stop for weary travelers passing through Western New York in the 19th century.

Decades ago, it ceased operation as a hotel and became a restaurant and bar with a bowling alley added on.

About six months ago, Tom and Mary Dix, owners of Jay Potter Lumber in Corfu, closed on a purchase offer for the property. Tom has been talking with perspective restaurant operators but has yet to reach an agreement with a tenant.

In the meantime, he has been making repairs, most notably fixing a leak in the roof, with the goal of doing the restoration work necessary to make it an attractive place for a restaurateur. 

"The plan right now is just to get it to not fall apart anymore," Dix said. "I would like to have a restaurant and a bar. There needs to be one in this area.

"If you live here, you have to go to Batavia or you have to go out of the town or the county to go to a restaurant. In this area there really isn't one that does dinner and that does late night activity for the younger crowd."

If you're using The Batavian's app, click here to view the video on thebatavian.com.

The Union Hotel in Corfu was built in 1828 and was once a stagecoach stop for travelers. It looms near the main junction in the village and was recently painted charcoal.

Shayne Poodry bought the hotel at an auction last fall and has been busy sprucing it up. It already had a popular bar and bowling alley inside. Now it has a restaurant and a banquet room, too.

Upstairs there’s a dance hall and the owner’s quarters. He’s had workers helping him with renovations and at least one unseen “guest,” maybe more.

People say it’s haunted. It certainly looks like it could be. Poodry just knows weird things happen at his place.

He remembers hearing stories about it growing up, but that was neither here nor there when the opportunity came along to buy it.

He soon found out his TV could turn on by itself. Once he got out of bed in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and when he came back to bed, the television in the corner of his office was on.

“I never leave the TV on,” he said. “I was taught that -- you know when you’re growing up and the ol’ man says ‘turn off the lights, you’re wasting money.’ So I always make sure it’s turned off.”

Maybe even he could leave the TV on once -- but twice, no way.

“I was watching TV in bed one night, and just as soon as the lady says ‘Jay Leno is next,' and they start playing the music, when he does his monologue, the TV in the office turns on,” he recalled.

It was unsettling, made him think “What’s going on here?”

Another time, he was doing renovation work with a young helper and both of them heard a door slam mighty hard.

“Like the guy was mad at his ol’ lady and got up and slammed the door shut,” Poodry said.

Through a friend, he found out about a group of paranormal researchers in Buffalo who team up with a guy named John Crocitto to scout out strange phenomena. Crocitto has a radio program “Beyond Ghosts,” which is described as an “interactive paranormal radio show."

A Web production of paranormal happenings at the Union Hotel is in production. It will be unveiled Saturday, April 10, during a paranormal exploration event at the hotel with Beyond Ghosts. All are welcome.

Not long ago, Crocitto was invited to the Union Hotel with a couple of his colleagues to explain what he does at places like the Union and why. As for Poodry, he’s ambivalent about the whole ghost thing, but does see some marketing opportunities!

Crocitto’s cool with that, but he’s more interested in seeing “if there’s really an afterlife.” He thinks the universe to so complex, that anything is possible, including inexplicable fluctuations of electromagnetic fields and happenings that transcend or defy our limited understanding.

On a tour of the hotel, we climbed the creaky staircase and peered into all the little rooms and then went into the huge ballroom. That’s where they keep remodeling hardware for the time being. It was poorly lit and none too welcoming, but there were no odd occurrences. And least not upstairs.

A whoosh, BLAM is heard downstairs. The bartender rushes to close the front door, which is seldom used because most people enter at the side door, where the bar is.

“The door just opened and slammed by itself!” she exclaims, shaking her head. “I’m telling you, strange things happen here.”

Crocitto proceeds to educate us about the paranormal, which simply means “outside of normal.” He says:

Things don’t have to be old or dead to be haunted; objects can contain the spiritual energy of the person who owned it.

Some ghosts are “residual,” they are like a “looped tape” that keeps playing over and over whether you are there to see it or not. Like a woman who walks across the room, she just keeps repeating the same action nonstop.

Some instances are known as "intelligent haunting," like a TV turning itself on, in which a paranormal occurrence seems to be specifically aimed at someone.

There is no set of rules or scientific proof in researching the paranormal. Most people who take it seriously don’t claim to know what’s it all about or why strange things happen, nor do they necessarily care.

They simply enjoy the hunt and the process of capturing clues with infrared cameras and high-tech tape recorders, etc., afforded nowadays.

Ghost hunters, for lack of a better term, don’t try to “convince” people that such things are paranormal. They are sincere and serious about checking out reports of paranormal activity. It wouldn’t be fun or interesting to fake this stuff, they said. Just like deep-sea exploring for sunken treasure, they do it for the thrill of the hunt and, just maybe, the find.

“We were in the Buffalo train station, which is definitely haunted,” Crocitto said. “I was sitting down and all of a sudden my lap got cold and I heard a child’s voice say ‘hello.’ It gives me chills just thinking about it.”

He played the audio recording. It sounded cavernous, tinny, picking up the sounds of nothing but fidgeting. Then a breathy, whispery child’s voice utters “hello.”

Later we sat at a table in the banquet room, described as “ground zero” for odd occurrences at the Union Hotel. With only the glow of computer screens for light Crocitto, his cohort, Ryan Willard, and techie Brandon Bristow show a video.

It was shot in complete darkness with a stationary infrared camera focused on of the end of a hallway near a staircase. If you look very carefully, you see a shapeless, shadowy mass dart across from right to left.

In a still picture, shot at a mansion in WNY, Willard shows the transparent image of a young boy with a Dutch Boy haircut dressed in old-fashioned clothes standing in front of a tall window.

“It isn’t voodoo,” Crocitto said, in answer to a question about dabbling in the occult. “And I don’t see it conflicting with my spiritual beliefs. I’m Roman Catholic. I don’t think the paranormal is occult, of the Devil. But I’m not afraid of the Devil anyway … bring it on. The Lord protects me.”

This from a man who is a trained scientist, a biologist (who’s seen his share of ghoulish sights in the laboratory and the morgue).

“Most scientists I know believe in God,” Crocitto said.

Willard agrees.

“It would be really depressing if they didn’t,” Willard said.