Rochester

A Monroe County 19th Century Brewery Offers Great Beer & An Old Time Experience

March 11, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Genesee Country Village & Museum, located in Mumford, in the town of Wheatland, Monroe County, has a historical connection with Rochester’s rich brewing scene. The Museum’s founder, John L. “Jack” Wehle, also served as Chairman of the family business, Genesee Brewing, which his father Louis Wehle purchased in 1932. Today, the Museum’s President & CEO is Becky Wehle, granddaughter of Jack Wehle.

Museum visitors interested in learning more about the history of brewing in the region can visit Grieve’s Brewery on the Museum grounds, a reconstruction of a ca. 1803 Geneva, NY brewery. Genesee Country Village & Museum is the only museum in the United States to showcase a working 19th-century brewery. [Read more…] about A Monroe County 19th Century Brewery Offers Great Beer & An Old Time Experience

EPA Grants to Train Environmental Workers in Newburgh, Rochester

February 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the selection of 19 organizations to receive a total of $3,797,102 in grants for job training programs across the country, including organizations in Rochester and Newburgh, New York.

Funded through the Agency’s Brownfields Job Training Program, these grants provide funding to organizations that are working to create a skilled workforce in communities where assessment, cleanup, and preparation of brownfield sites for reuse activities are taking place. [Read more…] about EPA Grants to Train Environmental Workers in Newburgh, Rochester

America’s 250th Student Fellowships Funded In Western NY

January 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation has awarded SUNY distinguished professor of history Michael Leroy Oberg, the SUNY Geneseo Center for Local and Municipal History, and a consortium of six other colleges and universities, a three-year grant of more than $300K for American War of Independence Semiquincentennial student fellowships.

Several of the institutions in the fellowship program have committed $150K of matching funds for the project, bringing the total to over $450K. [Read more…] about America’s 250th Student Fellowships Funded In Western NY

Rochester Architecture Book Wins Modernism Award

January 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Architecture of James H. Johnson (Primedia eLaunch, 2020), a historic resource survey and book about the life and work of Rochester architect James H. Johnson (1932-2016), was recognized with a Docomomo US 2021 Modernism in America Award last month in New York City.

Spurred by the loss of one of his key buildings, Our Lady of Mercy Rectory (Greece) in 2013, The Architecture of James H. Johnson is the first in-depth study and documentation of Johnson, whose well-known projects include Rochester’s Liberty Pole, the Mushroom House (Perinton), St. John the Evangelist Church (Greece), and Temple Sinai (Brighton). [Read more…] about Rochester Architecture Book Wins Modernism Award

Harriet Jacobs in New York State

January 4, 2022 by Paula Tarnapol Whitacre Leave a Comment

“A handsome book of 306 pages, just issued, which is receiving highly commendatory notices from the press.”

So announced the abolitionist Liberator about the 1861 publication of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, a book written by Harriet Jacobs about her life in slavery and seeking freedom. Forgotten for many decades, it is one of the only known books written by an enslaved Black woman. Most of the book takes place in the coastal town of Edenton, North Carolina, where Jacobs was born in 1815.

New York State also plays a large, if lesser-known role in the life of Harriet Jacobs, who escaped to the city of New York in 1842 and lived there at two separate times. She also lived in Rochester and in Cornwall, Orange County, where she spent years writing the powerful book that is read and cherished today. [Read more…] about Harriet Jacobs in New York State

Why Does the Thruway Avoid Rochester?

July 23, 2021 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This week on The Historians Podcast, an update on a previous program on the origins of the New York State Thruway from Tim Tielman of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo-History, Architecture and Culture. Tielman explains why the Thruway was built some miles south of Rochester. He also delves into historic preservation in greater Buffalo. [Read more…] about Why Does the Thruway Avoid Rochester?

Hard Times For War of 1812 Veteran Amasiah Ford

June 17, 2021 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

In 1845, Amasiah Ford of Ballston Spa wrote a multi-page manuscript for his application seeking a veteran’s pension. The account of his military experience 30-plus years earlier would be used 150 years later as references in several books on the War of 1812. [Read more…] about Hard Times For War of 1812 Veteran Amasiah Ford

Upstate Historians Shine Light On A Noted Black Architect

November 20, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Greece Historical Society (GHS) is the recipient of two grants totaling $30,000 to fund a Cultural Resource Survey of the architecture of noted Rochester African American architect Thomas W. Boyde, Jr.

The grants were awarded by the Preservation League of New York State and their program partners at the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the Rochester Area Community Foundation. [Read more…] about Upstate Historians Shine Light On A Noted Black Architect

Survey Underway of Rochester African-American Architect’s Buildings

November 3, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Thomas W. Boyde, Jr. is Rochester’s foremost African American architect. He was a master of Mid-Century Modern home design and did significant work designing buildings for communities of color and the low-income communities.

Many of Boyde’s projects no longer exist or have been severely altered. [Read more…] about Survey Underway of Rochester African-American Architect’s Buildings

Anna Murray-Douglass: Frederick’s Most Important Ally

August 4, 2020 by Rose O'Keefe Leave a Comment

I offer the following tribute to Anna Douglass, first wife of Frederick Douglass and mother of their five children, on the anniversary of her death Aug. 4, 1882:

Both Frederick Bailey and Anna Murray were born in rural Maryland in the early 1800s and grew up under harsh racist customs that strictly defined roles for men and women by sex, race and class.

By the time Frederick and Anna met in the 1830s in Baltimore, his owner valued him as a slave who was a skilled caulker. Yet Anna, despite being a free woman skilled as a domestic and cook, was not well paid by her white employers. [Read more…] about Anna Murray-Douglass: Frederick’s Most Important Ally