Artcraft to move to ‘long yellow building’ in Groton

Artcraft Home Improvements, currently located at 6 Main St. in Freeville, will soon be relocating to 690 Peru Rd. in Groton, better known among locals as “that long yellow building.”

Artcraft’s owners, Doug Albern and Anthony H. Salerno III, had been searching for a space to better accommodate the business for a while, but it was Donna Salerno, Anthony’s wife, and Lisa Partington, who works full time for Artcraft, who discovered that the yellow building was for sale.

Many may have wondered through the years what that nondescript but very large building is, and Lee Shurtleff, Groton village historian and District 9 Tompkins County legislator, provided some history.

In the 1960s, Laverne Cotanch owned a chicken farm across the road from the yellow building, and his son, Ron Cotanch, and his wife, Elizabeth (Penny), purchased the building and started what became a thriving chicken farm in it.

“My dad, Phil, bought it from Ron on land contract in 1977,” Lee said. “And working in that chicken house was my first job as a teenager. It had 1,000 cages that ran the entire length of the building, and we would start every season with 22,000 day-old chicks in there.”

By 1984, Ron had taken the farm back, and the building sat idle until it was purchased by Harvey Baker in the late 1980s, where he operated a wood cabinet shop and sold antiques until he recently moved out of state and sold it to Albern.

Artcraft has been in the area since 1982, when Albern founded and operated it out of his home in McLean. Anthony began working for him in 2002.

“I graduated from Dryden High School in 1999 and went to Tompkins Cortland Community College for a year,” Anthony said. “I left college when a neighbor gave me a job doing heating and plumbing work. I learned that I loved working with my hands.”

Once Anthony found his niche, his friend, Chris McConnell, introduced him to Albern. McConnell was leaving his own position at Artcraft, so Anthony was delighted to step into the vacancy.

“I didn’t know which end of the hammer to hold at that point,” Anthony said. “But I started doing exterior construction, and Doug taught me everything I know.”

Anthony explained that Artcraft shut down locally in 2005 when Hurricane Andrew hit Texas, and the whole crew went down to help with roofing on a Federal Emergency Management Agency contract.

“By the time we got there, the contract had fallen apart, so we worked with local contractors until that October,” Anthony said. “The costs of Texas took a toll on the company, so it was a while before Doug could get it up and running again. In the meantime, I pursued interior remodeling training.”

Before too long, Albern had Artcraft running again out of McLean, and Anthony became the foreman for all of the work crews.

“It was 2012 when the business moved to Freeville, and also the year that Doug started thinking about his retirement,” Anthony said. “And that’s when our partnership began to form.”

As the years went by, Anthony continued learning more about the business, completely took over the sales department and then pretty much everything operationally for the company when Albern semi-retired in December 2019. It was then that Anthony and Albern officially became business partners.

“We grew out of the building in Freeville almost as fast as we moved into it,” Anthony said. “We also added a warehouse in Locke in 2015, but we just needed more room. It’s going to be great to be able to consolidate everything into one space.”

Anthony explained that the main focus of the work Artcraft does is siding, windows, decks and roofs, along with remodeled bathrooms and some interior and exterior remodeling, but they have also done some historical renovation work.

“We made a laminated curved beam for an 1892 historic home in Cortland and had to do the work on the front lawn,” Anthony said. “Another construction company saw us in action and hired us to do some work on historical trims on a historical building in Ithaca that was out of their depth to recreate. The same owners then had us do roofing and balusters for the Clinton House in Ithaca and railings for the Westminster Hall Apartments.”

Anthony said they are very excited about bringing the company to Groton and thrilled about the space and all the plans they have for it.

“We’ll definitely be keeping Harvey’s wood shop on the front end to continue historical renovations,” Anthony said. “And we’re going to turn 60 to 70 feet of the center of the building into office space and a conference room for employee trainings and client meetings. The rest of the building will be for warehouse equipment, building materials and parking our trucks inside. Then, the back side of the building will be for parking and deliveries. Eventually, we will be starting a roofing service department where we can send someone right to client homes to do roof and skylight repairs instead of replacements.”

There is a lot of refurbishing to be done on that long yellow building, but they hope to complete it within the next six months.

“We had to install a culvert and drainage system right away,” Anthony said. “And next will be the new roof coming on, plus some structural and foundation work before we can start the rest, but it will be very nice when it’s all finished.”

Anthony also expressed how excited he is to take that old yellow building and refurbish it — making it into something nice for Groton.

“We already do a fair amount of work here in Groton,” Anthony added. “And now that we’ll be established here, we’ll be very happy to help contribute to the community.”

Groton on the Inside appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Submit story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com or text or call Linda at (607) 227-4922.

In brief:

Happy Meals, Happy Families

The Groton Public Library will host family cooking classes taught by Tina Snyder of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County every Tuesday from Oct.11 through Nov. 1 at 5:30 p.m.

Parents and kids can learn how to cook a meal together with hands-on learning with child-safe utensils. Limited space and preparation time and costs mean sign-ups should be well in advance of a class. For more information, call (607) 898-5055 or email director@grotonpubliclibrary.org.

More at the library

The GPL Garden Club meeting will take place Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. This month the club will focus on corn. It will go over the history of corn as well as types and how they grow.

The library will host an informational event regarding 2023 Medicare with Kimberly Petrella at 11 a.m. Oct. 20.

The GPL Book Club will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 20. This month’s book is “Grateful American, A Journey from Self to Service” by Gary Sinise.

Song and Dance Storytime with Josh Dwyer will happen at 6 p.m. Oct. 20. There will be a themed story, games and a craft. There is limited space, so register or learn more by calling (607) 898-5055 or emailing director@grotonpubliclibrary.org.

Rotary calendars are here!

The Waterfalls of the Finger Lakes 2023 calendar is ready for purchase. The special price of $15 benefits a water project of the Groton Rotary Club. Calendars are available at Brittany Station, 152 Main St., Groton.