The region which we now call Oakdene was origina1ly laid out as lots #269 and #270 in Williamson's Patent. The first formal description in our possession is given in the deed dated July 1, 1852 by which the land was transferred from Joseph Fellows to Horatio N. Wood (how Mr. Fellows obtained ownership is unknown), In that deed a survey performed by C. A. Canfield (probably in 1852) is used to describe the property boundaries. In the Canfield survey the west boundary starts at "an elm tree 12 inches diameter standing on The Lake Shore” and proceeds via stakes, trees and stumps to the old town road which is the south boundary. The east boundary is a straight line to the lake shore and the north boundary a straight line which was presumably close to the shore line itself. The area enclosed is given as 108.66 acres (using Canfield’s directions and distances, we computed it as 108.78 acres). Note that this survey leaves Blind Creek as a sort of no—man’s land, a matter to be challenged by the legal attentions of Spencer and Ogden a century later.

A line defining the middle of Blind Creek had been obtained by Harnish and Lookup of Newark, New York, when on January 28, 1956, they did a survey of the property on the west side of the creek and ran a survey line down the middle of the creek (this was presumably possible because undoubtedly the creek was well-frozen over). Apparently Howard Spencer and the neighbors on the west side of the creek accepted this line as the boundary between their properties, and so it became Oak Dene's west boundary.

The Canfield Survey was used to define the property in several changes of ownership up to 1956 when it was deeded to Edward M. and Doris A. Ogden by Howard C. and Gladys S. Spencer. That Deed is a much more complex instrument than its predecessors and set the west boundary at the middle of the Blind Creek channel. Although the land conveyed includes that described by the Canfield Survey, the survey is not explicitly mentioned. Basica1ly the boundaries were: (1) northern: the low water line of Lake Ontario; (2) eastern: the west boundary of the property on the east side;(3) southern: the center line of what is or was a public highway on the south; and (4) western: the center line of Blind Creek.

This is all probably sound legalese but is not very satisfying to those who wish to mark some points on a map!

In 1958, two years after the property was deeded to the Ogdens, a new survey of the south and east boundaries was made by Harnish and Lookup. The cost of the survey was shared by Richard Herbrandt who had acquired ownership of the properties both to the east and to the south of Oak Dene.

In summary: the east and south boundaries are defined by the 1958 survey; The north boundary is more accurately defined (the Canfield boundary now lies well out in the lake), and the west boundary is the center line of Blind Creek.  

From the above we can see that Oak Dene has grown in size by the area of the region between the west boundary as defined by the Canfield Survey and the center line of Blind Creek. On the other hand it has been reduced in size by erosion on the Lake side.

In order to estimate the erosive loss we can use the length of the east boundary which was measured in both surveys and is approximately 221 feet less in the Harnish and Lookup survey. Using the length of the north boundary as given by Canfield (1674 feet), we obtain a land loss of about 9.9 acres over the 106 years separating the two surveys. This figure assumes an equal loss along the entire north side. We note that the 221 foot decrement averages 2.1 feet per year, a figure which is consistent with other values of which we have heard from various sources. Using this number we can further estimate that another 2.1 acres have been lost since 1958. Consequently the 108.7 acres included in the Canfield Survey has been reduced to about 96.7 acres.

The length of the north boundary suggested by the Harnish and Lookup Map is about 2250 feet, and a computation for the loss since 1958 based on that would of course indicate a land loss of about 3 rather than 2 acres, There are indications however that the erosion is less severe on the western part of the lake front and consequently we will continue to use the smaller value, the difference being relatively insignificant.

The area of the property on the Harnish and Lookup map must be estimated, as the north boundary is not explicitly shown. Assuming it to be a straight line connecting the northern ends of the east and west boundaries gives us an area of 114.9 acres. However aerial photos show a pronounced dip to the south in the shoreline and we estimate this deviation to be about 6.2 acres, giving a 1958 area of 108.7 acres. This value compared to the reduced Canfield area indicates that the area of the Oak Dene property to the west of the Canfield west boundary — that is, the added creek and marsh — is about 9.8 acres. (Two rough estimates of this figure based on an aerial photo and the Harnish and Lookup map produced values of 8.0 and 11.5, so the 9.8 seems to be a reasonable value to use.

The above considerations are summarized below. It must be stressed that these are based on the assumption that the west boundary of Oak Dene is the middle of Blind Creek and on the fact that the locations of the ever-changing north boundary have been only crudely estimated.

Area enclosed by 1852 Canfield Survey.......... 108.8 acres

Erosive loss, 1852 to 1958.......................-9.9 acres

Gained by redefinition of west boundary in 1956.. 9.8 acres

Erosive loss from l956 to l98l...................-2.1 acres

Present (1981) estimated area...................lO6.6 acres