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If the road we knew today as Atlantic Avenue were to wander back in time to the turn of the previous century, we would see it pick up its old sobriquet of University Avenue from the horizon line, dust it off, and cross the Central-Hudson railroad tracks with it. There at the crossroads, on a gentle rise hazy with locomotive smoke, stood a homey frame hotel and saloon. A font of beers and ciders for the railroad men and cattle drovers who passed along the route, the Drovers’ Home was a mainstay of east Rochester by the Brightonian border.

In this rural railside setting, life was lived a little less lawfully. Not to say the denizens of the Drover’s Home made it into a den of iniquity, but there was a distinctly rough-and-tumble quality to the clientele that made the odd violent event unsurprising for the next day’s newspaper reader. Cattle drovers and itinerant men of the rails were the usual custom of the saloon, with a handful of local gardeners and nurserymen to make up neighborhood regulars.

Four sets of proprietors were prominently featured in articles regarding the saloon between the 1870s and early 1900s: Luther T. and Ellen Sweeting; James D. McKay; Joseph Rudhardt; and Michael H. & Anne Dinan.

Proprietor “R. T. Sweeting” as named in the above article may have been Luther T. Sweeting’s father, Rufus Sweeting, or it may have been a transcription error.

Rudhardt, an earlier proprietor, carried a violent drunkard’s reputation that followed him from the Drovers’ Home to his newer establishment on Leighton Avenue.

The Dinans were the owners and property holders of the Drovers’ Home and acted as proprietors for most of its history, with Michael apparently owning the hotel house until his death in 1913.

Originally known primarily by its position on University Avenue by the train tracks [University av. n. R.R.], eventually the hostelry received a proper address, No. 425 University Avenue. This would change to No. 331 Atlantic Avenue after the street was renamed and the houses renumbered, in 1900.

As one can see from the map above, the Drovers’ Home on University [Atlantic] Avenue backed up onto a large lot owned by Marvin A. Culver on Culver Park [University Avenue]. This lot became known as Culver Field, and served as a stadium for baseball. Several articles about games being played on the Culver Field mention balls flying towards the Drovers’ Home hotel.

As one can see, even the proprietors of the saloon dabbled in the criminal from time to time.

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University Avenue Subway

Like the Culver Road Subway we discussed previously, the excavation of University Avenue beneath the Central-Hudson tracks was undertaken to eliminate a dangerous at-grade railroad crossing.

The subway tunnel plan was selected from two debated possibilities: the second would have seen University [Atlantic] Avenue bend south at Jersey [Russell] Street, and slope gently up along a grade, until it met East Henry [Barnum] Street. East Henry [Barnum] Street would cross via bridge over the New York Central train tracks.

The selected plan dug University [Atlantic] Avenue under the New York Central tracks, which was desired by and amenable to a majority of the property holders along the avenue–save for Drovers’ Home proprietors Michael and Anne Dinan, who were opposed on very practical grounds.

The elevation of University [Atlantic] Avenue had to be lowered very drastically to limbo underneath the tracks, as much as twenty feet. This resulted in some problems for the property where the Drovers’ Home sat, for what was once a gentle slope from the front door to the avenue was now a fifteen-foot precipice, effectively blocking any entrance or exit to the saloon. Which, for a saloon, is not welcoming for business.

The proprietors Michael and Anne Dinan attained an injunction against construction of the subway and re-grading of their property resulting from the same.

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Denied by the Dinans

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Left High and Dry

Unfortunately, the Dinan’s stop-work injunction was vacated by the courts. Work progressed apace, and everything was eventually completed save for the trouble spot, the strip of land between University [Atlantic] Avenue and the Drovers’ Home.

Despite the Dinan difficulty, the subway beneath the tracks was an immediate and vaunted success; where before a busy and dangerous at-grade railroad was an effective wall against free traffic, the subway safely connected the east of Rochester to Brighton beyond. It was a boon for everyone but the desperate Dinans in their high-and-dry Drovers’ Home hotel.

Halfway through 1900, months after the subway was completed, the retaining wall was still not built before the Drovers’ Home, allowing great amounts of subsided soil to fall and cover the walkway. Ever-increasing, as well, was the risk that the structure would fall over the edge onto the street below; while this would put the kaibosh on several difficulties, that would invariably raise a Hell of a lot more. Still, despite the clear danger, the council sat on their hands, firmly believing the city was not liable for repairing the problem.

An irate Michael Dinan continually jacked up the estimated price of his little lot of land, obviously needling the aldermen who failed to act on acquiring the easement. Another year would pass, without a solution. All the while, Dinan’s attorney Judge John Franklin Kinney kept showing up to council meetings, hectoring the aldermen and imploring them to right this wrong.

Despite my attempts I was unable to ascertain who Jack McInerney was meant to be. Santos-Dumont, however, referred to famous aeronaut Alberto Santos-Dumont, who built and flew a succession of improved airship designs from 1898 to the date of this publication.

At last, in June 1902, the Dinan’s grievances were redressed and Ann Dinan was awarded $2,300 dollars and the right to build a sloping embankment.

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An Era of Flame

The pass under the Central-Hudson rails was completed, and the Drovers’ Home viewed the opening of the 20th century from its vantage point upon a precipice. 

As if to set the tone of the upcoming century, one of the Drovers’ Home’s previous proprietors, James D. McKay, met his demise in May of 1901:

The old wooden structure of the Drovers’ Home was highly susceptible to fire, to which there seemed to be an increasing exposure; between sparks from the railroad and celebratory fireworks from the Culver Field, fire repeatedly found the tinderbox of the old hotel.

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Dinan Struck

On August 8th, 1907, Michael H. Dinan suffered a stroke while on State Street, and collapsed in the doorway of Isadore Davis, a pawnbroker at No. 49 State.

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Drovers’ Desolation

In this update of July 31st, 2026, I’ve finally found and included a photograph of the Drovers’ Home. I’ve been looking for one since the original publication of this post, and now digital scans of the Rochester Herald include the photos in question. Printed once in 1911 and again in 1912, the photos show us the Drovers’ Home as it appeared at its nadir. Stranded up high above Atlantic Avenue, the north-facing old inn is accessible only by a precarious platform to the New York Central tracks and a long, rickety staircase down to street level:

Dinan having retired after his stroke, the ageing saloon was taken on by the Bartholomay Brewing Company for a brief period, before going out of business entirely.

Fire struck again in 1912, consuming the hotel’s roof:

The Herald reprinted its Drovers’ Home photo for their report on the fire, and thankfully this edition was scanned more clearly. One can note several interesting things in it; for one, the power-line that runs through the area still runs the same way, albeit from a simpler post. One can see the small triangular platform employed to connect the stranded building to the New York Central tracks, and the long stairs to Atlantic Avenue.

There’s a second-level porch on the north-facing front of the Drovers’ Home; on it are displayed signs, one reading “Drovers’ Home” with an unreadable proprietor’s name below. The other reads “Bartholomay Beer and Ale”.

The above photo is much clearer than the 1911 one, and affords us a clearer view of where the Drovers’ Home stood, and while I cannot capture the same angle I’ve tried to get as close as possible in Google Maps:

Shockingly, despite how bad the 1912 fire was, some semblance of the structure remained to conflagrate two years later, in 1914:

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Death of the Dinans

Michael H. Dinan died on February 5th, 1913. He is buried in Holy Sepulchre. His wife, Anne Dutton Dinan, died April 9th of the same year.

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Demise of the Drovers’ Home

Between the two latest fires in 1912 and 1914, the Drovers’ Home seems to have been finally done in. As of the 1918 plat map, the lot on which it stood was bare. The Gleason Works would build some long sheds on the Atlantic side of their lot, part of which would encroach on the spot.

In 1952, two years after the map above, a new foundry would be built on the Gleason Works campus slightly south of the position of the old Drovers’ Home hotel site. That building stands today.

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