In the 1790's, before the Lincoln Hill Road existed, and East Lake Road was still called the Geneva Turnpike, Liberty Day filed a homestead claim on 135 acres of property that now includes the Lincoln Hill Inn, Finger Lakes Community College and the Finger Lakes performing arts center. According to the history books, Liberty "made bricks in a small way" that was greatly appreciated by the people of the locality." Probably no one appreciated it more than his family for whom he built three courses of brick thick against the cold northern winters (now the brick portion of the Lincoln Hill Inn). Liberty apparently built his brick across from what is now the Lincoln Hill Road.

Following Liberty’s death, the property was owned briefly by George Brown and then sold again in 1876 to Willoughby Dewey who owned a general merchandise store in Canandaigua but decided he preferred to farm. The house and property remained in the Dewey family for the next 106 years and saw generations of Dewey children romp on the front lawns. One of those children, Jeanette Dewey, now 96, named the property "Sunny Slope" many years ago. For years, a sign with that name hung on the front porch and was only recently rediscovered under an old attic floor during renovation. Jeanette and her daughter Helen still reside in Canandaigua along with Willoughby’s grandsons Richard, Robert, Ward and Alfred.

As part of a WPA project in 1936, large knolls of broken brick and soil were sold from the property and became the fill for Kershaw Park. The brick portion of the Inn itself was build around 1804 and the crooked windows and tilted floors attest to the effects of almost 180 years of weather.

The exposed brink and colonial fireplace in the down-stairs area were discovered under layers of plaster also during renovation. A similar fireplace still exists, in the basement as a reminder of what once must have been a summer kitchen.

Although much of the acreage was sold off originally to Kordite founder, Howard Samuels, who planned to build a golf course and later sold the property as a site for The Community College of the Finger Lakes, the Deweys retained seven acres on which the Lincoln Hill Inn now resides. In 1983, The Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center was added to the history of Liberty Day’s original homestead.