The swathe of historical destruction cut by Rochester’s highway system is a repeat theme in any publication about Rochester history. I wrote before of a quaint Third Ward corner, Mogridge Court, which met its fate in favor of Inner Loop extension. That theme is not only prevalent in Rochester but echoes through much of the United States; the struggle and tension between the dense, cluttered neighborhoods of the past with the automobile-centered asphalt deserts of the future was ongoing in every city founded prior to the debut of the motor-car. Pedestrian- and horse-centric cities were finding their narrow brick and cobble streets choked with auto traffic and city centers were filling up with exhaust fumes.

Given the situation it seems all too simple to say well, widen the streets. And when the streets are widened and the cars are running smoothly, the pedestrians are removed from the streets. But congestion builds up anew; well then, add more lanes! The lanes are added and the streetcars are removed to make the space. But congestion builds up again! So what we need is a very large, very fast road that connects all the places people want to get to. But what happens when the places people “don’t” want to drive to are in the way–and where people still lived?

This entry goes into the cozy gated neighborhood of Centre Park, long lost to the expansion of Rochester’s highways. It also goes on to explore nearby Centre Square, a pleasant village green taken over by trains. All of it is gone now, replaced by pavements and retaining walls and gravel banks–but that won’t stop us from revisiting it textually. Let’s go!

---

Centre Park

Settlement of Centre Park began when the City of Rochester was Rochesterville, early in the 19th century.

My curiosity was piqued regarding Centre Park when I came across the below article, wherein a reporter visits the little pocket neighborhood of Centre Park and describes some of its early and then-present history:

The article goes on to describe, in loving detail, the houses of the neighborhood, beginning with No. 43 Elizabeth Street:

---

No. 43 Elizabeth Street

The Bemis property was a rambling cottage that was added to constantly as need required; as the article puts it, “like Topsy“.

It served as the home of Samuel Bemis from his arrival in Rochester in 1822, until his death in 1888.

In 1899, the Bemis family name would be applied to the alley previously called Moore Alley.

---

No. 1 Centre Park

Also on the Bemis parcel was No. 1 Centre Park, a two-story grey brick house covered in vines.

No. 1 Centre Park was once home to a packet-boat captain, Harry Dickey;

Captain Harry Dickey was captain of the packet boat “Phoenix”; he was called out in the 1839 Rochester Freeman as having been abusive to a Black deacon, Stephen Henry Gloucester, who was passenger on his packet; Captain Dickey allegedly dragged Gloucester from the dining table, across the deck, and exacted extra passenger fees from him before ejecting him onto the bank of the canal.

Dickey wrote in his own defense, downplaying violence and epithets on his behalf, but it still doesn’t really hold water. Dickey keeps bumping up against the reason Gloucester could not be seated, saying something about “other passengers coming through” but not really expounding on that. All I can imagine is that he somehow sat in a seat that blocked every other passenger from reaching the dining table, and refused to recognize that fact or move, which seems unlikely.

The victim’s friend, Charles Calistus Burleigh, wrote with his own version of events, which did not reflect well upon Captain Dickey. Warning, a slur is used, quoted from Dickey’s lips.

Harry Dickey was the brother of David Dickey, who lived at No. 3 Centre Park, next door to Harry.

---

No. 53 Elizabeth Street

No. 53 Elizabeth Street, on the corner opposite Centre Park from the Bemis house, was a stone house with a brick addition, and the home of Samuel F. Witherspoon.

---

No. 2 Centre Park

No. 2 Centre Park was purchased by Dr. Parson Genet Shipman, a physician, around 1836.

His new address first appears as “Park Place” in the 1838 directory, but it’s Centre Park:

In the 1841 directory, the address is given as No. 2 Centre Park.

Dr. P. G. Shipman died January 19th, 1871, and his heirs took possession of the house. Dr. Shipman’s widow, Elizabeth L. Way, would continue living there, and remarry in 1876.

In 1876, Shipman’s widow Elizabeth L. Way married Sheriff Joseph B. Campbell. Campbell would die 1891, leaving Elizabeth once again widowed.

Dr. Parson G. Shipman had a son, Henry D. Shipman, who left Rochester for New York City. In 1887 Henry Shipman was charged with the murder of his landlady, Josephine Wilkin Mason. Alienists examined him and pronounced him too insane to stand trial. Henry Shipman would spend the next twenty years in brutal mental asylums. After being found sane, Henry Shipman was transferred to the Tombs in 1907 for retrial.

“N. B. Richardson” of No. 2 Centre Park on the above 1888 map was Norman Brewster Richardson from Warren, Illinois. He was the uncle of Elizabeth L. Way, or of P. G. Shipman. To be honest, I’m not sure how the Richardsons are related to the couple. It seems the property was in his name at this point.

Richardson died 1890.

The Shipmans would live at No. 2 Centre Park until 1892-1893;

After that last year, Elizabeth L. Way would move to No. 28 Peart Place. The house would become property of a druggist, Louis Wyeth, his wife Florence Abby Rogers, and children. Wyeth left for Bayard, Nebraska in 1905. His son, John Louis Wyeth, also a druggist and recently-bankrupted, lived at Centre Park one additional year before following his father to Nebraska.

Louis Wyeth, according to his wife’s 1956 obituary, died in 1924. I cannot locate an obituary or a grave for him.

Elizabeth L. Way [Shipman, Campbell] would die October 18th, 1909.

Curiously, Elizabeth’s marriage to Joseph B. Campbell went unmentioned by both obituary and grave.

---

No. 3 Centre Park

No. 3 Centre Park was a two-story frame house with a gabled roof and a “broad hospitable verandah” that was, as of 1889, the home of “Deacon” David Dickey. Dickey’s interests were highly entwined with the Brick Church; though he was never actually a deacon, his presence as an elder at the church since 1833 or 1838 earned him the affectionate nickname. David Dickey did preach, beginning in 1851.

For a period of time, David Dickey served in a missionary capacity on the canal, preaching gospel to the boatmen on the packets in hopes of turning them to a righteous life. This earned him the title of “Canal Missionary” in the directory.

“Deacon” David Dickey’s address is misidentified as No. 4 Centre Park in his obituary, instead of No. 3. That’s “Cross” the street. Get it?

---

No. 5 Centre Park

No. 5 Centre Park was a wooden cottage without a tenant at the time of this 1889 publication. It was known to the neighborhood as the “old Burr place” after two brothers who had lived there until their death in the cholera outbreak of 1832.

My research confirmed that Major Albert Chapin Burr died of cholera on August 19, 1832, apparently after having volunteered as a nurse for the choleric;

In this village, on Sunday last, of malignant cholera, Major Albert C. Burr, aged 27 years. Among the many melancholy deaths from the pestilence with which we are now afflicted, none has produced a deeper sensation than that of this estimable young man. From the vigor of health and youth, in a few hours he passed to the tomb. As an industrious and worthy citizen, an amiable and pious Christian, an affectionate brother, a kind and dutiful son, and an honest man, he was universally respected and beloved, and will long be remembered.

Anti-Masonic Enquirer
August 21st, 1932

Evidence of a brother who also died of cholera in 1832 is less forthcoming; one brother, Alexander J. Burr, died in 1838. However, Albert’s father and mother, Timothy Burr and Mary Chapin Burr, both died of cholera August 30th, 1832.

At the time of the 1875 Atlas No. 5 was the home of Edwin Sornborger, his wife Mary Maria Dibble, and their children.

At the time of the 1888 Plat Map No. 5 was the home of Joseph H. Fisher. Despite the name being prominently displayed on the map, I can’t find him in the 1888 directory, or any ones near it. There are no Joseph Fishers, and there are several Joseph Fischers who don’t have a Centre Park Address.

No. 5 Centre Park was the address given for “Madame Blanche Sanguay, gypsy”, a fortune teller advertising in the Democrat & Chronicle.

---

No. 7 Centre Park

This was the long-time home of Jeremiah Cutler, long-time former Deputy County Clerk for Monroe County. He was apparently a very fastidious, conservative gentleman, who took to routines and kept to them unfailingly.

Into the house would move Louis Orange McKinney and family:

For uncertain reasons, Louis O. McKinney’s address was given as No. 5 instead of No. 7 Center Park in an obituary:

Louis Orange McKinney was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery; I do not have an image of his grave yet: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40884530/louis-orange-mckinney.

---

No. 9 Centre Park

No. 9 Centre Park was a brick house built by Orlando Hastings, and occupied by the Fenn family.

According to the article, No. 9 Centre Park was built for attorney Orlando Hastings. This is first listed as his address in the 1847 directory, meaning it must have been built sometime around then.

Harvey Curtis Fenn was a cabinet-maker; he arrived in Rochesterville in 1822 and was one of the names in the first city directory in 1834. He lived on North Fitzhugh Street until 1869, when he sold his home to the Baptist Church and moved to No. 9 Centre Park. He was married to Mary Ann Colson.

For forty years Fenn was in business with William Brewster as Brewster & Fenn.

Brewster died January 17th, 1875; Fenn continued on in the cabinetry business solo.

The obituary of Harvey C. Fenn misidentifies his address as “9 Culver Park”. Rest assured, he died at No. 9 Centre Park! I know you were probably stressed by the discrepancy.

Harvey C. Fenn’s son, William Wisner Fenn, would die just under five years later of consumption, his health apparently worsening after his father’s death. Fun fact, he was named for Rev. William Wisner, pastor of the Brick Church beginning in 1831.

---

No. 11 Centre Park

No. 11 Centre Street didn’t quite fit in; it was a bit on the “very modern” side, having been built around 1840.

Luckily, the neighborhood’s architectural aesthetic has been evened out in our present day.

This is the second time that this article has transcribed a “B.” initial as “V.” Perhaps they had a small hearing difficulty, or else Centre Park had a particular accent to the letter. The house was built by John Billings Dewey, Buffalo Street grocer and, for some time, weigh-master at the Erie Canal Weighlock.

Later on, the house was the home of Jeremiah Tracy and his family.

Jeremiah Tracy and his sons manufactured ginger ale and sodas in a factory, formerly an ice house, on Hill Street, which would become Industrial Street.

Tracy’s family name was applied to Tracy Alley, a narrow alley running west and north of Tracy’s soda factory. In 1899, this would be renamed to Foundry Alley, which it remained until its discontinuance as a public roadway in 1945.

Hey look! A bird!!!

Jeremiah Tracy died January 16th, 1890.

Tracy’s widow, Elizabeth Delaney, would move into the home of her daughter, Anna J. Tracy Trimble, No. 19 Carlton Place, which became Carlton Terrace in 1898, and the following year became Thorndale Terrace. Elizabeth died August 21st, 1899.

---

No. 12 Centre Park

No. 12 Centre Park was owned first by “S. P. Olcott” [who I’ve yet to identify with certainty], then by judges Addison Gardiner and William Sherwood Buell. It was the long-time home of Frederick Lewis Durand and John Ewing Durand, prominent lawyers in the city.

---

No. 10 Centre Park

No. 10 Centre Park was the very long-time home of the Hunter family.

Hector Hunter first appears in the 1834 directory, one of the earliest, as a boat master. His address is listed there as “Park Place, Centre-st.” Park Place seems to have been the very oldest name for the Centre Park neighborhood, as a couple other early denizens of Centre Park were identified with it in 1830s-era directories as well. Later directories give his address as the proper “10 Centre Park”.

Interestingly enough Hector and his wife Mary Anne would have a daughter, Mary Jane Hunter, in 1836; she would go on to marry Alfred Wright, Rochester’s successful perfume merchant. [Nolan 2007]

Hector’s widow, Mary Ann Hunter, would go on in the house for the rest of her life. She was happily engrossed with society, making offer of her spacious lawn for various religious and social organizations to picnic and festival.

As noted, the Hunter house had the most spacious and attractive stretch of lawn on Centre Park; indeed, as the reporter was touring a charitable group was clearing up after a lively picnic on the lawn.

Mary Anne Hunter died on the 10th of October, 1894.

---

No. 8 Centre Park?

This one is slightly confusing at first; in the 1851 map of Centre Park, the name “J. B. Bennett” floats ominously amongst several dwellings; it’s not clear which one it’s indicating. The name is written between the Hunter home at No. 10 and the Angle house at No. 6:

The house begins as the home of Joel Barlow Bennett; at this time its address is No. 8.

This segment of the article transitioning away from the Hunter house at No. 10 provides a clue: it says that the house was built by Joel V. Bennett. Making allowances for mistakes, this could easily be Joel B. Bennett:

If that’s the case, that would make No. 8 Centre Park the house we know later as:

No. 6 Centre Park

Probably best known during its time as the home of James Lansing Angle, former Justice of the Supreme Court of New York.

James L. Angle’s death was marked in the papers with a simply massive obituary, which I shan’t share here but is accessible on Page 9 of the May 5th, 1891 Democrat & Chronicle.

---

No. 4 Centre Park

I hope you haven’t yet grown tired of attorneys, because No. 4 Centre Park was built by yet another one. Nicholas Emory Paine first is listed at his Centre Park address in the 1845 directory:

In 1848, his son Willis Seaver Paine would be born.

Nicholas E. Paine would serve as the 17th Mayor of Rochester between 1851-1852.

Nicholas E. Paine would leave Rochester for New York City in 1868; Willis S. Paine would graduate from the University of Rochester that year and left with his father.

By 1875, No. 4 was the home of Oliver Marshall Cross, Sr. and his wife, Mary Jane Shelp.

Cross was a former worker dealer in leathers with his father, Austin Cross. This leather factory would become the Cross Brothers Company, leather tanners and dealers, with an eventual market in belting. The tannery was on the west side of the Genesee just south of the head of the Lower Falls, adjacent to the Deep Hollow ravine.

Oliver M. Cross, Sr.’s son Colin Wilson Cross would meet tall ships as they came down the Genesee to just near the present-day Driving Park Bridge. There, he would help unload tanbark and bring it to his grandfather’s tannery.

Oliver M. Cross moved into No. 4 Centre Park in 1869.

Mary Jane Shelp would die Febrary 19th, 1886.

By the next year, Oliver M. Cross would be remarried to the widow of Armina A. Holling, Mary J. Sheffield.

Which means the “Mary J. Cross” of the 1875 map and the “Mary J. Cross” of the 1888 map are actually two different Mary J. Crosses. How odd.

The Cross Bros. Company is now listed as permanently closed; it seems to have closed shop sometime around 2014.

---

So Long, Centre Park

Thus ends our 1889 tour of Centre Park, a neighborhood that was already old and only getting older. But the lives that kept the homes were going out one-by-one like lantern flames. Just like that, the residential spirit of the street was dying and being replaced with the brick edifices of industry.

---

Centre Park in the 20th Century

Now that we’ve got a snapshot of the bucolic village street nearing the end of its heyday, what happened to it? How did life evolve on Centre Park after 1888, into the 20th century, up to its demise at the arrival of the Inner Loop?

In 1899, the name of Moore Alley was changed to Bemis Alley.

Between 1900 and 1910, two stone duplexes [dupleces?] were erected on the north side of Centre Park, become No. 8 Centre Park and No. 4½ Centre Park.

As one can see from the map above, a large brick building for the Henry Conolly Co., a printing shop, has replaced the rambling old Bemis house formerly at No. 43 Elizabeth Street.

In 1920, The Henry Connolly Company was granted a permit to expand their factory, resulting in the destruction of the two frame houses to its west: former Nos. 3 and 5 Centre Park, aka the Dickey and Burr houses.

This structure is still extant, at 39 Cascade Drive. Since then, it served as the offices of The Daily Record between 1969 and 2008, making it often known as “the old Daily Record building”.

The former home of Jeremiah Tracy, former No. 11/51 Centre Park was purchased by the Multipost Co. sometime between 1918 and 1926; the frame house at No. 82 Oak Street was razed and the Multipost Co. factory was built onto the rear of brick No. 51 Centre Park.

In 1927, a new factory building for Multipost Co. was drawn up by architect Charles E. Lathrop and built on the site, whereupon the old brick house was likely destroyed.

Major changes happen between 1935 and 1950:

-The Durand mansion at No. 12/60 Centre Park was torn down; in its stead a building for RJ Velepec Co., toolmakers, and inventors of the “screw holding” screwdriver.

-The venerable old brick Hunter house would finally succumb to the wreckers, to be replaced with two four-car parking garages.

-No. 7/31 Centre Park, the frame house of Jeremiah Cutler, came down.

-No. 9/41 Centre Park, the brick house of the Fenn family, came down.

Around 1944, the Dollinger Corporation moved into No. 11 Centre Park, previously the Connolly Company, and produced air filters. Dollinger Corp. was previously the Stay-New Filter Corp. at the corner of Leighton Avenue and Crouch Street.

A 1947 aerial taken by the Gannett Newspapers plane during a massive Industrial Street fire allows us a glimpse of the southwestern corner of Centre Park. One can see the former Multipost Company factory at lower left, and the Dollinger Corp. building at top left. The Caldwell Manufacturing building complex, where the fire took place, is center-bottom at the confluence of Bemis St., Oak St., and Industrial St. It has extensive damage.

The barest glimpse of one of the Centre Street houses is provided in this photo of a fire, below. The burned building pictured was No. 14/12 Centre Park, originally No. 2 Centre Park, the old Shipman house:

---

Centre Square

Nearby Centre Park, between Fish Street [Center Street] and Ann Street [Allen Street], in the early 19th century, was a square of undeveloped land. Prior to 1844, the land was improved and laid out as a public park for the benefit of the surrounding neighborhoods.

In May of 1842, the cornerstone of a new school was laid at the north side of Centre Square. This would be the first School #5 building at the corner of Jones [Plymouth Avenue N.] and Fish [Commercial] Street.

That roughly corresponds with a grassy patch outside the Innovative Field stadium:

Around 1844, however, a railroad connection between the Auburn & Rochester Railroad [to the east] and the Tonawanda Railroad [to the west] was being explored. This would provide a direct rail connection between Buffalo and Albany, a railroad that would go on to become the New York Central and all that came after that.

Unfortunately, this planned connection drove directly through Centre Square.

As feared by the locals, the railroad connection definitely destroyed Centre Square as a place of fresh air and tranquility. It became a dumping ground for excavated “soil” from construction projects and demolitions.

What’s more, the Central Railroad connected their Niagara Falls run in Centre Square. By 1875 Centre Square was basically a railroad yard on a landfill.

In 1882, tons of noxious “soil” from the site of the first National Hotel was dumped in Centre Square. Rank and “oderous”, this stanky dirt caused a fuss with residents, who petitioned the Board of Health.

---

Centre Park Station

After years of debate on the topic, it was finally decided to build the train station in Centre Park, to be creatively named Centre Park Station.

Not quite a “solution” to the dumping problem, but building a train station there capped it off pretty nicely. I hope everyone enjoyed their park, while they had it!

The station was built very rapidly, with work commencing June 19th of 1888 and the station opening on December 17th of the same year.

The station’s signature was a steep set of stairs passengers were forced to scale in order to board or deboard their train. While this wasn’t an era especially well-known for its disability-friendly design, this was literally several steps beyond. I imagine this was no boon to the overburdened traveling lady or the cane-bearing older set, but to anyone wheelchair-bound this represented the citadel’s impregnable keep.

This depot would process thousands of passengers through the next forty-seven years. Ridership peaked in the 1920s, then began to plummet. By 1935 riders were a fraction of their usual rate, and the station was deemed redundant. The structure itself required enormous levels of maintenance and repairs, much of which was probably retreading those god-forsaken death stairs.

Come spring of 1935, the old station was being pulled down.

Check it out, you can see the Kodak Building to the left. That means the photo above roughly corresponds to this northeast view from the Inner Loop:

If one could get low enough, that is. The Inner Loop is much higher in the air than it would have been when this location was just Allen Street near North Washington Street.

That little presidential fat joke was courtesy A. Whitman Crittenden. Take a bow, Mister Crittenden:

Interestingly, there’s a teensy white sign–I presume it’s a mile marker–which gives a pretty good rough estimate of where the station used to stand. If you’re ever driving here, make sure to stare at that sign. What could go wrong?

---

The Centre Cannot Hold

And so we reach the common end of a common story; those lovely old houses full of life were destroyed. In their stead, either the stocky square structures of industry, or the asphalt expanse of highways and frontage roads. It’s amazing to think that a nucleus of Rochester qua Rochester was so easily extinguished, to the point where nobody would dream it was ever extant. Indeed, hammer “Centre Park” into Google Maps today and you’re greeted with

To think, this was a charming, drowsy little gated street, a small petit-four sampling of village life, whose classic old houses weathered decades of Rochester’s awkward teenage years. All that, and it was honored by being swept from the map like yesterday’s lessons.

Yesterday’s lessons. Perhaps that’s all cities have to go off of, after all. We can’t bring back what we’ve squandered, but maybe we can keep what we do have into the next century, and beyond. It’s worth a try.

---

Supporting Gonechester

Did you enjoy what you read? Consider giving me a little tip at buymeacoffee.com/Gonechester, by way of saying “thanks!” It’s not necessary, but it certainly helps!