Owners of Elmira’s historic carriage house speak on loss
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) — The historic carriage house on Maple Avenue in Elmira was burned down from a fire that occurred this week on Wednesday morning. The house was built in 1893 and the fire left it in debris, with irreplaceable history.
Mark Delgrosso, who owned the carriage house from 2002 to 2023 said, “It’s heartbreaking. You can never replace a piece of history like this. First of all, they don’t build them like that anymore if you’d seen the beams and the inside of this it was really constructed to last over 100 years which it ended up doing. But when something like that is gone, you can’t replace it.”
Carriage house destroyed in early-morning Elmira fire
Delgrosso added that before automobiles, the house was used for keeping horses and storing carriages for transportation at the time.
The current owner of the carriage house is James Capriotti, who owns and manages property in the city of Elmira. Capriotti acquired the carriage house and the former Christmas House next to it in December 2022.
“I’m totally in shock of what happened. So much history that goes with this carriage house,” said Capriotti. “I’m heartbroken because Mark Delgrosso saved this structure 20 some years ago from demolition and methodically had it moved here and set back up and it was used as a warehouse for the Christmas House for many years and stuff.”
Capriotti mentioned that he plans to build a garage where the carriage house was, by 2025.
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