Discover the Rich History of Rochester, NY - Essay Sample

Introduction

Rochester is a city located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, and it is situated on the western side of New York. It is the third most populated city in the state of New York after Buffalo and New York City. Rochester has a rich history of how it came to be and be a renown city in the state of New York with so many people choosing to reside in that area. Its significant development came about after the American Revolution after the Seneca Tribe of native Americans lost their claim to the majority of the land. The following essay, therefore, seeks to provide a history of Rochester, Western New York.

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The American Revolution led to the emergence of the city of Rochester which was founded by English Puritan-descended immigrants from New England. Earlier on Rochester was known as the flour City which was later on changed to Flower City. The reason why the city was referred to by these names was the because the town was famous for milling and they updated steel roller mills which played a significant role in ensuring that the city was always milling. The city was also blessed with water power which helped power the milling machines. However, in the 1890s their milling era became diminished due to competition from mid-western mills (Friedberger, Webster, 1978).

The Erie Canal original route passed through Downtown Rochester through the Erie Canal aqueduct. However, the canal route was redirected in 1918, and it bypassed the city, and it took a new course where it ran through the nearby suburbs downtown of Rochester. Due to the massive traffic congestion and accidents in the city of Rochester, the abandoned canal was renovated to serve as a subway to control interurban streetcars from causing the traffic congestion that they were creating and instead all those cars were rerouted to use the renovated subway in order to curb the traffic issue in the city (McKelvey, 1993).

As a result, surface street traffic was highly minimized, and the situation on the roads was handled thanks to the renovation of the old bypass of the Erie Canal. One of the significant advantages of the subway was that it permitted railroad interconnections without the creation of new grade crossings. In 1940, Rochester abandoned all surface streetcars, and people were left with the single subway line which was a more comprehensive system of transportation. Between 1940 and 1950 plans were put in play to develop high-speed expressways which would serve in and around the city of Rochester.

In 1905 Rochester was faced by a great tragedy which threatened to reduce the whole city to ashes. Very many structures and buildings were set on fire using oil-soaked rugs, and the lucrative insurance payouts highly motivated them. After a series of fires which were started by people to receive insurance money, so many people set their properties on fire for the same gain and the next four years came to be referred to as the Arson Years due to the massive fire outbreaks in the city. So much money was lost as a result of this which led to significant inflation in the city.

In 1912 there was the formation of the 121st Calvary or the Rochester Calvary which became part of the New York National Guard. They carried their training with the national guard, and they spent most of their time headquartered at Culver Road Armory. The troupe made many appearances at the Monroe County Fairs. In 1918 another epidemic hit the city; this time it was the Spanish Fu which saw over 1100 lives lost within four months before it was contained (Glover, 1962).

Even though the subway that was constructed had helped curb the issue of traffic in the city, the project was abandoned in 1956 because of the widespread use of pf automobiles by the people of Rochester. The passenger service was stopped, but the subway still operated as an excellent carriage service. The Rochester Americans were also allowed to join the American Hockey league (McKelvey, 1955).

In 1965 another massive fire hit Rochester city, and this led to the destruction of property worth over two million dollars. The fire was on the main street near Hilton at it took almost 500 firefighters to contain the fire which had already consumed so much. During the same year, the Liberty Pole in the city was erected, and the Urban League of Rochester was also founded. In 1970 there was a break-in at the flower city which was solved by the help of the FBI.

In the same year on October 12th, orchestrated by a mafia called Frank Valenti, there was a massive bomb which was detonated at two different churches, the federal building, the U.S courthouse and the Monroe County office building which came to be referred to as the Columbus Day bombings. The bombs were set off as destruction to remove the focus of the local activities, and three weeks later after the first bombings the same mafia attacked three synagogues, a black Baptist church, and an Islamic mosque, and they also ended up attacking a county court judge.

In 1974 there was a break-in at the Barge Canal which led to the flooding of Bushnell's Basin area which destroyed over 40 homes and led to the damage of many other homes. In the same year, the downtown United Presbyterian church was founded. In 1978 there was a fire at the Greece holiday in which killed over twelve guests. Later on, in 1984, the burials that had taken place in the Highland cemetery were discovered by a bulldozer which tumbled upon six skeletons. The source of the buried bodies remained a mystery since no formal records of the burials existed anywhere in their database, even the cemetery was a mystery of its own. After further excavations, they discovered more bodies that had been buried in that area.

By 1990 the city of Rochester had minimized its dependence on the Erie Canal, and the Genesee River and the city became a vital rail Centre in New York. From that time on Rochester became known for its innovation and adaptability and as a result ended up excelling in so many industries, for example; clothing-manufacturing and flower growing and exporting industries. Rochester has a history of invention, with the gasoline automobile being invented in the same city, as well as the vaulting machine, machine gun, and lawnmower among other great designs.

The creative industry which has been in the city for generations has only gotten better with time due to modern technologies, making Rochester produce some of the most skilled labor force around New York. Since the flour milling days, Rochester was a major exporter of its products, and up to date, it ranks among the top ten exporting cities in the United States of America. The city has the most highly skilled labor than almost any other metropolitan in the whole country.

Conclusion

Rochester succeeded much in terms of innovations and high technology from the 1900's era and has come to be recognized as a state-of-the-art city with nine highly developed colleges some of which were started in the 18th century to help in increasing their skilled labor. With the developing technologies, the city has come to be referred to as the World's Image harboring over 90 optic and imaging firms.

References

McKelvey, B. (1993). Rochester on the Genessee: the growth of a city. Syracuse University Press.

Glover, W. H. (1962). Rochester: An Emerging Metropolis, 1925-1961.

Friedberger, M., & Webster, J. R. (1978). Social Structure and State and Local History. The Western Historical Quarterly, 9(3), 297-314.

McKelvey, B. (1955). Rochester, The Quest for Quality 1890-1925 (Cambridge, Mass., 1956). McKelvey," Accidents and Their Prevention: A Revealing phase of Rochester's History," Rochester History, 17(1), 11-14.