_{Updated October 25th, 2026.}

A small thing with which we are familiar, the “traffic island” was once a novelty. As automobile traffic became more and more prevalent, streets and intersections became increasingly hostile environments for pedestrians.

Similar to the situation around the Traffic Towers, Rochester’s traffic specialists would have their eye on advancements in traffic management tried in other, larger cities. Their adoption of an “isle of safety” was noted: that is, a narrow concrete space to channel traffic and serve as a respite for pedestrians crossing the busy street.

Mayor Edgerton declared that Rochester, too, would adopt the “isle of safety” at one of its most confusing and traffic-congested commercial intersections, the confluence of East Avenue and East Main Street. There, a “boat-shaped” twelve-foot-long and three-foot-wide concrete island six inches in height would be installed; at its center, an ornamental post surmounted by a large electric light enclosed in a red globe.

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East Avenue & East Main Street Isle

The one that started it all, Isle of Safety No. 1 was at the junction of East Main Street with East Avenue and Franklin Street, where there was a wide angle of pavement with a whole lot of traffic coming and not much time for pedestrians to safely cross. The solution: a small island of pavement for pedestrians to stop and also to break up the traffic flow into a semblance of streams to prevent accidents.

This was, of course, in many ways Rochester’s showiest corner. The Liberty Building stood there in all its flagpole-studded glory, and Sibley’s Triangle Building. Of course, and most notably, the great palace of Sibley’s stood adjacent, towering over the area and casting a great commercial shadow.

The ever-roving eye of “Peggy” alighted upon the new isle’s lamppost and found it aesthetically wanting:

Apparently, Peggy was not alone in her condemnation of the isle’s aesthetics:

The public having deemed the standard “too thin” and the red globe lamp “too fat”, the lamp was swapped out on aesthetic grounds, with one considered more ornamental.

Early in March, workmen appeared to measure the isle in preparation for improvements:

Originally, the lamp was meant to be a globe with a red band around it, but that was not manufactured by anyone and would take too long to make especially. A lamp was selected which was a “medallion of red on a white opalescent background”. This was an attempt to make the red visible at a distance, but the white light overwhelmed the red and rendered the medallion’s effect moot.

Much study has been done into this since that time and it has been confirmed that white light is visible at a longer distance than red, the latter of which has the poorest visibility at a distance of any color light.

The standard of the old lamp was stolen from the yard of the Railway and Light Company:

“Peggy”, who had previously derided the isle’s lamp as a “little red cigar lighter” that “looked funny”, now looked approvingly upon the replacement lamp:

It was not long before the highly-public site would become the target of festive festoonery, as the very next Saint Patrick’s Day saw the lamppost bedecked in green finery.

Below, a tongue-in-cheek cartoon suggestion that the Isle of Safety be used to bunk some of the swarm of convention-goers in town for the Elk’s Grand Lodge Reunion and Parade.

Being so central and public made this an attractive point for public spectacle, such as this Chi Rho initiate from University of Rochester who stood in child’s apparel, holding a chicken on a cord and yelling “Fresh eggs!”, a stunt performed as part of bizarre initiation rites–I suppose hazing would be the word.

Even with the Isle of Safety, the confluence of roadways at East Avenue and East Main Street made for difficult and hazardous crossing, a fact brought up in articles and comics:

The landmark lamp at East Avenue and Main would be decorated for Christmas, at least one year:

The date of the below photo is not specifically defined, listed as 1920-1930, but it necessarily cannot be from 1924-1928 when a traffic control tower would have stood on the corner.

Being a highly public place, a side benefit of the isle was as a high visibility venue for acts of public disgrace:

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More Isles Planned

The success of Isle of Safety No. 1 and Edgerton’s enthusiasm for isles caused two more isles to be planned in troublesome intersections of the city.

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East & Union Isle

Isle of Safety No. 2 was planned for the north end of South Union Street, where it entered into East Avenue.

Below, we see one of the clearest photos of the Union Street isle of safety captured in this image of the Corris and Kewin Blocks, which were bounded by East Avenue, South Union Street, and Court Street. Built 1886-1887 by grocer William R. Corris and plumber William J. Kewin, these buildings are no longer extant. I shall go into their history in some more depth in an upcoming post.

In the below 1918 photograph looking north along South Union from around Gardiner Park, we can see the isle of safety off in the distance:

Zoomed, and cropped to show more clearly:

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Monroe & Alexander Isle

Isle of Safety No. 3 was planned for the corner of Monroe Avenue and Alexander Street, the northwest curve of the intersection making for a large pedestrian crossing.

Specifically where in the intersection the isle of safety was in the roadway is hard to say. It didn’t make its way onto any maps, and I was unable to find a photo of the intersection in question. What is certain is that the west passage around the isle was wider than the east, as the isle was reportedly placed in the center-line of Alexander Street as it would be if the curved corner were not taken into account.

It was just such a dangerous condition that sparked protests from the local residents, who interfered with workers constructing the isle.

Parallel attempts by area locals to beautify the isle by making it a fountain or terraced garden went nowhere, as money from the highway fund could only by used for a divider that was “strictly utilitarian”.

The isles of safety were only numbered in order of construction, with East Main Street-East Avenue being “Isle of Safety No. 1”, the one at East Avenue and Union Street being “Isle of Safety No. 2” and the one under construction at Monroe Avenue and Alexander Street being “Isle of Safety No. 3”.

In this Post Express article, a suggestion was made that the names of prominent persons might be applied to these isles of safety; i.e. “Lincoln Isle“, “Greeley Isle“, and “McKinley Isle“.

Meanwhile, people were still raising objections to the placement of the isle of safety; the northward passage around the isle was notably narrow, resulting in people turning into the larger passage to the other side, where they would encounter southbound traffic.

Again, I was unable to find any photographic evidence of this particular isle of safety, as this intersection seems to have deftly avoided the camera lens. However, should I stumble across one, I shall paste it herein.

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Frank & Commercial Isle

Nearly three years later, the first isle of safety appeared on the west side of the Genesee River.

As of 1914, the meeting of Frank Street [present day North Plymouth Avenue] at Commercial Street was widened into a great delta shape.

This was, of course, an awful lot of unbroken pavement to cross for a pedestrian, and so a safety isle was placed in the center of the delta where it met Commercial Street.

The eastern side of the North Plymouth Street delta at Commercial Street would eventually be consumed by parking lots, and Commercial Street would give way to the path of the Inner Loop, leaving the site of our isle within a parking space:

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Other Isles

The momentum really picked up on isles of safety at this point, and they were applied as a matter-of-course solution to difficult intersections in need of channelization. As a matter of fact, they are employed to this very day in various forms, from humble medians to large ornate greenspaces replete with public sculpture. But it all stemmed from this initial set of isles, wherein Rochester cautiously placed its toe into the turbid waters of traffic management.

I could, of course, go into 1938’s installation of an isle of safety at Broad Street where it debouched into South Avenue. I could speak also of a tulip-bedecked triangular isle that was once a crowning jewel of the Browncroft Extension. And, let’s be real, I probably will at some point. But until then, I will leave off with these four pioneer isles.

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Islands in the Stream

What happened to these isles of safety? For the most part, they vanished largely without comment.

According to this Post Express article from 1933, twenty years prior “Rochester embarked upon an isle of safety program” but that, by 1933, only the isle at East Main and East Avenue remained.

That claim would seem to be countered by the presence of the isle of safety at North Plymouth and Commercial Streets in the 1935 plat map. Perhaps that didn’t count, and the article refers solely to those isles constructed by 1913.

Even so, that implies two isles of safety which did not survive to 1933. And we know that neither the isle at East Avenue and East Main Street, nor the isle at South Plymouth and the defunct Commercial Street survive to the present day.

So, as much as I’d like to give you a neat denouement to the story of the isles of safety, I cannot do so. No explicit mentions were made of removing any of the isles, or replacing them, and so I must wave my hand and say, “once isles of safety stood here,” with that intonation of certainty, followed up lamely by “nobody knows what happened to them“. If that takes a bit of the gust out of this post’s sails, so be it.

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