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Headline from the weekly Caledonia "Advertiser" describes a major fire that destroyed much of the village's commercial district and the Moss House hotel in 1891. The story goes on to enumerate some of what was lost: "The fire cleaned out two…

Located at the confluence of the North, West, and South branches of Van Campen Creek, this community had earned the name "Bloody Corners" due to violence. In 1815 it renamed itself Friendship, economically supported by farming and lumber but…

At the time of this bird's eye view, the city of Geneva was one of the most important population centers in the Finger Lakes--as indicated by the 99 different points listed on Lucien R. Burleigh's map. The Seneca village of Kanadaseaga at the…

Looking roughly to the east, bird's eye view shows Oatka Creek winding through town of 5,000 as of 1890--the second largest in Genesee County after Batavia. First settled in 1793, Le Roy was created in 1812 from a portion of the Caledonia land…

From a vantage point looking westward, we see the town of approximately 3,000 about a century after its first settlers began arriving following the 1797 Big Tree treaty. Incorporated in 1814, Perry initially was an agricultural area that increasingly…

Detailed map of former Erie Canal boomtown reflects its growth into a large city half a century later. Looking north, from Highland Park, we can trace the Genesee River to Lake Ontario. Several features from Rochester's earliest days still are…

Bird's eye view looking northwest shows the rapidly growing town of 3,200 located along Oatka Creek. Founded in 1803 from the Holland Purchase tract, agriculture followed the clearing of timber and by the later 19th century the town's economy was a…

Named after the miller Theophilus Short, this small village of perhaps 800 seems to have been using this map in an aspirational way: by visualizing itself as a place to which more businesses and people would locate. The main appeal was its situation…

Postcard shows the junction of East and State Streets, including what the writer calls "Our much talked of monument." At this time the Soldiers Monument, dedicated in 1900 by then-governor Theodore Roosevelt, would have been seven years old and an…

At the time of this photograph the buildings and trees shown on Main Street were little more ten years old, rebuilt in 1892 after a devastating fire. In addition to the Soldiers Monument (dedicated in 1900), the Hotel Kreisler figures…