The History

The Carriage House history dates back over 150 years to when the prominent Gauntlet family built it in order to house their horses and carriages and to store hay. With the invention of the Model-T in 1912, the Carriage House outlived its usefulness as a shelter for horses and so, like many other carriage houses, it was turned into a storage facility. Unfortunately, the Carriage House became the victim of a fire accidentally set by a tinsmith, after which it sat idle for nearly a century.At the turn of the millennium, Mark Chandler bought the building with a vision for renovating it as a café. After gaining approval from the Ithaca Historic Society, Mark began the slow and difficult process of restoring the Carriage House to its original beauty and prestige.He carefully preserved the original wood doors and diamond-shaped windows, selecting just the right fixtures in order to maintain the historic ambiance of this classic fieldstone structure. The result is worth the effort. The Carriage House Café possesses a sort of rustic beauty that makes it a true Ithaca treasure.