ROCHESTER’S HISTORY – 1900 to 1920 – The Flower City

1900

    • Population 162,608
    • Febuary 28 - March 2, Snowstorm hits Rochester with 43.1 inches of snow.
    • Plans developed to re-route canal around Rochester. The southern route would pass through Genesee Valley Park, and the northern route which would pass over the river on an aqueduct 200 feet high and a thousand feet long. The southern route was selected in 1905.
    • William Jennings Bryan, and Theodore Roosevelt visit city.
    • Rochester & Lake Ontario RR (The Dummy Line) and the Rochester & Suburban Railway merge to form the Rochester & Suburban Co.
    • Train Stations for five different railroads in Rochester.
    • Women admitted to the University of Rochester.
    • The residents of Arnold Park pay one half of the cost of installing 6 electric arc lights. Residents of Oxford Street pay for nine electric lights.
    • Thirty five saloons are in the village of Charlotte, more than one for each of the twenty-eight street corners. A wave of 'Moral Reform' hits the area, banning slot machines, Sunday baseball, and dishonest games. There were also problems with 'Hotels' where it was legal to sell liquor on Sundays (less than a quarter of these were actually hotels, just saloons with rooms added for sleeping) and they also provided a convenient location for illicit sex.
    • Bell Telephone brings phone lines to Charlotte, but meets with resistance from residents, who object to the poles on their property.
    • July 4th - Two steam engines are run head on as part of celebrations at Rochester's Driving Park.

1901

    • Orphan Asylum fire kills 31 children.
    • George Selden's patent for compression gas engine for automobiles confirmed.
    • Irondequoit Park Railway line leased to Rochester & Sodus Bay RR for 999 years, at $5,000 per year.
    • Philadelphia merchants open McCurdy's to compete with Rochester's giant retailer, Sibley's.

 

 

1902

  • Irondequoit Park Railway and Rochester & Sodus Bay RR void their lease deal, and merge to become the Sodus Bay Railroad, and then they lease the rights to Rochester Railway Co.
  • First playground, at Brown's Square.
  • Smallpox Epidemic kills 100. Dr. Goler is hero in fighting disease.
  • East High built on Alexander St.
  • Foreclosure of Rochester's Driving Park. Location is eventually cut into building lots.
  • Rochester Bronco's first baseman Harry O'Hagan has an unassisted triple play, first for a ballplayer on a Rochester club.

1903

    • Foreclosure against Rochester's Driving Park, the site is split up into building lots.

 

 

1904

    • At 5 AM, on Feb. 26 a fire starts from a fuse blowing in the elevator shaft in the Rochester Dry Goods Store at 156-168 Main St. By noon the entire block of 1 3/4 acres was in flames, in a conflagration that would burn for a day and a half in near zero temperatures. In all five buildings, a stable and two homes were destroyed. The interior of the 12 story Granite Building was gutted. 3,000 people were temporally lost their jobs. Buffalo sent 26 fire fighters, sent Syracuse 30. The fire fighters arrived special trains which also carried two steamers and two hose carts from each city. (Unfortunately the hoses brought from Buffalo and Syracuse would not fit onto the Rochester hydrants. Because of this the state passed a law standardizing all fire connections in the state.)

Sibley's Department Store lost $3,000,000 in buildings and inventory. Also lost was the company safe containing the books showing the several hundred thousand dollars owed the store. Within months voluntary payments were made, estimated to be 90% of what was owed. In just over a year a new, larger building was on the site and open for business. By 1915 the store covered 15 acres.

    • George Eastman gives first gift to University of Rochester, $60,000 for laboratories.
    • Rochester Gas & Electric Co., and Rochester Railway & Light Co. merge.
    • Ice jam at the Clarissa St. bridge threatens to flood downtown.
    • Mayor Cutler forces city to stop pumping raw sewage into river, first sewage treatment plant built.
    • Forrest House at Ridge and Culver burns.
    • R. T. French Co. sends the first prepared mustard to St. Louis World's Fair. Created as a salad dressing, it is paired with another new food, the hot dog, and becomes an instant success.
    • Seneca Park West added to adjacent Maplewood Park.
    • Brown's Square opens city's first playground.

 

 

1905

    • Andrew Carnegie donates $100,000 to the University of Rochester, on condition that the school raise an equal amount.
    • Rochester given a first-class city charter.
    • Police traffic squad organized.
    • New Armory built on East Main Street.
    • New Public Market opens on North Union Street on 9.7 acre site next to tracks of New York Central.
    • New swing bridge at Charlotte built.
    • Toll ends on Charlotte Blvd.
    • Eastman House built at 500 East Avenue. The Georgian Colonial is Rochester's largest and most elegant residence. The three story, 49 room mansion was willed to the University of Rochester in 1932. It served as the

residence for the University President until 1947. In 1949 the Eastman House was opened as a Museum of Photography.

    • Ferries Ontario and Ontario II run between Charlotte and Coburg, Canada. They carried coal in railroad cars, automobiles, and passengers. The ferry service ends in 1950.
    • Syracuse merchants open Edward's to compete with Rochester's giant retailer, Sibley's.

 

 

1906

    • The comics are added as a four page supplement to the Democrat & Chronicle's Sunday edition.

 

 

1907

    • 'The Breezer ' built at Ontario Beach Park. This is a Scenic RR built along the river from the lake to Beach Ave. Twenty people ride in each car, which enter a darkened building as it starts it's return trip. After a quick flash of daylight, its back to darkness with the growls of lions and tigers. Daylight again, and the final series of hills to the end.
    • World's tallest smokestacks built at Kodak Park, 366 feet tall.
    • Labor Day, a Fire destroys the Bartholomy Brewing Co.'s Pavilion & Cottage Hotel on the west side of Lake Ave., at Beach Ave.
    • State Arsenal on Washington Square converted to Rochester Convention and Publicity Bureau.
    • Seneca Hotel built.
    • New reservoir built at Cobb's Hill.
    • First Chineese restaurant opens in Rochester.

 

 

1908

    • Forty cottages at Windsor Beach burn, $125,000 in damage. Gale force winds, over 60 MPH, fan fires. Rochester Fire Department sends equipment to scene on RR flat cars.
    • Nazareth Hall moves back to Maplewood area, in a wooden building at Alameda Street and Raines Park.
    • Edward Halbeib turns his basement intrests in electricty in to the Northeast Coil Company, the company is eventually renamed Delco.
    • Auto show held at the Naval Armory.
    • Lake Ontario steamboat collides with an other, just off the Charlotte Pier Twenty-one passengers are rescued from the sinking 'Titania'

 

 

1909

    • Miss Frances Baker gives 120 acres for addition to Genesee Valley Park
    • Durand Eastman Park opens.
    • Cobbs Hill Park given additional acreage by George Eastman.
    • Lake View Hotel at Sea Breeze burns.
    • Steel towers 167 feet tall are built at the ferry crossing to carry Niagara power lines across the river.
    • New York State Railroad takes control of the Rochester & Suburban Co.
    • Rochester baseball team wins pennant in Eastern League.
    • Durand Eastman Park dedicated, May 22.

 

 

 


1910

    • Population 218,149
    • New York State Railroad takes control of the Sodus Bay Railroad
    • First flight in Rochester attempted. Eugene Ely makes a short flight.
    • City flag first displayed.
    • Urban Renewal Plans are made to modernize downtown Rochester.
    • Boy Scouts organized.
    • Buffalo Bill's last Rochester appearance.

 

 

1911

    • Playing baseball on Sunday officially sanctioned.
    • First successful flight in Rochester made by John J. Frisbie on July 7. He flies from a field located between Highland and Elmwood Avenues. After crossing Cobb's Hill he attempted a turn above the intersection of Main and Culver when the engine stalled. He was able to restart the engine, and continue west to the New York Central Depot. He then turned again, and landed at the field where he had started.
    • On July 8th a flying demonstration was given by the Moisant International Aviators, flying Bleriot monoplanes and Frisbie in his Curtiss biplane. On the next day two of the fliers gave a demonstration of how the airplane could be

used in war by dropping paper bags filled with flour on a company of National Guard troops.

    • Five Rochester built planes, in the design of Glenn Curtiss, were at an air meet held in Rochester.
    • Fred Eells flies a pontoon equipped Rieflin biplane (patterned after the Curtiss) at Glen Haven. He flew at an altitude of 350 feet, for one hour and twenty-one minutes covering a distance of seventy three miles
    • The first Air Mail flight in Rochester was part of an air meet held at Crittenden Park on October 21. Lincoln Beachey drops a mailbag over Genesee Valley Park to waiting Postal officials. The 15,000 postcards were then specially postmarked, and delivered. 35,000 attended the air show.
    • The Elbridge engine was built on Culver Road. The Elbridge was a simple powerful water cooled, two cycle engine, highly favored by airplane builders.
    • Rochester Industrial Exhibition held at Exhibition Park.
    • Rochester hosts the 'Owl Tournament', America's first tennis matches under artifical lights.

 

 

1912

    • Memorial Art Gallery given to the University of Rochester.
    • First gas powered fire equipment used in city. In less than 15 years, the last horse drawn truck had been replaced.
    • Land on Prince Street and University Avenue donated for Woman's College, by Dr. John Mann.
    • R. T. French Co. moves into city, and locates factory on Mustard Street.
    • A committee decides that residential street lights be placed 200 feet apart, the business section from Main to Alexander at 100 feet apart, and Main Street at 50 feet. Many areas request additional lighting above this recommendation. The lights are provided and a local improvements ordinance assesses the abutting property for the additional cost.
    • Rochester Police Chief 'Holy Joe' Quigley cleans up city, forcing undesirables out of the city, and into Charlotte.
    • Moorish revival gazebo covering a drinking fountain is built. A crematorium designed by J. F. Warner  (son of A. J. Warner), is added to the new chapel at Mt. Hope.
    • Three of the six Rochesterians on the Titantic die in the tragedy.

 

 

1913

    • New York Central Railroad Station is built. Said to be the finest structure ever built in the county. Designed by noted local architect Claude Bragdon. Was extremely graceful for such a large structure, and noted for its imaginative decoration. Was demolished to make room for a parking lot.
    • Kodak Tower built on the site of the old factory. The 16 story building was Rochester's tallest structure until the late 20's when the Genesee Valley Trust Co. announced plans to add the 42 foot 'Wings of Progress' sculpture to the top of their building. George Eastman, following in the footsteps of  Daniel Powers, added three additional floors, and the pointed Gothic roof and tower, making the 340 foot Kodak Tower Rochester's Tallest.
    • Worst flood since 1865, with 8' of water over Court St. Dam.
    • City votes to control river by building retaining walls and deepening the river bed. With no action by the state the city decides to protect itself, and builds retaining walls between the Central Ave. Dam and the canal. The depth of the river bed increased by four to seven feet, for a distance of 2,700 feet from the brink of the falls.
    • City acquires property on Canadice Lake for water supply.
    • Rochester Zoological Society acquires land in Durand Eastman park for deer and buffalo.
    • Newly McElroy appointed first policewoman.
    • Main Street West extended to junction of Chili and West Avenue.

 

 

1914

    • New York Central RR opens new Station at N. Clinton and Central Ave.
    • Earthquake frightens local citizens.
    • May 15, The Virginia Reel and a bath house burn. Firemen save the Venetian Canal and the rest of the Ontario Beach Park.
    • September 14, Bartholomay Pavilion and the Cottage Hotel burns after a dance of the Charlotte Baseball Club. A cigarette is blamed for starting the fire.
    • First crosswalks used on city streets.

 

 

1915

    • Durand Eastman Park Bathhouse opens.
    • Washington Junior High School on Clifford Avenue opens. The Junior High School was a new concept, developed in Rochester. Aimed to keep students in school past the eighth grade, by providing manual education for the boys and home economics for the girls.

 

 

1916

    • Ontario Beach Park acquired by city.
    • Ferries 'Ontario' and 'Ontario II' run between Charlotte and Coburg, Canada. They carried coal in railroad cars, automobiles, and passengers.
    • 1st Church of Christian Scientists builds a Neo-Classical church at East and Prince St.
    • The worst flood since the Great Flood of 1865 occurs while the flood prevention project was still under construction. Eight feet of water over Court St. Dam. Retaining walls not completed. Exchange Street was flooded, and the sewers overflowed.  An eight foot diameter sewer tunnel, under construction 40 feet below Main Street, was temporarily connected to the Main Street sewer to prevent basements from flooding.
    • Rochester Fruit and Vegetable company opens, better known today as Wegmans.

 

 

1917

    • Village of Charlotte annexed by the City of Rochester as it's twenty-third Ward.
    • Rochester celebrates it's early history.
    • Bausch & Lomb build on entire city block at St. Paul St.

 

 

1918

    • Stutson St. bridge opens.
    • The present Clarissa St. Bridge is built in to allow canal traffic to pass underneath. The new Barge Canal utilized the river as part of the canal from the canal crossing to the Court Street Dam.
    • State builds the Court Street Dam at the site of the Johnson and Seymour Feeder Dam. Rochester Gas and Electric generates electricity at the west end of the dam. River level is raised to 12 ft. when a section of the river from the canal crossing to the Court Street Dam was made a part of the new Barge Canal. The dam fixes the water level on the canal at 512.6 feet for sixty miles to Lockport. The rapids at Castletown are submerged.
    • Influenza epidemic kills many.

 

 

1919

    • Canal closed in city. New route goes south of city through Genesee Valley Park.
    • The flood prevention project is finally finished in the city. Delays were caused by World War I.
    • King Albert, Queen Elizabeth and Crown Prince Leopold of Belgium visit city.
    • Eastman School of Music given to the University of Rochester.
    • Jefferson Junior High School opens, followed by: 1922, the Madison Junior High School, 1923 the Monroe Junior High School (which quickly became a Junior-Senior High School) and the Benjamin Franklin Junior-Senior High School.
    • Monroe Ave. brick yards, located just west of the 12 corners, are subdivided into residential lots.
    • Bathhouse opens at Durand Eastman Park.
    • The next Driving Park Avenue Bridge is built. It is a $125,000 wrought iron bridge with a central span of 428 feet. Three additional spans, one on the east, and two on the west, give a total bridge length of 717 feet, and a weight of 900 tons. General neglect of the structure lead to speed restrictions in the 1960's and occasional closings during bad weather.


1920

    • Population 290,750
    • June 4, canal is formally abandoned, city offered land.  City buys abandoned canal lands from state for $1,526,000
    • River bed is widened above the Court Street Dam to form the Rochester Harbor. Material is used to fill in the canal feeder along the east bank
    • Windsor Ferry ends service. William F. Andrews was Captain for 26 years.
    • Lyceum Building on St. Paul St. opens.
    • R. T. French Co. introduces power machinery and becomes one of the largest food producers in the world.
    • Britton property on Scottsville Road acquired for airfield.

 

 

     1921

    • Plans submitted to rebuild canal bed as subway.
    • Atlantic Avenue, Blossom Road, Empire Blvd., and Penfield Road are 'dugways' that were cut across the Irondequoit Valley.

 

 

1925

    • Rochester-Grandview Beach Railroad / Rochester-Manitou Railroad ends service

 

 

1927

  • Rochester Iron Manufacturing Co. blast furnace is destroyed

1928

  • City interurbans diverted to new subway tracks at Lyell Ave. on Feb. 4th. Line runs from Lyell Ave. to the Oak Street Loop. (Service on this line was discontinued April 30, 1931)
  • Rochester and Syracuse cars  were diverted onto the subway on April 16th. Operating from Winton Road to the Oak Street Loop. In July the route was extended westward to Driving Park. (Service on this line was discontinued April 30, 1931)
  • Rochester Eastern cars running between Rowlands Loop and the Oak Street Loop were diverted onto the subway on Dec. 1, 1927 (Service on this line was discontinued July 31, 1930)