The Day the Market Crashed

This beautiful example of 1920's Art Deco architecture provides one of the most distinctive features of Rochester's skyline.  The most noteworthy feature of the building are its four 42 foot high, 12,000 pound aluminum wings, but the whole building is a study in the art deco style and grand optimism of the roaring 20's. 

It was designed by the architecture firm of  Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, who are famous for many distinctive buildings in New York City, including the impressive Bank of New York Building at #1 Wall Street.

It has always been used mainly as a bank or finance building throughout it's history.  Ironically, the cornerstone of the building was laid the day the stock market crashed, October 29, 1929, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.

The best way to view this building is to approach it running over the Broad Street Bridge (mentioned in a previous post).  I was able to capture it a sunrise on an amazingly warm November morning.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Going Downtown? Take the Subway!

Well, you could from the late 1920's until the 1950's, anyway.  Like many other Rochester civic projects, ie: The Fast Ferry, poor planning and a lack of demand doomed our little subway system.  Rochester was actually the smallest city to put a subway system into operation, and many artifacts of it remain if you look for them.  The Broad Street brdge in the picture above actually is a very unique design which had cars, trucks and pedestrians on the top level, and subway cars on the second level.  Before the subway, the bridge carried the Erie Canal over the Genesee River.

The abandoned subway system has become a haven for the homeless, since the tunnels and stations were never fully closed off or filled in.  It has become a place of dark legends, and a destination for brave adventurers.  One interesting account of an excursion into the subway can be found here.  I've never been brave enough to attempt going down there...

Linear Park Legends

These shots are of the Irondequoit Creek in Channing H. Philbrick Park (formerly Linear Park), in Penfield, NY. If you park in the main lot off Route 441, a nice little 5K can get done by running the length of the trail down to the Tops parking lot, then back up. You'll need to run up into the wooded part of the trail east of the parking lot to get the distance in.

There are some interesting artifacts and features in the portion of the Irodequoit Creek that the trail follows. Most can be attributed to the mills that used to operate on the Irondequoit Creek in this area. The fast water currents on this portion of the creek were ideal for this purpose. A friend of mine told me that the partially exposed tunnel seen in the upper right of the second picture above was used as an escape route in the Underground Railroad, and that the tunnel makes it's way up to a house on the hill behind the creek.. An intriguing possibility, although it is just as plausible that this was some sort of spillway or tunnel used by a mill. (Click on the pictures to enlarge.)

Support Your Local Brewery

At the St. Paul Street end of the footbridge near High Falls you can find this great old building, which is part of the Genesee Brewery. In the town I'm from, Utica, NY, the local brewery, FX Matts, is kind of the center of the community. Most big events, like the Utica Boilermaker and several festivals and live music are tied to the brewery and Saranac beers. In Utica, the local brewer is for the most part, treated as a local treasure. When I moved to Rochester, old Genny was kind of neglected by most people here, and seemed on the verge of being overrun by crappy national brands. Since the 90's, they have tried going "microbrew" with the Dundee and High Falls lined...with limited success. Recently, a large brewing company purchased Genesee, and plans on trying to bring it back above the radar. I would like to have seen it stay with local ownership....but at least its still made here. Support your local brewery!

A Fair Port on the Erie Canal

Fairport is sort of my home base away from home. I must have accumulated at least 500 miles running on the streets and canal towpath trail in the Village of Fairport....as well as watched hundreds of trains go through the CSX main line crossing in the center of the village. (My son had a fascination with trains in his toddler years.)

These photos are from an early morning run in July - just before hitting the farmer's market. The bridge in the canal shot actually lifts straight up for tall boats to pass, and the smokestack in the far right is from the old American Can Company plant which was an early anchor industry for the town. The other shot is of the massive can factory which stretches for several blocks along the railroad tracks.

Saturday Mornings

Nothing better for a run than an early morning 5K downtown before the city wakes up. My routine lately is to hit the Rochester Public Market at about 7AM Saturday, then start a run at High Falls or the Village Gate before 8:00. At this hour, its easy to weave through the streets without dealing with much traffic. I still am amazed at some of the great historic buildings we have in our little city, and the way the Genesee cuts right through the center of town down to High Falls. It's a great backdrop for running, and you see so much more than when passing through in a car. It always feels like downtown Rochester has so much potential to be a real center of the region...potential that never seems to be fully realized.

The Powers Building on the corner of State and Main has always been my favorite building downtown. In addition to its original architecture and fantastic details, it has a number of historical firsts for Rochester. It was the tallest building in the city for many years, was the first Rochester building with electricity, the first with an elevator, and once housed the country's largest private art collection. It looks fantastic since it's restoration in the early 90's. Checkout more about the history of the building at: http://www.powersbuilding.com/.

The black and white picture is from Shorpy (an awesome site, by the way) of the Powers building in 1904.

Despatch

There is something about East Rochester that makes it feel different than the other east side suburbs. Feels like the town has some ghosts or at least some dark secrets. I've always thought the old Merchant's Despatch building looked kind of spooky looming at the end of main street. I finally crossed the tracks after my run one day and took this shot. I love how the faded "Merchants Despatch" can still be seen on the side of the building.

The building was the main office of the Merchant's Despatch Transportation Company East Rochester plant. The company made refrigerated railroad cars, and was a massive operation by the turn of the century. East Rochester was actually founded as Despatch, named after the company and the operation there. A picture of the building in 1898 can be seen here: http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/rochimag/erpath/industry.htm
Shorpy.com has a nice shot of the inside of the store room in 1905. http://www.shorpy.com/node/8264

Seneca Falls

The Seneca Falls Knitting Mill. This factory made socks for over a hundred years, including the first socks to walk on the moon. Closed since 1999, the town recenly received a grant to rennovate the building and create the Womens' Rights Hall of Fame.

Grab a Camera and a GPS Receiver...and Go!

This idea started as a way for me to get a 5K run in every day without getting completely bored doing it. I have a notoriously short attention span, so doing any sort of daily exercise always was a challenge for me. I found that the key to not bailing on running was to do a new route every day and making the route as random, and unplanned, as possible. Basically I took a handheld GPS receiver, parked my car and started running. Pretty soon I added a camera to my other hand and made these daily adventures a way to get to know the neighborhoods and terrain around Rochester....sometimes bumping into something interesting or historic. I'll post the highlights here as I go...