Temperatures are falling and the Fringe Fest is a distant memory. Well, technically it’s only a few days in the past, but given the rapid change in temperature it feels like a season ago.
This was the fourth year for the First Niagara Fringe Festival, but it was the first time I’d ever attended. I love Rochester and I love going downtown. But to be honest, I generally avoid events where there are lots of people or the potential for traffic congestion. Since I had a press pass, though, I decided to take full advantage of it, and for 10 days I immersed myself in the fun.
And I do mean fun. Here are a few of the highlights from my week at the Fringe…
Back in May, we noted National Nurses Week with a piece on Ida Jane Anderson, New York State’s first registered nurse. John Zicari, a reader from York, Maine, wrote to tell me that he’d been doing some genealogical research on his family from Rochester, and shared a family photo of his great aunt, Katherine Fitzgerald Osborn. She was a nurse at what John had been told was Rochester’s Park Avenue Hospital. There’s no date on the photo but, John says, “She died in 1925 so it is pretty early picture of the facility.”
I love genealogy and especially old photos. But I had to confess: I’d never heard a hospital on Park Ave. Cafes? Yes. Art galleries? Yes. A hospital? No.
But as my grandfather used to say, you learn something new every day…
In late October I got the opportunity to go check out a place nearby that I had heard rumors about—a house that has been frozen in a state of construction since 2005. I don’t really feel comfortable sharing the exact location, but the property is in Fairport, NY, out near Egypt on a nice, quiet residential street – surrounded by woods and shrouded in mystery…
Driving down East Main Street recently, I spotted the name “Martha Matilda Harper” engraved on a building near the old Beech Nut packaging plant. My interest was piqued, since the building at 1233 East Main Street currently houses Tire Trax sales and service. It turns out that the facility is the former laboratories for Martha Matilda Harper, Inc.
I can’t believe that I’d never heard of Martha Matilda Harper, but we can thank her for just about everything having to do with our modern salon experiences, as well as her groundbreaking business methods that pioneered modern retail franchising…
The First Niagara Fringe Festival is winding down, with just tonight and tomorrow left to check out some of the fun. I’ve been blogging daily on my personal blog about the festival, so hop over there to see everything I’ve been up to this week. But if you’re hitting the festival for the first time this weekend, here are a few things that you can still catch…
The First Niagara Fringe Festival opened this week, with over 500 shows happening at more than two dozen venues over ten days. But the heart of the Fringe is the Spiegelgarden, located at the corner of Main and Gibbs Streets, across from the Eastman Theater. There are shows, artwork, food and more, including the centerpiece Spiegeltent, which is home to the Cabinet of Wonders, Princess Wendy’s Late Night Tease Room, comedian Jamie Lissow, Silent Disco and Brown Bag Disco.
I confess I’ve never been to the Fringe, now in its fourth year, but after I did the Remote Rochester tour this week I just had to go downtown for opening night festivities at the Spiegelgarden. What amazing wonders await you! Here are a few of the things happening at One Fringe Place…
The opening of a medical marijuana dispensary in Kodak’s old Theater on the Ridge at Eastman Business Park has recently been in the news . Columbia Care will turn the leaves, stems and stalks of the cannabis plant into medicine for people with cancer, AIDS, epilepsy, and other neurological conditions. The facility is expected to be up and running this January…
I’ve got a bit of a dilemma reviewing the Remote Rochester event at this year’s First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival. If I tell you too much, I might give away some of the surprises and ruin the experience. If I don’t tell you enough, you may not understand what it’s all about and miss what might be the most fascinating journey you’ll take through the streets of Rochester.
So I need to find a balance. I’ll begin with this question:
Do you trust me?
Gallina Development , with the help of the Rochester Model Railroad Club , has restored a favorite old model railroad display for the holiday season. The model trains, which have sat in storage for a decade, will be in the lobby of The Metropolitan (formerly Chase Tower) at One Chase Square in Downtown Rochester through the holidays…
This past week was National Nursing Week . To mark the occasion, we thought it only fitting to take a look at one of Rochester’s many (many) contributions to the role of nursing: the Registered Nurse…
If there’s a cemetery tour happening in Rochester, you can be sure I’m there. For anyone interested in local history, there’s no better place to find unusual stories and bits of trivia, and I’m fascinated by the history buried all around us.
A few weeks ago, the City of Rochester hosted the annual Genesee River Romance weekend celebrating the Genesee River and its surrounding trail and gorge system. In 2014, I took full advantage of the weekend of events that include tours of the old subway and aqueducts, the Rundel Library, the Falls, and cemeteries. Somehow, I missed the adverts for this year’s event, so I only had time to catch one thing: the tour of Charlotte Cemetery…
While doing research for a recent story on the Rochester Marshmallow Company, we came across another interesting story right around the corner. This one had nothing to do with marshmallows. Wulff’s Hotel (shown above) at the corner of State and Factory Streets, was the scene of a notorious murder case…
Searching for the perfect stocking stuffer this holiday season? How about an itty bitty version of Kodak tower? ReplicaBuildings.com manufactures replica scale models of famous buildings from around the globe. And two of them have been plucked right from Rochester’s skyline…
Last week Justin Schmidt sent us this incredible old illustration of Rochester Savings Bank. Justin writes, “I thought you would enjoy this; in my collection of Rochester ephemera, I came across this page in The American Architect (Sept. 20, 1928 issue) that shows the ‘complete’ design for the old Rochester Savings and Loan building. I never knew it was incomplete!”
Rochestersubway.com was first brought to my attention when I saw the University of Rochester’s Lost Swimming Pool article posted on social media. The photos were so beautiful and haunting that I was inspired to explore more on the site.
I was just starting to get into urban exploring and Rochestersubway.com showed me amazing locations in Rochester that I had never heard of. So I started to use the website as a reference for new places to explore…
Here is a neat view I came across while rummaging around in the Local History Department at the Rochester Public Library. The image is of State Street with downtown Rochester in the background, taken from one of the top floors of Kodak tower…
Welcome to the old Vacuum Oil plant on the west bank of the Genesee River in Rochester’s Plymouth-Exchange neighborhood. Abandoned for nearly a century, there has been very little desire to re-develop this 26-acre site due to contamination. Now, the City of Rochester is aiming to use New York State’s Brownfield Opportunity Areas program to clean it up and plan for its future redevelopment. But as of today, this property is still highly toxic. And you guessed it—we’re going inside…
Well, it had to come to this – a whirlwind article about everything else in Rochester. We’re going to run the gamut from Industrial, to all the Center City District (CCD) zones to Open Space, and everything inbetween. Buckle Up…
Every so often we’re contacted by a lucky homeowner who discovers a neat little historical treasure hidden away in their basement or roof rafters – usually an old book or a subway token. Then there’s Bill Schmidt. When Bill purchased his home on Lake View Park this summer, he became the lucky owner of an old bell tower from the long-demolished School #7 in northwest Rochester…
Here’s a quick update on a story we brought attention to exactly five years ago. On this empty lot (shown above) once stood 72 Conkey Avenue. The old 19th century Victorian storefront had been the subject of a demolition-vs-rehabilitation debate—one between the City of Rochester and neighborhood resident, Jim Fraser, who has restored a handful of neglected homes in the area. Jim saw 72 Conkey as a diamond in the rough…
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![Highlights from Rochester's Fringe festival. [PHOTO: jasonwilder.org / wilderstreet.tumblr.com]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-fringe-festival-recap-02.jpg)
![Katherine Fitzgerald Osborn, a nurse at Rochester's Park Avenue Hospital. [PHOTO COURTESY OF: John Zicari]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-park-ave-hospital-01.jpg)
![In late October I got the opportunity to go check out a place nearby that I had heard rumors about—a house that has been frozen in a state of construction since 2005. [PHOTO: Anonymous]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-abandoned-glass-house-01.jpg)
![The building at 1233 East Main St. It's between the old Beechnut Packaging plant and Greenovations. [PHOTO: Joanne Brokaw]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/marth-matilda-harper-building.jpg)
![Don't miss the cast of Cabinet of Wonders at the First Niagara Fringe Festival. [PHOTO: Provided]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-fringe-festival-cabinet-cast-erich-camping.jpg)
![Acrobats Nelson and Goulia Pivaral dida breathtaking and romantic acrobatic performance for the Cabinet of Wonders. [PHOTO: Joanne Brokaw]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-fringe-festival-Cabinet-of-Wonders-Sasha-Pivaral.jpg)
![The Spiegelgarden readies for opening day. It's here, at the corner of Main and Gibbs, that you'll meet to begin your tour. [PHOTO: Joanne Brokaw]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/fringe-festival-remote-rochester-00.jpg)
![An old model train display has been dusted off and restored at the former Chase Tower in downtown Rochester. [PHOTO: RochesterSubway.com]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-chase-tower-metropolitan-tower-01.jpg)
![The First Location of the Rochester Homeopathic Hospital [PHOTO: NyHeritage.org]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/The_First_Location_of_the_Rochester_Homeopathic_Hospital.jpg)
![The Charlotte lighthouse in summer, 2014. [PHOTO: Joanne Brokaw]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-charlotte-lighthouse-01.jpg)
![Wulff's Hotel, at the corner of State and Factory Streets in Rochester; the scene of a notorious murder on December 18, 1920. [IMAGE: From the Albert R. Stone Negative Collection, Rochester Museum & Science Center, Rochester, NY.]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/wulffs-hotel-and-rochester-marshmallow-company.jpg)
![Replica of Kodak World Headquarters, Rochester NY. [IMAGE: ReplicaBuildings.com]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/replica-kodak-tower.jpg)
![Rochester Savings and Loan building. 40 Franklin Street. [IMAGE: The American Architect]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-savings-bank-drawing-01.jpg)
![Abandoned cars in the Four Mile Creek Preserve trails. Webster, NY. [IMAGE: Nate Sengillo]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-four-mile-creek-preserve-abandoned-cars-01.jpg)
![View of downtown Rochester from Kodak tower. [IMAGE: Rochester Public Library Local History Division]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-state-street-from-kodak-tower-00.jpg)
![Abandoned Vacuum Oil building. Flint Street, Rochester, NY. [IMAGE: Snoop Junkie]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/vacuum-oil-refinery-rochester-02.jpg)
![When Bill Schmidt purchased his home on Lake View Park this summer, he became the lucky owner of the bell tower from School #7 in northwest Rochester. [IMAGE: RochesterSubway.com]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-school-7-bell-tower-02.jpg)
![72 Conkey Avenue has been demolished. [IMAGE: RochesterSubway.com]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/clifford-and-conkey.jpg)
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