Browse Items (44 total)

Somewhat idealized view of Rochester's High Falls has cattle grazing peacefully in the foreground of this print. The "Mercury" statue at rear center, however, dates the scene after 1881--which is when the Kimball Tobacco Factory commissioned it. By…

Wide-angle panorama of looks west where the Erie Canal crosses the aquaduct at present-day Broad Street. Its course points toward the tower of Rochester's city hall. Directly across the Genesee we see factory of Cluett Peabody & Co., manufacturer of…

Postcard shows view of a decrepit water wheel, almost certainly located at the outlet of Conesus Lake where it becomes Conesus Creek. If so, then the photograph shows remnants of what had been a broom-handle factory operated by L.P. West, then…

Postcard view of waterfall in the town that is seat of government in Allegany County. Originally named Philipsville, its population grew rapidly following construction of an Erie Railroad line--pictured at left--in 1850. As of 1860 there were two…

At the time of this photograph wooden structure was at least 70 years old, having been constructed in 1830 by a Mt. Morris contractor named Russell Daboll. Its design was somewhat unusual in that wood was used even for the abutments upon which the…

Operating a ship named the "Windsor," the Charlotte and Summerville Ferry Company ran a service between those two towns located at the mouth of the Genesee River beginning at least in 1877. Passenger use climbed with trolley lines running along both…

Town along the Genesee River has experienced the rise and fall of fortunes associated with extractive industries: initially lumber and tanning (using bark from hemlock trees), then the petroleum industry. In 1879 oil was discovered near…

Postcard shows township located in Potter County, formed in 1804 and so remote that as of the 1830s one gazetteer wrote: "So little indeed is the county known or visited, that its very representatives in the assembly have scarce traversed it"…

Five miles downstream from here, the Genesee River empties into Lake Ontario at Charlotte, and the base of the falls has been a major spawning ground for salmon and lake trout until non-native fish like the alewife reduced their numbers. The…

A mile and a half downstream from Rochester's Upper Falls (later, "High Falls"), its Middle Falls originally had a height of 25 feet and were featured in Thomas Davies' 1768 engraving of the area. Here, we see one of two masonry dams built at the…