Photos courtesy Bette Bugni
Eastover Manor was a restaurant and Inn located in Alton, NY in the 1920s.
From the January 26, 1996 edition of the Sodus Record
Eastover Manor
I can give you some background on Eastover Manor. Perhaps it will fill in some of the gaps.
It was located about a mile east of Alton on Route 104, on top of a hill that went down toward the east. The manor was on the south side of the road, off the highway, on top or just below the crest of the hill. To get to it, you turned at the bottom of the hill and then went back up a dirt road. The house was a large, English country manor type, probably really pseudo-Tudor style, white or yellow in color. I believe it was built as a home in the ‘20s, but went through a period as a restaurant just after the Depression started. At the time you are talking about, it was operated as a speakeasy, with drinks being readily available and run fairly openly. Charley Gallery was an excellent chef, and his food and meals were somewhat famous.
He was not open too long, competition, location and protection being rather high in overhead. He later operated another restaurant on the west end of the business district in Webster. It was a red brick, two-story house. Again, the above factors brought about its demise. I believe that after a heart attack, Charley worked as a bartender, etc. for Sid and Phyllis Patchet at the Sodus Hotel.
Charley was the father of Helen Smith, wife of G. Arthur Smith (Art) and of Bud Gallery. I believe his grandchildren now live in Colorado.
Eastover sat vacant for some time, used for a while for parties, dinners, etc. After some time, a doctor or dentist who came to Sodus bought it for a home. He began to remodel it, but never finished. It became a home for migrant workers, and then a party house for migrant workers, somewhat illegally. Finally, as they say in novels, a fire of “mysterious origin” broke out and the building was destroyed.
I believe this was in the mid-to-late ‘40s.