Ithaca's first legal cannabis sale did not happen in a finished store. It happened in a temporary pop-up on the Ithaca Commons in March 2023, when William Jane opened at 119 East State Street as the first adult-use dispensary in Tompkins County. State and press accounts describe it as the sixth dispensary licensed in New York, and its OCM license number, OCM-CAURD-23-000006, reflects that early approval.
A note before you go: the shop's former website, williamjane420.com, was not loading a live site when we checked in October 2026. The state's license database still lists William Jane as active and operational, but we could not confirm the current menu, prices, or promotions online, so this profile focuses on what is publicly documented.
The owner and the license
William Jane belongs to William Durham, a Brooklyn native who has spent most of his life in Binghamton. According to the Ithaca Times and the state's Dormitory Authority (DASNY), Durham's background is in retail, construction, and property investment. He qualified for New York's Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary program because of a past cannabis conviction, the qualification CAURD was built around. He told local reporters he chose Ithaca because he loved the area and a space on the Commons became available. The building, at 119–121 East State, previously held a used clothing store.
DASNY lists William Jane among the "success stories" of the state's Cannabis Social Equity Investment Fund, the public-private program meant to help CAURD licensees find and build out storefronts.
From pop-up to rebuilt store
The first version of William Jane was a stopgap. Coverage from the Ithaca Times noted that the opening inventory was all outdoor-grown, because that was most of what licensed New York farms had to sell in early 2023. Even so, it brought in real money: the Cornell Daily Sun reported that the shop produced about $222,500 in cannabis tax revenue over its first 17 months.
At the end of 2023, Durham closed the store for a full renovation. He told the Ithaca Times, "We pretty much did everything in there from the floor to the ceilings." Electrical and inspection delays pushed back a planned April 2024 reopening, and the remodeled shop reopened in late spring 2024. Reported changes included:
- Self-checkout kiosks for shoppers who know what they want
- A front pickup window for online orders
- A wider product mix that now includes indoor-grown flower alongside outdoor
- An education department for community programming and events
Shopping on a pedestrian mall
The Commons is Ithaca's car-free downtown shopping street, lined with restaurants, bookstores, and local retailers, a short trip by TCAT bus from Cornell's campus on the hill and from Ithaca College on South Hill. A dispensary in that setting works differently from a highway-plaza shop. Most customers arrive on foot or by bus, and the city's public garages around the Commons are the realistic option for drivers.
OCM's filing lists hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. With the website down, those state-filed hours are the most authoritative ones available, but confirm before making a special trip. Bring valid ID showing you are 21 or older; Cornell and IC student IDs do not count. Our guide to New York dispensary etiquette covers what to bring.
What shoppers report
William Jane's footprint on review platforms is small. On Leafly, an unclaimed profile has only a couple of reviews, praising the breadth of the selection and calling it the best in Ithaca while criticizing staff attentiveness and inventory problems on at least one visit. That is too small a sample to draw firm conclusions. The broader point is that William Jane was well regarded enough to stay open through a long closure and still draw a crowd when it reopened.
Every grower and processor on its shelves must be New York-licensed, as with any legal dispensary in the state. For more about the farms that supply Finger Lakes shops, see our piece on craft cannabis in New York and the small growers worth knowing.
Ithaca is no longer a one-shop town
When William Jane opened, it was the only legal option in Tompkins County. It now has company. Aspire, at 205 N. Fulton St. in the West End, opened in March 2024. The Highly Connected Dispensary, at 423 Franklin St. near the Ithaca Farmers Market, is connected to the Toro Glass business. A Collegetown shop operates at 105 Dryden Road, close to Cornell, and Altitude Ithaca has opened out on Danby Road. Compared with those stores, William Jane's advantages are its central Commons location and its place in local history. Its weakness, for now, is that shoppers cannot easily browse the menu online.
Checking before you go
Because William Jane's own website was offline when we checked, shoppers have to do a little more homework than usual. Three steps help:
- Confirm the license. New York's Office of Cannabis Management publishes a searchable dataset of current licenses, and every legal storefront must display the state's verification QR code at the entrance. A quick scan or search of license OCM-CAURD-23-000006 confirms that the shop at 119 East State Street is still registered as active.
- Call or check a marketplace listing. Third-party menus on platforms like Leafly and Weedmaps can be out of date for unclaimed profiles, so treat posted prices and hours as guides rather than guarantees.
- Ask for the test results. Every product on a licensed New York shelf carries a batch number tied to a lab report. If you want to understand potency, terpenes, or harvest dates, our guide on how to read a New York dispensary label walks through each line.
Timing matters on the Commons too. Weekday afternoons are generally quieter downtown than Friday and Saturday evenings, when restaurants and bars fill up, and the Commons hosts seasonal festivals that bring big crowds. Graduation weekends at Cornell and Ithaca College add even more out-of-town visitors.
Tompkins County's licensed market grew quickly after William Jane's head start. OCM data shows Aspire opening in March 2024, The Highly Connected in September 2024, the Collegetown shop at 105 Dryden Road in October 2024, then Corner House on Trumansburg Road and Altitude on Danby Road in spring 2025. That is six storefronts in a county of roughly 100,000 people, and it is why William Jane's long renovation closure did not leave the county without legal options for long.
Who it suits
William Jane is a natural stop for downtown residents, visitors already on the Commons, and anyone who wants to buy from the justice-involved owner who opened Tompkins County's legal market. If you want to browse a menu online before leaving home, start with the Ithaca shops in our dispensary directory, and check High Today's deals page for current promotions across the Finger Lakes. For a sense of how far the region's flower has come since those early outdoor-only shelves, this fall's harvest season, when fresh sun-grown flower reaches shelves, is a good time to compare.