Category: Bridges
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If you’re a Rochesterian, there is one crucial aspect without which no picture of daily life is fully rendered; a familiar and frustrating piece of the Rochester experience that can’t be left aside. I’m speaking, naturally, of snow and its removal, which you may have gleaned from the title. Rochester has long been gifted with…
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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…
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It can be fully shocking how much of an impact Rochester’s development has had on the landscape around it. More than two centuries of human habitation can cause some major changes; one of the most impressive may be the complete filling in of the Deep Hollow Creek. Once a magnificent natural feature of Rochester’s west…
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I love tiny places. Small buildings, itty-bitty cafes, pubs and bars, wee ickle shops and teensy pocket parks. Far from being claustrophobic, I find that these finite spaces encourage the fullest use of every inch, from efficiency of purpose to expressiveness of décor. And, in many cases, it forces one to keep in touch with…
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The first public timepiece in Rochester, NY was a sun-dial which stood in the yard between the Presbyterian church and the first court house, on the east side of Fitzhugh Street. A wooden upright in the shape of a Latin cross, it was affixed at a forty-five degree angle to a base made from an…
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Sign of the STEAMING tea-kettle. The word caught my eye. “Steaming”. Did the tea kettle actually steam? I had to know more. Why, you ask? If you’re a regular reader, I admonish you; you should know better than to ask me why I need to know more. That’s what this is all about. If this…
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There are views of Rochester NY that our ancestors took for granted. Peering from atop some long-lost building or since-dismantled bridge. The balcony of the Elwood building, the catwalk structures clinging to the sides of the Main Street Bridge, places where now only a talented drone-pilot could take a shot. Imagine yourself on an iron…
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“What was Rochester’s first Chinese restaurant?” I figured that the answer was going to be fun and interesting. And the answer is, indeed, very interesting! The fun, however, is slightly tempered by one major, but familiar factor: racism. I shouldn’t have been surprised, really; the late 19th century and early 20th were a hotbed of…
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Once upon a time in Brighton, which was to become east Rochester, two ponds existed where now highways criss-cross one another. Much like the famed Willow Pond on Thomas Creek, these ponds were artificial, created by well-to-do families to ornament their extensive gardens. These two ponds existed on two properties, north of the East Avenue…