Snowfalls in Rochester were once legendary, although lately the lake-effect snow has favored Syracuse and Rochester has started to fall behind. Rochester is unashamedly part of the Snow Belt of the United States, competing every year with its upstate neighbors for the "coveted" Golden Snowball Award (for most snowfall). Rochester's recent industrial decline has been painful, but it has been countered by a rise in world-class historical and cultural attractions. Since the turn of the century, Rochester has called itself " The World's Image Center", based on the local prominence of imaging giants Kodak and Xerox and optics company Bausch & Lomb. In the 60s and 70s, the city became known as the leading jazz town in upstate New York, a legacy recalled today by the annual Rochester International Jazz Festival in June. Since World War II, Rochester has seen a decline in population but has also seen periods of urban renewal funded by industry. The Eastman School of Music, the Eastman Theatre, the George Eastman House, and numerous other buildings and institutions remain today as testaments to his influence and generosity. In the early 1900s, the modern city began to take shape, molded in large part by the philanthropy of George Eastman, whose Eastman Kodak camera company became the area's largest employer. The great abolitionist orator Frederick Douglass made his home here for many years, and suffragist Susan B. Rochester also became a center for social progressivism. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Rochester's nurseries and gardens had led to a new nickname: " The Flower City", celebrated each year with the famous Lilac Festival each May. It soon garnered the nickname " The Flour City", and its products were known as far away as England.Īs time went on, and farmland opened up in the Great Plains, Rochester's flour industry faded, to be replaced by a variety of others, including clothing, shoes, boats, and horticulture. When the Erie Canal was built a few years later, it was routed through Rochester, and the small village became America's first boomtown, a major trade center for grain being shipped east and goods being shipped west. The village was constructed around flour mills that took advantage of the three waterfalls on the river for power. It was born in the early nineteenth century as a small village on the Genesee River, a few miles south of Lake Ontario. Rochester has always been defined by water. Even today, as the city tries to chart its course through the 21st century, its people plunge forward with that same determination, carrying with them not just the hope, but the certainty that springtime will arrive and with it, growth. Epitomized by the yearly collective slog through another snowy winter, this perseverance also manifests itself in the way Rochester has reinvented itself over the years. And when it's time to relax, few cities of its size can compare in the variety and quality of cultural and recreational events available here.Ībove all, the city's primary trait may be perseverance.
It also looks to the future, to the new places to which today's innovations will lead. The city loves to celebrate its long history of industry and invention, taking pride in the many innovators and social reformers that have made their marks here. The historic Erie Canal also runs along the city's borders.īut Rochester is much more than just its waterways. Lake Ontario lies to its north, with the Genesee River flowing northward through the city and over a set of three waterfalls. Rochester, known as The Flower City and The World's Image Center, is the third-largest city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The gateway to the scenic and culinary delights of New York's Finger Lakes region, Rochester is the perfect place to begin your exploration of Western New York.
In Rochester, you can find the only museum in the world dedicated to play award-winning music, dance, and acting ensembles a dense festival calendar covering nearly every weekend of the year minor-league sports of the highest caliber and a trio of majestic waterfalls right in the middle of the city. Today, its historical treasures complement modern family-friendly attractions that rival those found in much larger communities. The birthplace of amateur photography, Rochester has long been known as Kodak Town, but its fame was established well before George Eastman came on the scene. Big-city culture and small-city charm combine in Rochester, a mid-sized city on the shores of Lake Ontario.