The history of the village center reflects the changing economy of the community. The village core was originally an agricultural center and distribution point for the town. The junction of Ridge Road and Webster Nine-Mile Point Road, which connected shipping points on the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad with a small port on Lake Ontario, was referred to as “the Village” because of a concentration of population and businesses. The railroad at the north end of the village attracted dried or evaporated apple businesses and small wood-working industries. The Village continued to be the shipping center for the area's dried apple industry until well after the First World War. The village also had the world's largest basket factory and was the center for the canning industry in Monroe County.2