Category: Crime
-
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,…
-
Updated September 18th, 2026. Since last time we did the northeast corner of East Main Street and Culver, why not do the even more historic northwest corner, just across Culver Road. This started out as the very old and rustic farmstead of the Schanck family, a prominent pioneer family whose Brighton home was early gobbled…
-
Death is deep. Deeper, even, than the grave. Long after their lives have ended, the remains and memories of the dead are still in the care of the living–and often left to specific individuals. An immense amount of trust is placed in the hands of the grave-keepers and cemetery sextons; they are tasked with maintaining…
-
I’ll admit that I tend to shy away from topics that have been covered in more depth by far more adept historians than myself, and those topics which are more well-known by the general Rochesterian public. After all, I pretend to have neither any sort of special insight into history nor access to any special…
-
Is there a Green Street in Rochester? Once upon a time, there was! The name never made it past the 19th century, but the thoroughfare technically still exists: over the decades, it morphed into South Clinton Avenue south of Howell Street. But to start, it was a simple street laid out between Jackson Street [Capron…
·
-
Content Warning: This post regards manslaughter; historical sources are shared that get somewhat grisly in places. It’s Halloween, what can I say? Read at your own discretion. Our scene opens on the dusty urban corner of Market and Front Streets, in the 1870s. In a squat brick building, a small hotel and saloon is being…
·
-
Updated August 1st, 2026 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…
-
This post deals with a suicide, and contains historical articles describing a suicide. Continue at your own discretion. On the cover of the 1890 Rochester City Index and Guide Book, I took note of a name written in a unique and somewhat fanciful–albeit wobbly–hand: “Perley Ainsworth”. Alongside this name an occupation, “Steam Hydraulic Engineer” and…
-
When the ancestors of those old familiar claw machine games first started appearing in druggist’s shops in the 1930s, Rochester reacted poorly. Customarily a town that cracked down hard on gambling and vice, the City of Rochester was concerned these nickel-hungry devices were gambling at best, outright theft at worst. This dude, Chief of Police…