- Gonechester: A History
- Landmark Society Special Commendation
- Presentations
- Research & Resources
- The Zeiner Story
- Zinkers
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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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Last time we went into the history of one corner of East Main Street and Elm with the entry Before Midtown; let us now cross over Elm Street to another history-rich lot of land. Vaguely triangular in shape, this expensive lot of commercial real estate was once the site of Rochester’s most prominent homes. For…
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The familiar present-day greenspace of Parcel 5 on East Main Street, between Cortland Street and Andrew Langston Way, was a commercial and recreational hotspot since the 1840s. While in living memory this space held McCurdy’s–and, notably, the Midtown Plaza of which McCurdy’s comprised a large part–that was but the most recent of the decades of…
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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…
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Once upon a time, Brighton was home to a settlement of Dutch immigrants, poetically called the “Dutch Settlement”. A transplanted slice of old Holland, the settlement was noted for its Dutch cultural flavor; neat little houses stood shoulder-to-shoulder surrounded by gardens full of vegetables all in rows. The Dutch, gifted in gardening and horticulture, tended…
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Way back in March, the Pittsford Community Library asked if I would like to put together a presentation about the history of the Pittsford Community Library, and its various sites throughout time. This was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the present-day library building, built and opened twenty years ago in 2005. Of course, I…
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Joe Wood, the famous wooden baseball player statue which stood resolutely before myriad tobacconists and saloons in old Rochester had a cousin: a jocular, rotund likeness of Samuel Pickwick from The Pickwick Papers written by Charles Dickens. The statue of Pickwick stood out front of a tobacconist on East Main Street, with his hand full…
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August 14th, 1947, was a hot day. The masonry was baking like it was back in the kiln, and down on the street the temperature was merciless. The heat kept building, and building, all throughout the day. And then, just a few minutes after six o’clock in the evening, it collapsed. In the blind attic…
