Topics

1. Erik Stoneham says:

   September 10, 2012 at 10:02 am

   I must buy one……

2. RochesterSubway.com says:

   September 10, 2012 at 9:04 pm

   UPDATE: According to Juni Moon on Facebook, this Mold-A-Rama machine was right in the center of Midtown Plaza near the clock. She was very young at the time but she says she remembers seeing the machine make them. She had a blue one.

   Thanks Juni!

3. Douglas A. Fisher says:

   September 11, 2012 at 2:55 pm

   Rather unrecognizable at first, upon reflection this mold seems to be a combination of the Clock of the Nations in the foreground and the Totem Pole atop the clock, appearing to be in the background of the clock when viewed from any direction. For simplicity’s sake in the mold, the curved doors are closed for each nation’s clock diorama.

   The tall Totem Pole was installed in the early 1970s in the corner of the atrium area by the section of Midtown Plaza that led to Broad Street. I believe that it went to Artisan Works.

   Incidentally, Broad Street was not an original street of Rochester. Creation of the subway in the old Erie/Barge Canal route in the 1920s led to the deck above the subway that created West Broad Street for about a mile. However, South Avenue was the eastern limit of Broad Street then.

   Part of the late-1950s deal with the City of Rochester to create Midtown Plaza was that the City extend Broad Street to the East, passing by Midtown Plaza. The Midtown Plaza owners retained the air rights over Broad Street, at least in the Plaza section.

   Plaza customers and Trailways bus patrons were provided access from this new Broad Street, as was the Midtown Plaza Wegmans for access to its loading dock. This new street also provided access via Atlas Street to the service tunnel under Midtown Plaza, which now runs all the way west to the Riverside Convention Center.

4. Douglas A. Fisher says:

   September 11, 2012 at 3:10 pm

   Correction to my prior posting: Much of the enlarged Erie Canal became the Barge Canal. However, the Erie Canal route that ran through the City did not become the Barge Canal. The newly-created West Broad Street ran atop what was the former ERIE Canal route that had become the subway in the 1920s.

   The new (Barge Canal) route to the south crossed the Genesee River in South Park (!), now called Genesee Valley Park. Frederick Law Olmsted had designed South Park, and his firm, then run by his son, was commissioned to redesign the park to accommodate the new canal route.

   The Court Street Dam was reconfigured to create a higher water level of the Genesee River, in order to match the water elevation of the new Barge Canal route. This section of the now-deeper canalized river became a busy port for Rochester, as barges could interface with railroad lines along both sides of the river.

   This section of the Genesee River remains part of the Erie Canal system to this day, enabling boats from the Erie Canal to reach Corn Hill Landing.

5. Bob says:

   September 14, 2012 at 5:01 pm

   The Totem Pole that was at Midtown is now located at the Seneca Park Zoo at the entrance to The Rocky Coasts area.

6. RochesterSubway.com says:

   September 14, 2012 at 8:23 pm

   @Douglas, I just received one of these molds in the mail from Moldville.com. After further review, I’ve determined that those are the clock’s bells at the top, not the totem pole. You can see the bells I’m referring to in the video (above) at about 19 seconds in. There are a couple of globe-like things at the top. The bottom globe is broken in half and has 8 bells in it.

7. Mary says:

   September 21, 2012 at 9:41 am

   I HAD ONE!!!!!!! It took a while to get (I think 50 cents) out of my father. I loved watching the machine work and the way the model felt and smelled. I don’t know what happened to it. I was nine years old.

8. RochesterSubway.com says:

   September 21, 2012 at 1:29 pm

   Check out this one Moldville sent me last week. Wish I could have seen it being made. Feels more like wax than plastic to me.

9. Karen says:

   October 20, 2012 at 2:55 pm

   Midtown was demolished?!?!? (I grew up in Henrietta, but now live in Cincy). Has something else gone up in its’ place? I think I was only there twice, but it was w/ my Dad who had lots of memories of the place.

10. RochesterSubway.com says:

    October 20, 2012 at 4:13 pm

    @Karen,
    It’s sort of a long story. But yes. Most of the Midtown complex was demolished except for the framework of the tower and the Seneca Building on the corner of Main and Clinton. Paetec was originally going to build a 40-story skyscraper on the site for their headquarters. So the state paid for most of the demolition and abatement. But then the economy tanked and Paetec scaled down their plans. Then they were bought by a company called Windstream. But Windstream is headquartered in Alabama or someplace, so they’re not going to build anything on the site. But somehow the corner building and the tower are being refurbished and turned into office space, apartments, or something. Windstream will move some of its employees into three floors of the corner building. Who knows what will happen with the rest of the site. Right now it’s a big pit. And work on the tower has sort of stalled. The saga continues…

11. Jamison says:

    January 10, 2013 at 10:00 pm

    I lived in Rochester for a year, and I loved seeing that crazy clock whenever I flew in or out of the airport. I’m actually glad to hear that it’s not going to the cancer center (seriously, is putting a clock that plays music every 30 mins in a place where sick kids are trying to rest really a good idea?). The airport suits it better, a piece of Classic Rochester for people to see when they visit.

Post a Comment...