USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Rochester and Monroe County: A history and guide > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
64. CAMERA WORKS of the EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY (L), State and Platt Sts. (open to public), is a series of six- and seven-story brick buildings devoted to the manufacture of photographic and developing equip- ment. The plant employs 3,000. Its products include Kodaks, Brownies, Cine-Kodaks, Kodascopes, tripods, enlargers, and a variety of other equipment for photography and home movies. Two hundred automatic screw machines have a normal weekly output of 2,500,000 parts, and 250 power presses stamp out other metal parts. The buildings include metal-plating and bellows-making departments and several laboratories for testing materials and finished cameras.
65. KODAK TOWER (L) State and Kodak Sts., com- pleted in 1913, is of modified French Renaissance architec-
202
POINTS OF INTEREST
ture. It is constructed of steel skeleton with exterior facing of terra cotta. Widely known as the "nerve center of pho- tography," the 19-story building houses the administrative offices of the Eastman Kodak Company's organization of 33,000 employees, 13 plants, and world-wide distribut- ing units. The aluminum tower, built in 1931 and rising 106 feet above the 19th floor, is illuminated at night, pro- viding a landmark visible for 50 miles. A huge neon sign, spelling KODAK, is located above the 19th floor level on the south side of the building.
R. from Lake Ave. on Driving Park Ave.
66. MAPLEWOOD BRANCH of the Y. M. C. A. (R), a two-story structure of brick, contains several game and club rooms, a gymnasium, bowling alleys, and a swimming pool. The large plot of ground encloses a running track, a basketball court, and several tennis courts.
L. from Driving Park Ave. on Maplewood Ave.
67. MAPLEWOOD PARK, comprising 145 acres border- ing on the west bank of the Genesee River, extends from Driving Park Ave. along both sides of Maplewood Ave. to Ridge Rd. near the Veterans' Memorial Bridge. A small artificial lake is used as a skating rink in winter. Near the entrance to the park is a rose garden displaying a large variety of blooms in season. There are two picnic areas equipped with fireplaces, tables, and benches, and two playgrounds and seven tennis courts. Band concerts are given near the main entrance at Driving Park Avenue at advertised intervals.
L. from Maplewood Ave. on Ridge Rd .; R. on Lake Ave.
68. KODAK PARK (L), Ridge Rd. and Lake Ave., ex- tends for several blocks along each street (parking space for cars at main entrance on Lake Ave., where admission to the plant
203
ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY
is obtained and guides are furnished for the two-hour tour). Kodak Park is one of the three Rochester plants of the Eastman Kodak Company, world's largest manufacturer of photo- graphic materials. This plant, employing 10,000, contains 83 major buildings spread over an area of 400 acres. Produc- tion at Kodak Park is confined to photographic films, plates, paper, and chemicals. The plant resembles a modern compact city, with six miles of paved streets and fifteen miles of railroad tracks.
Near the main entrance on Lake Avenue a six-story build- ing houses the research laboratory, the experiments of which have produced home "movies," Kodachrome natural color film, and film that records pictures at a distance of hundreds of miles. More than 3,000 organic chemicals are stocked. Near the laboratory stands the first building erected in the park, now housing part of the world's largest refrigerating plant, with a daily production equivalent to 12,000 tons of ice. This plant furnishes temperature control, which is of vital importance in film manufacture. Another building close by is built over a 5,000,000 gallon reservoir through which flows one-third of the water used daily.
On another street is a large building with solid masonry walls, within which a battery of machines, operating in dim light, coats film base with an emulsion sensitive to light and visual images. White light, the enemy of film, is carefully excluded from many buildings; an eerie glow of subdued orange, red, and green, lights the departments where film and sensitized paper pass through various stages of manufacture. .
In another building, pure bar-silver is converted into photographic materials. (The plant's weekly requirements of 5 tons of silver is surpassed only by the needs of the United States mint.) Here the silver is dissolved in nitric
204
POINTS OF INTEREST
acid, and in its fluid state siphoned into troughs that carry it to an evaporating room. After evaporation of water and distillation, the concentration cools, and silver-nitrate crystallizes. Silver-nitrate, by its sensitivity to light, makes photography possible. The fact was known for centuries, but the progress of photography was slow until the develop- ment by the Eastman Company of a flexible, transparent film base. The film base is composed of cotton, treated with nitric and sulphuric acids, resulting in nitrocotton, which is then dissolved. This compound is treated in a mixture of solvents to remove acids, and a fluid with the consistency of honey is obtained. In several large buildings, batteries of machines three-stories high, running night and day for months at a time, roll this honey-like fluid into wide strips of transparent film. The normal weekly requirement of cotton in this department exceeds 300 bales.
In another group of buildings more than 250 types of photographic paper are manufactured under conditions similar to those prevailing in the manufacture of film. Employees and machines, almost invisible in the dusk, guide the sensitized paper through a series of manufacturing and cutting processes.
The machinery requirements of the Kodak Park plant are unique, and much of the demand is met by machine and metal shops within the park. A large printing shop and a paper-box factory supply printed literature and hundreds of varieties of cartons.
Towering over the buildings are the tallest twin chimneys in the world, carrying away chemical fumes and smoke. Maintenance departments, a hospital, cafeterias, a small theater, a firehouse, garages for fleets of electric trucks, a locomotive roundhouse, and an athletic field create the impression of a city within a city.
205
George Eastman Memorial, Kodak Park
POINTS OF INTEREST
69. EASTMAN MEMORIAL (L) stands at the Lake Ave. entrance to Kodak Park. Erected within the shadow of the immense manufacturing plant built by Mr. Eastman, the monument is reached by three broad flights of steps leading down sloping banks to a large circular plaza paved with Georgian rose marble. In the center of the plaza is a circular pedestal. A bronze urn, containing Mr. Eastman's ashes, occupies a niche in the pedestal, which is surmounted by a cylindrical block of pink Georgia marble 8 feet high, on which are carved two figures in bas-relief. The figure on the west side is that of a man heating a retort over a flame, representing physical science; the one on the east side is that of a woman holding aloft a torch, symbol- izing aspiration. The inscription bears the words: "For George Eastman 1854-1932."
George Eastman was born in Waterville, N. Y. With his parents, he moved to Rochester in 1860, where his father had founded the Eastman Commercial College, first business school in America. In 1868, after his father's death, Eastman obtained his first job. While working as an office clerk for $4 a week, he displayed an interest in photography and spent much of his time and savings in an effort to simplify the making of pictures. Experiments conducted in his mother's kitchen resulted in 1879 in the invention of a machine for mechanically coating the dry plate. In 1880 he began the manufacture of dry plates in a third floor loft on State Street, meanwhile keeping his job as a bank clerk. The success of his product enabled him to open a small factory in 1882 on the site of the Eastman Kodak office building. After his development of flexible film in 1889, the invention by Edison of the moving picture machine occasioned a large demand for Eastman film, a demand that has grown from 21,000 feet a year in 1895 to 200,000 miles a year at the present time. In 1888, Mr. Eastman brought out the first Kodak, a simple, portable box camera utilizing
207
ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY
rolled paper film. The Kodak brought photography for the first time within the reach of amateurs. Other important developments in the industry were introduced by Mr. Eastman.
Recognized as one of America's leading industrialists, Mr. Eastman was also an outstanding philanthropist, donating $72,000,000 to various institutions throughout the world. His Rochester philanthropies include the East- man School of Music and the Eastman Theater, the Roch- ester Dental Dispensary, and the Chamber of Commerce building. He gave large sums to the University of Roch- ester, and at his death left his East Avenue residence as a home for the university president. The success of the Roch- ester Dental Dispensary led to his establishing similar insti- tutions in Rome, Brussels, Stockholm, Paris, and Berlin. Mr. Eastman received many honors during his life. He died in 1932, leaving the message, "My work is done; why wait?"
70. ST. ANN'S HOME FOR THE AGED, 1971 Lake Ave., a large brick building of modern design, with three wings and a laundry building, provides a home for aged and infirm Catholic and non-Catholic men and women. Part of the 40 acres of ground is used for garden plots.
71. ST. BERNARD'S THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 2260 Lake Ave., consists of a series of three-story buildings of red sandstone in the Gothic style. The main building, housing a chapel, classrooms, and living rooms, is flanked by the Building of Philosophy and the Theology Building, providing students' rooms, professors' living quarters, class- rooms, a library, and an auditorium. The grounds are landscaped.
The site was purchased in 1887 by the Right Rev. Bernard McQuaid, the first Bishop of the Rochester Diocese. As a
208
POINTS OF INTEREST
result of his personal efforts and the contributions of the priests of the diocese, the first building was completed in 1893. A statue of Bishop McQuaid is a feature of the landscaped garden extending along Lake Avenue.
72. HOLY SEPULCHRE CEMETERY, 2461 Lake Avenue, is Rochester's largest Catholic cemetery, con- taining 300 acres and extending for several blocks north on Lake Avenue. Near the entrance is a chapel and gate house in Saxon design, recognized as the finest example of this style of architecture in New York State. Stained glass windows from Bavaria and ceiling and wall treatments in gold leaf enhance the beauty of the chapel. Near the en- trance is a large burial plot reserved for priests and nuns of the Rochester diocese. Scattered through the cemetery are plots reserved for Civil, Spanish, and World War vet- erans. A large greenhouse within the cemetery fills the floral needs of visitors.
Many Rochesterians prominent in religious and civic endeavors are interred in the cemetery, including Bishop McQuaid and Mother Hieronymo.
The Right Rev. Bernard McQuaid (1823-1908), born in New York City, was placed in a Rochester orphanage in 1827. Ordained to the priesthood in 1848, he was sent to a small parish in New Jersey, where he established the first Catholic school in that state. In 1868 he was chosen first Bishop of the Rochester Diocese. He was a constant cham- pion of religious teaching in the schools, and cherished an ambition to establish a theological seminary in Rochester. This ambition was fulfilled in 1893 when the first building of St. Bernard's Seminary was completed on a site which he had bought.
Mother Hieronymo (Veronica O'Brien) (1819-1898), born in Maryland, entered the Order of the Sisters of Charity in Maryland in 1841. Her first mission was in Pittsburgh in
209
Charlotte High School
POINTS OF INTEREST
1843. After some time devoted to caring for fever victims in Buffalo, she was chosen in 1857 to take charge of St. Mary's Hospital, then under construction. During the Civil War Mother Hieronymo became widely known for her de- votion in the care of convalescent soldiers. As a result of her efforts, the present building of St. Mary's Hospital was completed in 1865. In 1871 she was transferred to Nazareth Academy, and in 1873 established a Home of Industry for girls. She celebrated her golden jubilee as a nun in 1891, and continued her work for charity until her death.
73. RIVERSIDE CEMETERY, 2650 Lake Ave., com- prises 120 acres of land sloping gently to the Genesee River bank. The grounds are landscaped with a variety of trees, shrubs, and hedges. Mounding of graves is prohibited, and low stone markers are used on all graves. Only one monu- ment is permitted on each burial plot.
74. CHARLOTTE HIGH SCHOOL, 4115 Lake Ave., officially opened in 1933, is one of the newest of the city's junior-senior high schools. Of modern design, with an im- pressive tower, the school is built of spotted buff face brick with limestone trim, and is fireproof. In the rear of the school are a large greenhouse and an athletic field.
75. OLD CHARLOTTE LIGHTHOUSE (R), was built in 1822 of sandstone and brick. Octagonal, ivy-covered, it stands on the site of the first house built in the lake area between the Genesee and Niagara Rivers. Situated on a high bluff approximately 2,000 feet from the mouth of the Genesee, it guided early navigators into the river. In accord- ance with an act of the state legislature in 1829, several hundred acres of land on both banks of the river were cleared of timber in order to provide an unobstructed view of the lighthouse from Lake Ontario. The increased efficiency of the lighthouse, and subsequent deepening of the river
21I
ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY
channel, gave Rochester an advantageous position as a lake port among the frontier lake settlements. With the develop- ment of the present harbor and the erection of a new light- house, the old lighthouse fell into disuse. An observation platform near the top, which is reached by an iron spiral stairway, provides a wide view of Lake Ontario and the surrounding country.
76. PORT OF ROCHESTER (R) comprises a dock wall extending 1,200 feet along the west bank of the Genesee River and a large passenger and freight building adjoin- ing the dock. As the result of a harbor study in 1932, the city deepened the river channel and widened the turning basin to 600 feet, providing for the entrance of ocean-going steamers. The harbor accommodates regular lake traffic, freight steamers operating between the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes ports, and ocean-going steamers from European ports. Passenger boats of the Canada Steamship Line ply regularly between Rochester and Toronto, with special excursion trips during the summer months.
77. ONTARIO BEACH PARK, at the end of Lake Ave. in Charlotte, containing 33 acres, has a frontage of 2,000 feet of sandy bathing beach on Lake Ontario. There are six picnic areas equipped with fireplaces, shelters, tables, and benches. Two large paved areas at either end of Lake Ave- nue provide free parking space for cars. A merry-go-round, bandstand, dance pavilion, and two children's playgrounds are located at the east end of the park. At the west end, bordering the beach, is a public bath house built of red brick in an adaptation of the Georgian style. It is equipped with 6,500 lockers and showers. Facilities are provided for checking valuables and the rental of bathing suits, beach chairs, and umbrellas.
Retrace Lake Ave. 6 m. to Phelps Ave .; R. on Phelps Ave. to Backus St.
212
POINTS OF INTEREST
78. EDGERTON PARK and ROCHESTER MUSEUM OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. EDGERTON PARK, 62 acres, has its main entrance on Backus St. at the end of Phelps Ave. Directly opposite the entrance a peristyle with stone columns adjoins a bandstand where concerts are given in summer. In this park is held the annual Rochester Exposi- tion, which opens on Labor Day and lasts one week. A large paddock, surrounded by a grandstand seating 4,000, is the scene of livestock judging and evening displays of fireworks. A group of exposition buildings provides space for shows and exhibitions. In the fall the field is used for football games; and in the winter the buildings are used for track meets, basketball games, and other athletic contests. The park has three baseball and three softball diamonds, two soccer fields, one tennis court, and one children's play- ground.
ROCHESTER MUSEUM OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, near the entrance of the park (admission free; summer hours: daily except Sun. 9-5; Sat. 9-12; winter hours: daily, 9-5; Sun. 2-5.), was established in 1911 by Mayor Hiram Edgerton in a building formerly used for a School of Correction. It is a four-story brick structure with the crenelated roof line of a feudal keep. The director of the museum is Dr. Arthur C. Parker. The Indian exhibit on the third floor contains many rare artifacts discovered by Dr. Parker and the assistant archaeologist, William A. Ritchie. Other exhibits pertain to local flora, fauna, geology, and history. By means of an extension service carried on in city and rural schools, the museum has become an important factor in education. It is also the sponsor and headquarters for Rochester's many hobby clubs, including the Burroughs- Audubon Nature Club, the Philatelic and Numismatic associations, the Aquarium and Microscope societies, the Camera Club, and others.
213
THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
HISTORY
O N the north side of Main Street West, just east of Clarissa Street, stands an old four-story brick structure once known as the United States Hotel. This building was the first home of the University of Rochester.
On May 8, 1846, a number of Presbyterians of the city obtained from the state legislature a provisional charter for an institution to be known as the University of Rochester; but they failed to raise the required endowment, and the charter lapsed three years from its date.
At about the same time, members of the Baptist denom- ination were planning to build a university in Rochester that would be not exclusively Baptist, as was Madison (now Colgate) University, but yet under Baptist control. On January 31, 1850, the Regents of the University of the State of New York granted another provisional charter for a Rochester university. Two years were allowed for com- pletion of the plan, which provided for a self-perpetuating board of 24 trustees. On May 11, 1850, at an educational convention of Baptists, a committee of nine presented a report on "a plan for a new university together with a plan for a separate institution of theology." The approval of
214
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
both plans marked the beginning of the University of Roch- ester and of what is now the Colgate-Rochester Divinity School.
Most of the arrangements for the opening of the new university were made by John N. Wilder, assisted by a few other Rochesterians. It was decided to lease the United States Hotel for three years at a rental of $800 per year. This hotel, built by Martin Clapp in 1826, had never paid, and had housed at different times a manual training school, two successive girls' schools, and the terminus of the Ton- awanda Railroad. The trustees remodeled the building, pro- viding for a chapel, rooms for two literary societies, a library and reading room and a recitation room on the first floor, recitation and lecture rooms on the second floor, and some 65 or 70 lodging rooms for students on the third and fourth floors and in the wing.
Two four-year courses of study were provided, one lead- ing to the degree of Bachelor of Arts and the other to the degree of Bachelor of Science. The establishment of a scientific course in which the study of the ancient languages was omitted-a radical step for the time-manifested the liberal purpose of the founders. In the same spirit they gave a conspicuous place on the curriculum to the natural sciences-to chemistry at a time when it had not been ac- cepted as a subject at Harvard; to geology only three years after Agassiz had begun his teaching: and a full-time pro- fessor was alloted to this subject out of a faculty of five. Finally, electives were allowed in the senior year.
On September 16, 1850, the board passed a resolution "that the institution be opened the first Monday in Novem- ber next for the reception of students and the organization of classes." They also elected the following professors at a salary of $1,200 each: A. C. Kendrick, A.M., professor of history and belles lettres; Chester Dewey, D.D., professor of
215
ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY
natural sciences; and Samuel Green, A.M., professor of mathematics and philosophy. Professor Green found him- self unable to serve, and E. Peshine Smith was engaged to serve as acting professor of mathematics and natural philosophy.
At a meeting in the First Baptist Church on September 17, 1850, the Hon. Ira Harris was appointed to serve as chancellor of the university until a president should be elected. Two professors of the theological seminary were authorized to give part time instruction in the new uni- versity: Thomas J. Conant, D.D., professor of Hebrew lan- guage and literature, and John S. Maginnis, D.D., acting professor of intellectual and moral philosophy.
The formal exercises marking the opening of the univer- sity were held Tuesday afternoon, November 5, in the chapel. Housed in an abandoned hotel building, with five faculty members and 60 enrolled students, the University of Rochester entered upon its career.
The university has had but four presidents. The admin- istration of Dr. Martin Brewer Anderson, 1853-1888, was the period of the establishment of tradition by a group of pioneering teachers: Otis Hall Robinson in mathematics; Albert H. Mixer in the modern languages; Joseph E. Gil- more in English literature; William C. Morey, first in Latin and then in history and political economy; Samuel A. Latti- more in chemistry, and Henry Fairfield Burton in Latin. David Jayne Hill, the second president, resigned in 1896, and in 1898 became Assistant Secretary of State. Dr. Burton served as acting president until the election of Dr. Rush Rhees. Under President Rhees came a period of rapid ex- pansion, due largely to the munificent gifts of George Eastman and others. In 1935 Alan Valentine was inducted into office as the fourth president.
216
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
After the first decade the institution outgrew its cramped quarters in the old hotel, and the first building was erected upon what is now the Prince Street Campus, the first land of which was a gift by Azariah Boody. Other buildings were constructed, but during the first 50 years development was slow; "The Collegiate Department of the University of Rochester," as it was called by the founders, remained the only unit of the university.
In 1900 Dr. Rush Rhees was inaugurated as president; in the same year, largely as the result of a movement headed by Susan B. Anthony, women were admitted to the univer- sity upon the same conditions as men; in 1904 George Eastman made his first gift to the university-$60,000 for a biological and physical laboratory. In 1909 education for women received financial support from a bequest by Lewis H. Morgan. In 1914 the university realized its policy of separate classes for men and women except in advanced elective courses; Catharine Strong Hall and Anthony Mem- orial Hall were erected as a college for women on land donated by Mrs. Aristine Pixley Munn.
In 1912 the Memorial Art Gallery was given to the university by Mrs. James Sibley Watson in memory of her son; in 1919 title to the Eastman School of Music and the Eastman Theatre was vested by Mr. Eastman in the univer- sity; in 1926 the School of Medicine and Dentistry was opened; in 1930 the new River Campus, or Men's College, was dedicated, and the old campus became the College for Women.
The College for Women is an integral part of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Rochester. Its classes are conducted by the same professors who teach on the River Campus; and in many cases men and women take the same course together. By this arrangement the university
217
Rush Rhees Library, River Campus, University of Rochester
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
seems to have retained the desirable and eliminated the objectionable features of both coeducational and separate men's and women's colleges.
The greater university of to-day, ranking fifth in the country in amount of endowment, was made possible by George Eastman, the total of his benefactions and bequests exceeding $35,000,000.
THE RIVER CAMPUS
The new River Campus, Elmwood Avenue and River Boulevard, which houses the College for Men, comprises 87 acres of rolling land on a high bluff at a great bend in the Genesee just north of the Elmwood Avenue Bridge. It is reached by the Plymouth Avenue bus and the Genesee Street car line. This campus was dedicated with academic ceremonies on October 10-12, 1930.
The main buildings, grouped about the quadrangle and the plaza, are excellently designed in the Greek Revival tradition with classic columns, entablatures, pediments, ornament, lettering, and other stone details. The architects were Gordon and Kaelber.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.