Genesee River
This panorama dates to a time when Rochester, NY was a major industrial center, and just about everything you see here is driven by commercial forces. We're looking west, where the Erie Canal crosses an aqueduct at present-day Broad Street. Its course points toward the tower of Rochester's city hall. Directly across the Genesee River we see the factory of Cluett Peabody & Co., a manufacturer of Arrow Shirt Collars; the smokestack to its right is topped by a statue of Mercury, created in 1881 for the Kimball Tobacco Co. To the left, Court Street Bridge has railroad terminals on either side of the Genesee: on this side, the Lehigh Valley (still standing today as Dinosaur Bar-B-Que restaurant); on the far side the Erie Railroad. The sign at near right for the "People's Safety Show" probably dates the photo to 1914, advertising an exposition on worker safety held at the Rochester Convention Center.
Rochester's history and even its location owe a lot to the Genesee River. Three falls downstream (to the right of the photo) provided power for early manufacturing, which in turn led to the Erie Canal being routed nearby in 1825. By the time of this photograph the Eastman Kodak Corporation was Rochester's big player, and it too was sited along the river. It was only later, and haltingly, that considerations of scenery entered into the picture. Today efforts to revitalize this area necessarily grapple with the city's industrial past, through programs like ROC the Riverway and Greentopia. Below are images of the Genesee Upper Falls at Rochester, spanning a period of 250 years.
From the Gazetteer: “The Genesee rises in the N. part of Penn. and flows in a generally northerly direction to Lake Ontario. Its upper course is through a narrow valley bordered by steep, rocky hills. Upon the line of Wyoming and Livingston cos. it breaks through a mountain barrier in a deep gorge and forms the Portage Falls, one of the finest waterfalls in the State. Below this point the course of the river is through a beautiful valley 1 to 2 mi. wide and bordered by banks 50 to 150 ft. high. At Rochester it flows over the precipitous edges of the Niagara limestone, forming the Upper Genesee Falls; and 3 mi. below it flows over the edge of the Medina sandstone, forming the Lower Genesee Falls....This stream waters as good a tract of land as any in the state, and its alluvial flats are proverbially extensive and fertile. Within 5 miles of its mouth are falls of 96 and 75 feet, from which it is boatable near 70 miles, where are two other falls of 60 and 90 feet...” (French 20; Spafford 200). Major Tributaries: Cassadaga Creek, Honeoye Creek, Oatka Creek. Major Lakes: Conesus Lake, Mount Morris Reservoir, Hemlock Lake. Highest Point: Alma Hill (2,548 ft). Area: 2,373 square miles in New York state.
William H.C. Hosmer, "My Own Dark Genesee" (1854)
Hosmer's paternal grandfather founded the village of Avon, NY; his maternal ancesters, including his mother, were among the first settlers among the Seneca and fluent in its language. Hosmer's archaeological curiosity and knowledge of indigenous culture anticipated anthropologists like Lewis Henry Morgan and Franz Boas. After attending Hobart College he spent a brief period in Florida, went on to become a lawyer, then eventually secured a desirable post at the New York City Custom House. This poem recounts that period of wandering and homesickness, implying the question "Can a river speak to us"? Hosmer gained national recognition for historical poems heavily inflected by Native American romance, such as Yonnondio, or the Warriors of the Genesee (1844).
| They told me southern land could boast Charms richer than mine own: Sun, moon, and stars of brighter glow, And winds of gentler tone; And parting from each olden haunt, Familiar rock and tree, From that sweet vale I wandered far— Washed by the Genesee. I pined beneath a foreign sky, Though birds, like harps in tune, Lulled Winter on a couch of flowers Clad in the garb of June. In vain on reefs of coral broke The glad waves of the sea; For, like thy voice they sounded not, My own dark Genesee! When Christmas came, though round me grew The lemon-tree and lime, And the warm sky above me threw The blue of summer-time; I thought of my loved northern home, And wished for wings to flee Where frost-bound, between frozen banks, Lay hushed the Genesee. |
For the gray, mossed paternal roof My throbbing bosom yearned, And ere the flight of many moons My steps I homeward turned; My heart, to joy a stranger long, Was tuned to rapture’s key, When ear the murmur heard once more Of my own Genesee. Ambition from the scenes of youth May others lure away To chase the phantom of renown Throughout their little day; I would not, for a palace proud And slave of pliant knee, Forsake a cabin in thy vale, My own dark Genesee.
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John Frederick Kensett, Summer Day on Conesus Lake (1870). This painting is set perhaps six miles away from the Village of Geneseo, but its calm vision of nature arises from a sensibility spanning continents. Kensett was born in Connecticut and worked in his father’s New Haven engraving firm as a young man, but eventually he became disenchanted with commercial work. On the advice of older artists like Asher B. Durand he traveled to Europe and studied art there for several years, meeting influential Hudson River School painters like Thomas Cole and John Vanderlyn. Kensett was not so much drawn to spectacular views of nature—like those depicted in Cole’s Schroon Mountain—but rather calm and modulated landscapes, relying for drama upon a type of lighting called “luminism.” Kevin J. Avery suggests that Kensett’s painting of Conesus Lake may owe something to European landscapes, perhaps even his aunt’s estate along the River Thames in England. As you look at this painting, notice how humans figure prominently in its composition. What are the people doing? Do they detract from the natural beauty of the lake, or do they seem to belong here?
Works Consulted
—Avery, Kevin J. "John Frederick Kensett." Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009. Web link available here.
—French, J. H. Gazeteer of the State of New York. Ira J. Friedman, 1860.
—Hosmer, William Henry Cuyler. "My Own Dark Genesee." Poetical Works, Vol. 2. 1854: 355. Web version available at HathiTrust.
—Spafford, Horatio Gates. A Gazetteer of the State of New York. H.C. Southwick, 1813.