Category: Streets
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While conducting research on another white whale of a building, I was intrigued by the below article’s mention of six houses built in the earlier part of the 19th century for William W. Mumford by builder William Lawton, called “The Six Sisters”. The above article notes that, by 1877, “a number of these buildings, remodelled,…
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As we’ve touched upon at Gonechester before, Rochester was once the home of a thriving nursery industry. Numerous men of Rochester and Brighton made their livings–and, at times, their fortunes–in the raising of plants and trees for resale. Great swathes of real estate were cultivated for this purpose, enough land to be parcelled into entire neighborhoods in…
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Back in the early days of Rochester, the number one enemy was fire. Constant vigilance, careful preparation, and good communication are the watch-words for fire prevention and many of these practices were honed in the hectic tinderboxes that was the 19th century city. Downtown, mills factories and forges stood shoulder-to-shoulder with apartments, houses and saloons;…
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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…
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Updated September 5th, 2026. If you are a Rochesterian who drives along Culver Road regularly, this may be a scene that is familiar to you: An indentation in the east retaining wall, south of the railroad bridge underpass on Culver Road between Humboldt Street and University Avenue. This odd little nook is the result of…
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Murals, as we saw in the previous segment, could be a potent rallying point for a community. The once-bare walls could display figures, symbols and slogans uniquely reflecting the hopes, history and hardships of a neighborhood. More impactful to the community than the paintings themselves, however, was the act of their creation; the call to…
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The history of a city is foremost the history of people. It is people that make the buildings, people that pave the streets, and people whose daily lives make use of them both. The things they do, the things they make, the styles they wear… these are the deciding factors of generations. And yet, we…
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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…
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During the 1950’s William Ringle Jr., reporter for Gannett, would write a column for the Rochester Times-Union which presented brief histories of street names around Rochester, NY. As his fellow avid toponymist, I have collected these articles whereever I have found them–and was most enthused when I came across a full scrapbook containing the cut-and-pasted…
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