Category: Streets
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While perusing the Plat Maps–how many times am I going to start an entry this way?–I took note of an intriguing building which didn’t seem to fit with its neighborhood friends. As it was facing diagonally on a north-south street, I got the sense that this was a house far older than its fellows. You…
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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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Updated September 24th, 2026. Odd things draw my eye for unusual reasons when I’m reading through historical newspapers. Sometimes it causes me to delve into a topic I otherwise would have overlooked. For example, this entry started when I came across a familiar name among newspaper ads–John Vanderslice. That happens to be the name 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…
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Updated September 24th, 2026. Believe it or not, Colby Street and Blossom Road once met–albeit it only in the minds of city planners. At this time, the New York Central Railroad crossed both Blossom road and Winton Road at grade, not passing over the streets on a bridge as familiar to us today. Winton Road’s…
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When I was little, I was convinced skyways were the way of the future. I became five years old in 1990 and bridges stretched across the sky between tall buildings everywhere I looked, from science fiction to real life. I was convinced these interstructural walkways would grow in number and complexity until–at last–denizens of our…
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One thing that never fails to intrigue me is the fact that our familiar streets and alleys are the result of decade after decade of decisions being made; decisions that could have–at many junctures–gone a way entirely different than what we are familiar with today. Some neighborhoods rich with decades of history almost never came…
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As early as 1890, talk began to build about the need for a new east-west conduit for traffic between east Rochester and Brighton. A common answer to this need was a call to extend Park Avenue westward, past its present termination point at Alexander Street, continuing as far as Court Street. In addition to the traffic benefits,…