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Rochester New York
Rochester (New York) is a city in western New York, seat of Monroe County, and a deepwater port on the Genesee River and Lake Ontario. The city includes land on both sides of the Genesee River, which links the downtown area with Lake Ontario. Three waterfalls occur along the river's course through the city: the Upper, Middle, and Lower falls.
Rochester is a processing and distributing point for an extensive fruit-growing region. The core of Rochester's economy is high-technology manufacturing and research. The city is noted as the home of the photographic-equipment manufacturer Eastman Kodak founded by inventor George Eastman in 1880. The region's largest manufacturing employers make imaging products such as photographic film and copiers, document-processing products, emission-control components and electrical parts for automobiles, eyewear, and telecommunication products. The city is a noted center for laser research. Other important employers include companies providing payroll services, computer training, and financial services. Commercial air transportation is through Greater Rochester International Airport.
Rochester is a major center for music and dance. The city has an acclaimed philharmonic orchestra, innovative modern dance companies, several choral groups, and regular productions of opera, theater, and ballet. Notable among the city's many museums and attractions are the George Eastman House, a restored mansion containing the International Museum of Photography and Film; the Strong Museum, with displays depicting American culture and popular taste; the Rochester Museum and Science Center, which includes a display on the interaction of Native Americans and colonial-era settlers; and the Memorial Art Gallery, featuring a broad collection from around the world.
The city is the seat of the University of Rochester (1850), which incorporates the Eastman School of Music; Rochester Institute of Technology (1829); St. John Fisher College (1948); Nazareth College of Rochester (1924); Roberts Wesleyan College (1866), and a community college.
Rochester's historic structures include the home (now a museum) of Susan B. Anthony, abolitionist, temperance advocate, and women's rights activist. Frederick Douglass also lived in the city, where he established the abolitionist newspaper North Star. A leading annual event is the Rochester Lilac Festival in May.
In 1779 the Seneca people sold the land that is now the site of Rochester to speculators. The first development came in 1789 when Ebenezer Allen erected a flour mill at falls on the Genesee. The enterprise failed, and in 1803 the land was purchased by Nathaniel Rochester and two associates. Rochester laid out the community in 1811 and named it for himself; permanent settlement began in 1812. Growth was spurred by the completion in 1825 of the Erie Canal, and Rochester was incorporated as a city in 1834. It was a great flour-milling city until that industry moved west in the 1870s. The waterfalls on the river provided the mills with power and the Erie Canal provided transportation. From the 1850s Rochester was a horticultural center, noted for many large nurseries and beautiful parks. During the mid-19th century the city was a focus of political crusading, especially for abolition and women's rights.
The manufacturing industries that now form the basis of the city's economy were established during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Eastman began marketing his cameras in 1888; John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb began with an optical shop the grew into the giant Bausch & Lomb Incorporated and the Haloid Company, later to become the Xerox Corporation, started in a loft above a shoe factory in 1906. |
