Browse Items (1399 total)

New York Department of Conservation

In 1873 work began on a water system for the city of Rochester--an earlier one had failed due to poor construction--that would draw from Hemlock Lake in Livingston County, nearly thirty miles distant. By this point the growing city of some 70,000…

200-foot stone viaduct was constructed by the Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad sometime around 1856-57, crossing the outlet of Conesus Lake not far from where that creek joins the Genesee River. By 1859 the planned rail line between Mt. Morris…

Postcard depicts Lake Ontario Shore looking east toward the mouth of the Genesee River. At left is a sailboat moored at the West Pier; the red-roofed building at upper center may be a resort hotel called the Spencer House. Along the boardwalk and…

Postcard from a birds-eye view shows the lakeside amusement park near the height of its popularity. The green-roofed building near center likely is the Hotel Ontario, a connection between the area's past as a resort during the 1870s-80s, and its…

Launched in 1904 as the Prinz Eitel Friedrich for a German cruise line, ship eventually was impounded by the U.S. during World War I, refitted as a troop transport ship, and re-launched as the DeKalb in 1917. After Armistice it was operated by an…

Postmarked 1910, the former Caledonia School had been integrated into New York's Union Free School district since 1895, and designated as the town's high school since 1898. In 1914, the older structure would be rebuilt in brick and serve its function…

"Under the Protection of Mary" is the usual translation for this emblem blessing the Catholic Church's approved ceremonial book. First published in 1829, it was by 1894 in its 8th edition and used in churches like St. Columba in Caledonia, NY.…

This resonant symbol appears near the end of a 1904 history of the Western New York Diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It was fairly common in the Anglican church and its Episcopal branches in the United States, one of them St. Andrew's…

Located in Washington, DC, this impressive building was designed in the French Second Empire style. As its name suggests the structure housed several important departments that eventually outgrew available space. The building still stands today,…