Charles Walter & Frances (Skinner) Denning (Cliff Street)

Built sometime after 1868, this house was the home of Walter and Frances Denning, African Americans, by 1905. Walter Denning was a Civil War veteran who became a prominent mason and brick worker in Canajoharie, who most likely used limestone quarried near this house. Denning's father actively shepherded Freedom Seekers from his home near Elmira. Frances Skinner Denning grew up with her parents in a house just east on Cliff Street.

Frances, daughter of Peter and Eliza Skinner, married Charles Walter Denning, a prominent Black bricklayer and stonemason who came to this area from western NY in order to work on construction of the Hotel Wagner. Denning served in Civil war & was member of the Farrell Post G.A.R. (Frances became a member of the local Women’s Relief Corps and together they attended many GAR conventions). Denning’s father Daniel was instrumental in Underground Railroad work in Corning, NY.