Apple Dry House

Apple Dry House. . The history of apple growing date back to 1804 when white settlers first settled in Pultneyville and began propagating the apple tree found there. By 1850, commercial culture (production for sale or trade to others) was beginning. Apples were stored in cellars or hand peeled and sliced, then dried in the sun or on racks over the kitchen stove. Alanson Warner was not the only inventor of his family. His son, John, was a master carpenter who built his own house on Furnace Road, right around the corner from his father's farm. John was also a farmer who had many fruit trees. He needed a way to store fruit and keep it from rotting so he invented a dry house. The Warner Dry House was so successful that John was asked to build Warner Dry Houses all over upstate NY. He was said to be "slow and meticulous... his hands always busy working on something." Besides building dry houses, he also built winding staircases. , Drying of apples occurred after the apples were shaken from the trees. They were then taken to a dry house. Many of these buildings are still evident about in Ontario although not used for their original purpose. , The dried apple slices were bagged or packed in wooden boxes for shipment which might be by rail or on the Erie Canal or Lake Ontario.