Mark Twain at Barber Hall Historic Homer NY Poster

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) spoke before a “large assemblage at Barber Hall” in Homer on Saturday, 2 December. Clemens spent Sunday, 3 December, in Homer and then took the train to Geneva, New York, the following day. According to the Reverend James P. Foster, who attended the lecture, it was “unexceptionably delightful; the stories were told in a masterly manner, and were chaste and delightful; the envelope of pure humour often covering a touching moral”. Barber Hall, was built by Jedidiah Barber, the first permanent merchant to locate in the village of Homer. In 1813, Barber opened one of area's the most prosperous stores, "The Great Western Store", so called because Central New York was the western frontier at that time. Barber Hall, an elaborate 75 x 80 foot venue that could accommodate up to 1,000 people, became the Keator Opera House after Jedidiah Barber’s death.