The hamlet of Lakeville was established at the foot of Conesus Lake, called “Ga-ne-a-sos” by the native Americans. In 1792 John Bosley of Maryland built a mill on the lake outlet, and like many other western New York settlements, homes and other places of business followed. Lakeville was then and still is the only settlement on the nine mile long lake, and the history of lake and hamlet is greatly intertwined. In the late 1800s and early 20th century, in the heyday of excursions and big resort hotels, people came via train by the hundreds into Lakeville where they boarded such lake steamers as the MacPherson, the Conesus, or the J. A. Ritz for various destinations on the lake. Today the Town of Livonia owns 6+ acres of parkland in Lakeville, on the north shore of the lake where excursion trains once unloaded their passengers, and the big steamers docked.
