POTSDAM — Potsdam's Pizza Hut finally has a red roof — almost 20 years after it opened on Market Street. It's unclear why, but the restaurant was one of few franchises in the country lacking the signature peaked red roof.

In fact, several variations of a suburban legend have had people — including village officials — thinking for years that an old zoning regulation or Planning Board decision forbade the brightly covered roof because authorities wanted the building to complement the Victorian downtown.

"There was this myth that it was written down somewhere, maybe on a deed agreement," village Administrator Michael D. Weil said.

So when the national chain recently applied for a permit to install a red roof on the building, village officials dug through old files, trying to find a document that might explain why the colored roof wasn't allowed in the first place.

"I've heard the rumor, but I didn't know what happened back then," said Nick J. Frederick, general manager of Potsdam's Pizza Hut. "I'm not sure why it was a big deal to begin with."

Planning and Development Director Frederick J. Hanss and Clerk Lori S. Queor sifted through files, Mr. Weil said, thinking they might find a facade easement agreement or a deed restriction — but they didn't.

A 1989 item in the Watertown Daily Times said, "The Pizza Hut here is one of the only Pizza Hut restaurants in the country to have a brown roof."

"Village planners felt that the trademark red roof of the restaurant would somehow detract from the nature of the village."

A "downtown brown" rule supposedly ruled zoning decisions during the late 1980s, when businesses coming to Potsdam were required to have a brown roof and light lettering. Pizza Hut might have been one of the most visible adherents to these restrictions.

However, there's nothing in village code now that deals with the use of color on buildings. That left the franchise open to replace its leaky brown roof with a bright red one, Mr. Weil said.

"What we think may have happened was that Pizza Hut came in during the urban development days, and there could have been a facade covenant written in, that to receive money your building had to meet certain standards for a period of time," the village administrator said. "But that would have expired some time ago."