File:Hedstrom Gate House, Amherst, New York - 20191107.jpg

English: The house at 4196 Main Street, Amherst, New York has quite the unusual history: this Frankenstein's Monster of a building consists of two preexisting farmhouses (built, respectively, about 1820 and about 1850) moved to the north side of Main Street from different locations within what was once the Hedstrom Estate, grafted together with a toll gate in the middle that once stood at the corner of Getzville Road, the last of what were once some sixty strung out along modern-day Main Street (this particular one was operated for many years by the Fry family until its decommissioning in 1899). In 1904, wealthy coal merchant Arthur Hedstrom bought the 200 acres of land at the northwest corner of Main Street, making his home with his wife Katherine in the Hedstrom Estate House (46 Getzville Road) and operating a riding stable, a swimming pool and cabana, and an orchard on the property. The Gate House, seen here, was used as a guest house, and was divided into apartments after the widowed Katherine Hedstrom finally sold the estate to property developers in 1949. The Gate House has been vacant since 2006 but has been fully restored and designated as a local landmark by the Town of Amherst.